Many of the more than 32,000 trailers manufactured by a Te Puke company during the last 45 years are still in use – their longevity testimony to the design and construction standards, which are a hallmark of Prescott Trailers from the first day Glenn Prescott began the company on an industrial site in Station Rd Te Puke.

Deer farmer John Grierson is also owner of Prescott Trailers, Te Puke.

Glenn owned and operated the business for 38 years before selling it to Katikati deer farmer John Grierson.

'Glenn's retired and living at Maketu but he still takes a keen interest in the business, coming in on a regular basis to feed our guard dog and say hello,” says John.

Venturing into trailer manufacturing was something of a change of focus for John - but it's one he continues to enjoy, especially the opportunity to further develop and refine the trailers and diversify into new designs.

Backed by an experienced team of 16 staff, many of whom have been with the company for a long time, John has grown the business and the range of trailers the business manufactures.

Today Prescott Trailers manufacture trailers from those small enough to tow behind a quad bike, to big enough to transport a waka, or carry loads up to 3500kg. 'Our trailers really do last a lifetime. We traded one recently which was 42 years old and was in pretty good condition. The owner got more for it than he paid for it new.”

Endurance
It's the commitment to build the trailers to high quality standards, which ensures their endurance.

Each trailer has a fully galvanised chassis, rectangular hollow section steel chassis bearers, (not angle iron as in many other trailers), and heavy duty axles.

Prescott has a range of standard trailers for general purpose use and heavy duty trailers for commercial use.

Boat trailers up to 3500kg and farm trailers with removable stock crates are also produced by Prescott Trailers.

'We have a commitment to buying local and New Zealand-made wherever possible,” says Garth Spain, Prescott's workshop manager.

This includes using steel from New Zealand Steel and jockey wheels, which are New Zealand-made. All galvanising is carried out in Hamilton by Perry's.

Most custom trailers that need painting are sent to Peak Panel & Paint in Te Puke. Zinc coatings are applied by Tauranga Electroplaters and the fibreglass bodies for horse and furniture trailers are moulded by Ocean Dynamics, also in Tauranga. Te Puke company Blaymires Engineering takes care of any machining work in its excellent machine shop.

Prescott has the capacity to produce up to 1000 trailers a year and has recently upgraded and extended its workshop, finishing and repair servicing areas to create a drive-in drive-out facility.

Trailers begin as sheets of steel, which are cut to size and folded for strength before being fabricated and welded to the chassis sections.

Specialist's bays for different trailer models are set up throughout the workshop.

Waka
The versatile Prescott team can turn their hand to almost any part of the process, but most specialise in a particular aspect of manufacturing – like the 12.5 metre Waka trailer that has been recently constructed.

The design of trailers is continually being refined in response to customer requests and the staff's own experience of using them, says John.

'We are always looking for ways to further improve our trailers, like the self-locking mechanism we have designed for our tilt trailers which means the deck doesn't have to be manually locked down once the trailer is loaded.”

The new flat deck commercial trailers have recessed tie-downs fitted to the deck and the sides are easy to take on and off – plus there's a guard to protect the breaking mechanism of the tow bar. There's also the builder's trailer with a telescopic tow bar, which allows the trailer to safely transport longer loads.

'Many commercial companies are finding our trailers ideal for carting big, bulky but not necessarily heavy loads, such as Zog Steel Framing for houses or the heavy duty polystyrene use in the construction of the Western Arterial Route near Te Puke,” says Garth.

'Increasingly we are being asked to design and build custom trailers,” says John.

These have included a mobile bank with bullet-proof glass windows for Samoa, a trailer to transport bikes to Australia's salt lakes for a land speed record attempt, a luggage trailer for a hotel in the Chatham Islands and another designed especially for a mining company in New Guinea.

Finisher Jaden King works on a 10x5 Prescott Commercial Tandem trailer.

Kevin Allen carrying out maintenance on a Prescott trailer, which is used by a hire company.

Under construction – Peter Sanderson welds the frame for a new Prescott Trailer.

Fabricator Michael Dobson of Precott Trailers works on the Maui Kanu Waka trailer.