Essex rim manufacturer Brocks Wheel & Tyre (BWT) has introduced what it claims is the first agricultural wheel hire solution for farmers and dealers around the UK.
BWT is well known as a supplier of complete wheel and tyre sets for agricultural machines, but hiring wheels is new. Flagged up as a flexible and cost-effective alternative to purchasing them outright, and available for both short- and long-term hire, customers pay only for the time they use the wheels.
The company says that hiring eliminates the need for store wheels that are not often used and provides flexibility to choose the right ones for specific tasks with BWT’s team available to offer advice and support.
Sprayer wheels are available, but the main focus is with tractor wheels. A large variety of common sizes are available, with typical rentals starting from six weeks. Costs range from £30/week over a long-term contract up to £80/week for a year’s hire for Rowcrop wheels and £60/week for wide wheels. Shorter terms are also available.
One of the first users was A L Lee Farming Company in Ely, Cambridgeshire, which hired wheels for spring drilling in April this year. The farm wanted to avoid sinking into the wet land and spread the weight of the tractor over a wider area.
Eugene Brock from BWT (left) with Henry Border from A L Lee Farming Company.
“The cost of purchasing a set of wheels just for springtime wouldn’t have been worth it for us,” says Henry Border. “The window is so short, and we can soon get the crops into the ground, so it wouldn’t pay off to have the big wheels all the time, because for what we need it for, hiring is the cheapest option.”
Henry also highlights the convenience of the hire solution: “The wheels were on hire for six weeks, so we did sugar beet as well as other jobs such as rolling and other bits of drilling while we had them. The hire solution was beneficial to us because we agreed on how long to have them for, and once we were finished with the tyres we just handed them back.”
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