Freighter semi safe as houses

For Bentley Group, transporting over 60 residential suites to its new cabin park in South Australia is just the beginning for its latest trailer purchase, a purpose-built Freighter Drop Deck Semi.

The diverse company has business interests spanning hospitality, farming and construction, and so there are numerous roles into which its new Freighter trailer can be pressed.

Bentley Group's cabin park division was established in 1995 by founder and Managing Director, Hayden Bentley. Now, following the success of its latest cabin park in Port Pirie, the company says it will be opening a further site in Port Augusta.

The new cabins for the Port Augusta site are being built at Bentley Group's own construction yards, and the new Freighter trailer was purchased to transport the cabins to their destination.

"We have bought aluminium tippers from MaxiTRANS previously and in February we picked up a new multi-purpose Freighter Drop Deck Semi trailer," says Mr Bentley.

"We had the trailer purpose-built to suit our specific needs. The cabins we transport with the trailer are one or two bedroom, with the longest of them around 10.3 metres long, so we wanted the base of the deck to be 10.5 metres so the cabin could fit on it.

"Its bi-folding ramps were made removable to make it easier to put the cabins on and off. We even had it colour-coded to match our new prime mover so it looks nice on the road as well."

Although this trailer was made to suit Bentley’s specific purposes, it is a general-purpose trailer too. As a result, it will also be used to transport various types of loads including heavy machinery for the company's farming and construction divisions, such as bulldozers, loaders and graders.

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MaxiTRANS says its Freighter Drop Deck Semi has a low tare weight while it's also capable of carrying high loads, including machinery and silage.

With its short and strong gooseneck, MaxiTRANS says the Drop Deck Semi can be engineered to optimise pallet capacity and spacing on both upper and lower decks, based on specific freight requirements.

The wide-spaced main beams combined with low-profile frames deliver complete stability, MaxiTRANS says, while the use of durable cross members provides a more robust and reliable trailer.

Bentley Group chose to include the optional pull-out ramps to allow the load to be driven between the lower and upper decks.

"The quality of the workmanship is fantastic," says Mr Bentley.

"Unlike some of the other trailers with ramps we have used in the past, the ramps of the new Freighter trailer have shown no signs of rusting or physical damage.

"We have been using products from MaxiTRANS for nearly 10 years and it was good to work with them again. They made the trailer exactly how we wanted. The finished product is excellent. They’ve thought of everything and finished it on time.

"We trust Australian manufacturing and we like quality. We understand that cheap is not always the best so we are willing to pay for quality."