That’s Farming editor, Catherina Cunnane, in conversation with Ken Morris from Morris Trailers, Tomahurra Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, in this week’s machinery segment.
“My father and both grandfathers were dairy farmers, and my uncles took over both farms, and my father established Morris Engineering in the early 1980s after qualifying as a fitter.
My father began making trailers and doing farm repairs. Modifying beet harvesters and beet washer cleaning systems was a big breakthrough for him as there was enough consecutive work to take on his first employee.
That employee is still with us today, along with another 25. He then retired in 2017, and I took over the business from him. I do not currently farm myself, but I have a huge interest in farming.
Morris Trailers
As well as making trailers, we provide a nationwide mechanical maintenance service and factory installations.
We provide maintenance and breakdown services 24/7 to firms such as Glanbia, Red Mills, Murray Timber Products and Irish Country Meats, for example.
One of our most novel offerings is a bale securing mechanism. The bale securing mechanism takes a different approach to securing bales for transport by using 12 custom-made, fully certified webbing straps to restrain 3 rows of bales to be fully secured at a span of up 34 feet.
The in-patent mechanism at each end of the trailers allows 6 straps at each side to raise and lower for loading and unloading, as well as a transport position which lowers the overall height of the machine while travelling empty.
The webbing straps are custom-made lifting slings certified for transport use to a breaking strength of 5,000kg.
There are two for each row of bales which gives a breaking strength of 10,000kg for each row at both sides of the trailer.
Typical hydraulic-sided bale trailers use steel racks to secure loads from falling off the trailer; however, these designs come with several disadvantages.
Bale securing mechanism
Firstly, steel racks usually can only secure 2 rows of bales, where our design can secure 3 rows of bales, which can increase capacity by 50% when transporting hay and straw.
Secondly, steel rack designs require a trailer with a taller bed height (the rack needs to go below the trailer bed when loading), which increases the overall height of the trailer.
Thirdly, steel racks become unfeasible when used with longer trailers (28ft+) as the length of the rack gets bigger. It is still only supported at both ends, which results in a higher centre of gravity and failures such as fatigue, cracking and bowing.
These also results in an overall higher centre of gravity for the trailer.
Benefits/advantages
The load securing mechanism is a unique innovation which improves the safety & efficiency of securing straw and silage bales by utilizing twelve 5000kg breaking strength webbing straps combined with a unique folding system designed to clamp bales in place.
This allows users to fully secure loads of up to 50 bales in 20 seconds. Due to the mechanism’s lightweight and unique folding design, a much lower centre of gravity is achieved, further improving safety and carrying capacity over comparable trailers.
Our design addresses all of these issues while still providing a fast, safe and secure mechanism for transporting bales.
This product is targeted at farmers and contractors who are moving large volumes of baled silage, straw and hay and require more efficiency when handling this job.
Unique selling points
There are no other machines on the market which can secure 3 rows of bales, on low-profile wheels and on trailers up to 34ft.
Not only does the bale securing mechanism vastly improve the efficiency of transporting bales, but it also improves the safety and security of the job.
As the speed of tractors increases, the non-use of special licenses or tachographs and lower cost of green diesel, more farmers are looking towards tractors as a realistic means of transporting bales over longer distances.
The bale securing mechanism vastly improves the efficiency of this job and also improve the safety and security of the operation.
In brief, our unique selling points are as follows:
- Fully secure 3 rows of bales;
- Can be used on lower trailers (445/45R19.5 wheels);
- Lower centre of gravity;
- Replaceable straps;
- Can be used on longer trailers (28ft+).
Cost and how to order
It costs an additional €9,000 on top of the cost of the trailer, which is a much more affordable price when compared to other comparable options on the market.
Our product is fully designed and manufactured in-house at Morris Trailers.
The bale securing mechanism can be ordered from Morris Trailers directly by calling me on 087-6547164 – we are taking orders for 2023.
We intend to push this product as much as possible going forward, and we are always looking at innovative products to help make farming safer and more efficient.”
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