Ziegler’s range includes an innovative four-wheel steer trailer that is selling strongly in the UK, particularly to farmers who have to negotiate narrow gateways, awkward road corners and tight farmyard accesses.
The trailers enable the header to be towed behind the combine, maintaining excellent stability on the road and in the field, and eliminating the need for a second operator and tractor needed to move them.
Northamptonshire farmer/contractor Mark Middleton has one to help transport his New Holland combine around his family’s farms and says the trailer’s stability and rear steering axle are key:
“We do a lot of dual carriageway and rural road miles and the header pulls much more easily because of the way the trailer is designed. It is much more stable on the road than its predecessor.
“It turns moving the header and combine into a one person operation, and if you can get the combine through a gateway you know the trailer will follow because it tracks so well.
“There is nowhere on the farms we cannot reach and it makes life a lot easier”.
Toby Abrey believes the trailers could help users gain a number of important practical and agronomic benefits:
“Enabling the combine to tow and manoeuvre the header efficiently may transform what had previously been a job that needed two people and machines into a one-person operation, releasing staff and tractors for other tasks, which could be crucial during a busy harvest.
“As well as making it easier and quicker to move harvesting equipment around, that extra manoeuvrability might enable some farmers to considering investing in a bigger combine or wider header.
“That could increase their harvesting capacity and speed, which could help reduce both their labour costs and the risk of being disrupted by the weather”.
