Owner/Driver #328

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A VERSATILE ALL-ROUNDER
Hayden Bentley is currently using his new purpose-built Freighter Drop Deck
Semi to haul more than 60 state-of-the-art residential suites to his new cabin
park in South Australia. The multi-purpose trailer will later find its way
around Bentley Group’s other business divisions
Following the success of its Port Pirie venture,
Bentley’s Cabin Parks will be soon opening its
new fully self-contained accommodation park
at Port Augusta. Part of the Bentley Group, the
cabin park division was first set up in 1995
when founder and managing director Hayden
Bentley set up four cabins inspired by his travels
around Australia with his family.
From those humble beginnings, Hayden
gradually expanded his business to set up the
Port Pirie Cabin Park with over 100 fully selfcontained
four-star cabins with a range of one-,
two- and three-bedroom suites, including various
amenities such as spa and basic home and kitchen
appliances. These days, Hayden is busy finalising
the arrangements at the new cabin park that is set
to open later this year.
Parent company, Bentley Group, is a diversified
business that is involved in farming, hospitality
and construction. The new cabins for the Port
Augusta site are being built at Bentley’s own
construction yards based in South Australia. To
transport those cabins, Hayden recently bought
a Freighter Drop Deck Semi with ramps, from
MaxiTRANS.
“We have bought aluminium tippers from
MaxiTRANS previously and in February we picked
up a new multi-purpose Freighter Drop Deck Semi
trailer. 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 Scania prime mover so it looks nice on the
road as well,” Hayden says.
Although this trailer was made to suit
Bentley’s Cabin Park’s specific purposes, it is a
general-purpose trailer as well. As a result, it will
also be used to transport various types of loads
including heavy machinery for Bentley Group’s
other farming and construction equipment such
as bulldozers, loaders and graders.
Design ingenuity
The Freighter Drop Deck Semi-Trailer is capable
of delivering low tare weight and carrying
high loads, machinery and silage. Featuring
Freighter’s short, extra strong gooseneck, 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
and centre of gravity. Meanwhile, the use of
sturdy cross members provides a more durable
and reliable trailer. Hayden 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.
Unlike some of the other trailers with ramps
that we have used in the past, the ramps of the
new Freighter trailer have shown no signs of
rusting or physical damage,” Hayden says.
Second to none quality
“We have had good experience with MaxiTRANS
before – we bought aluminium tippers from
them and we’ve been very happy with them. Given
our good experience with MaxiTRANS in the past
it was an obvious choice for us to go to them
again. We knew we had to stick to what we trusted
and what we knew, so going with the Freighter
Drop Deck Semi was an easy decision.
“We have been using MaxiTRANS products for
nearly 10 years and it was good to work with
them again. They made the trailer exactly like
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,” Hayden says.
Like all MaxiTRANS products, the Freighter
Drop Deck Semi is backed by MaxiTRANS’ national
“WE EVEN HAD IT COLOUR-CODED TO MATCH OUR
NEW SCANIA PRIME MOVER SO IT LOOKS NICE ON
THE ROAD AS WELL.”
trailer, parts and service dealer network, and a
two year manufacturer’s warranty. While the new
Freighter trailer will work across most of Bentley
Group’s business divisions, it is not planned to
drive thousands of kilometres in a month so
Hayden expects less need for servicing. However,
he says it is good to know that they have parts
and service support readily available if they need.
For more details, visit www.maxitrans.com.
60 MAY 2020 ownerdriver.com.au