Lincolnshire trailer maker Richard Larrington reports a surge in overseas interest for his specialist ‘anti-bruising’ box-loader trailers, and to that end he has developed an even bigger tri-axle version. Assisted by a weakening pound, export demand has risen leading to enquiries from all over the globe including Poland, Slovakia and California. Until recently in the US, the harvesting of root crops has been a manual task, with sweet potatoes, onions, etc, wind-rowed by machine and then transferred to boxes by hand with cheap labour from over the border in Mexico. Now, however, with President Trump’s proposed wall on the cards, growers are having to look at ways of mechanizing their operations in a hurry. Step up the Larrington box-loader. A frame that sits on top of the boxes carries 12 individual cushioned fall-breakers. The harvester driver simply unloads direct onto the frame as if filling a bulk trailer; then, back at the yard, the frame is raised and the potatoes tumble gently into the boxes ready for a forklift to unload them. The trailers have become one of Larrington’s most popular products and, with more and more concern about soil care, nearly every one that goes out the door is now a tri-axle unit. They’re hi-spec bits of kit with 560mm wide rubber, air brakes and steel springs as standard … and a £50,000 price tag.