A name that many under 30 won’t recognise, Weeks is set to re-enter the trailer game. In the mid-1980s the East Yorkshire company was acquired by Suffolk farmer and fellow trailer maker Richard Western. The Weeks name continued to be used for a range of lower-priced, lower-spec, trailers right up until 2013-2014 at which point Western decided to concentrate its efforts at the premium end of the market.
Now however Weeks trailers are back. Described by Richard Western as being simple and robust, the range runs from 11t to 14t and features a rubber-damped drawbar, leaf-sprung axles, hydraulic brakes and narrow ‘ag-spec’ eight-stud drums. The main features that differentiate the line-up from their mustard-coloured cousins are the post-less 3mm wall and 4mm floor bodies and the box-section, single-ram chassis, all said to help keep the weight for an 11-tonner down below 4,500kg. Fitted with silage sides, a hydraulic tailgate and floatation tyres, the model on show exits Western’s Framlingham factory for around £20,000.
The company has also introduced a range of low-level livestock trailers under the Weeks banner. With hydraulic lift axles, the units drop to the floor for loading and have rubber-matted wooden floors to keep clanking and banging to a minimum when animals climb aboard. Available with 5.0m, 6.5m, 7.5m and 10m body lengths, there are integrated tool-lockers, a clever slam-shut partition between the wheel-arches and swing-round gathering gates. Prices start from £17,000 for the smallest Weeks DTV 5 livestock box and rise to £27,500 for the big tandem axle DTV 10.
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