A Ford 4000 pulling a 20ft silage trailer is but a rare sight at best. But a Ford 4000 pulling five 20ft silage trailers would certainly have to be seen to be believed.
Cork native Brendan Marshall explained to AgriLand how such a mission was accomplished.
He remarked: “It was just on its limit; the tyres were spinning when the trailers straightened up and the pull came on.”
- The Broughan silage trailer weighed 6t;
- The Smyth silage trailer tipped the scales at 5.5t;
- The two Kanes each weighed 5.36t;
- The Redrock weighed 5t.
Brendan explained that the rig was “just around 126ft long”.
“We got it turned over the lane where there is a big wide place for lorries to pull in,” he said.
Brendan stressed that before the ‘on-the-pull challenge’ was carried out, a number of safety protocols were in place and experienced personnel in luminous jackets supervised the area to ensure the challenge was carried out safely.
“Last year, I had a Dexta and I hooked up four silage trailers to it and she barely pulled them so I felt, this year, the Ford 4000 was one size bigger than the Dexta.
I had a 7610 but I thought that might be a bit of an overkill.
Brendan runs a contracting business and also buys and sells farm machinery. He has a small farm of his own.
Concluding, he said: “The Ford 4000 gave a great display. It was a very good trial of it to do what it did; a tractor that only weighs 2t pulling 27t. She was pulling well above her weight anyway.”