Newdegate Machinery Field Days: Transtruct’s Trailed Tilt Trailer wins coveted farm innovator award

A Bruce Rock-based engineering firm has been recognised for innovation in agricultural machinery, taking out the farm inventor award at this year’s Newdegate Machinery Field Days.

The award — arguably the most coveted at the September 3-4 event — was presented to Transtruct for its Trailed Tilt Trailer, a self-contained, multi-purpose unit designed to simplify transport and loading tasks on farms and beyond.

Transtruct director Brett Nelson finessed the design during the past decade, saying it was the “one trailer that could do everything”.

“In the past . . . people have always relied on forklift or telehandler to load, and we just thought there had to be a better way,” he said.

Adapted from the concept of tilt trucks, the Trailed Tilt Trailer can be loaded and operated by a single person by using a remote — meaning the operator requires no additional machinery to load items on to the trailer.

It has been built with versatility at its core and is capable of hauling vehicles, chemicals, livestock, machinery or generators, but Mr Nelson said other industries were quickly seeing its value.

“We were looking at tilt trucks and decided maybe we could adapt it and make something we could trail and load ourselves that is self-contained,” Mr Nelson said.

“It is a car trailer, chemical trailer and a stock trailer, all in one.”

Each unit is made from high-tensile steel in both 3.5-tonne and 4.5-tonne models, meeting industry safety and towing standards.

Both models are fully remote-operated, and can be customised with stock or solid sides, and with a variety of gate options.

While Transtruct’s client base has traditionally been within the Wheatbelt’s agricultural sector, Mr Nelson said the new trailer had drawn attention from several other industries.

“The response has been great. Farmers are really seeing the value in this,” he said.

“We have also been surprised at how transferable the product now is — we are talking to a lot of tow companies, and a number of different industries are seeing the value in them.

“We are based in the Wheatbelt, so our client base is predominantly agriculture . . . but since launching this we have had interest from the earthmoving sector and towing companies, with those markets saying ‘we can make this work too’.”

That diversity in interest, he said, could help “droughtproof” the business against seasonal and economic fluctuations.

“We ride the highs and lows of agriculture so we may be able to level that out a bit with this product,” Mr Nelson said.

The design process spanned more than a decade, with Mr Nelson joking the final concept came to life during some “sleepless nights” after sketching ideas on a shower screen.

“There is nothing like this on the market . . . our product goes over the top of the wheels so it is the full legal road width in terms of road space,” he said.

“We are confident we have built something that is unique.”

Transtruct has been operating since 1991, building road transport equipment, structural steel and custom fabrications from its Bruce Rock workshop run by Mr Nelson and wife Tracey, and his sons Josh Nelson and Rhys Hubbard.

The business has been a regular exhibitor at Newdegate for more than 20 years, but this is its first time receiving a major award at the event.

Mr Nelson said it was “well worth” making the 500km return trip to attend each year.

“Our business is customer-driven, so we often have customers that say ‘why don’t you bring some things along to Newdegate?’,” he said.

“We are very happy to receive the award . . . it is recognition for some hard roads and we feel validated in chasing our goal and people can see the value in it, and that is important.”

Newdegate Machinery Field Days organisers have a unique arrangement with Wagin Woolorama volunteers, who make the nearly 350km return journey to judge their display awards each year.