As Paddy Lee, of Lee Trailers, celebrates more than 50 years as a tractor trailer manufacturer, we take a brief look at the history of this Waterford-based farm machinery company.

When Paddy Lee founded Lee Trailers in 1963, he had come from a farming background and started by making small single-axle car trailers. As tractors started to get bigger and more powerful, he saw the growing demand on Irish farms for bigger tractor trailers.

One of the early trailers from his business was a three-way tipping trailer, designed to suit the needs of farmers who wanted a versatile trailer. The body of the trailer was 11ft (3.3m) and it was 6ft 6in (1.95m) wide of a timber design on a metal chassis. The trailer could be supplied with either a pickup hitch or what was known then as a flat hitch. A screw-type jack was among the optional extras.

At the time, the cost of the trailer was £210 and Paddy sold a number of them in the southeast of the country. Sugar beet harvesting still required a lot of hand work and the side-tipping trailer was useful in offloading beet and side-filling grain.

Paddy sourced the four-section hydraulic tipping ram and set about making the trailer. He had not travelled to the continent where three-way tipping trailers were in use. He developed his own approach, using a ball-type coupling under the ram. He developed a robust flange design to allow locking pins to be inserted at four points on the trailer chassis, to give the various tipping choices.

This trailer could be fitted with grain and silage sides. Heavy-duty iron skids were available to allow the use of a cattle ramp and convert the trailer for cattle haulage. All trailers were advertised at being ‘‘electrically welded throughout’’. Load capacities ranged from 4t to 6t. All Lee Trailers were made with larch timber floors and sides, which were planed smoothly to allow for easy tipping of silage loads.

Paddy recently restored one of his original three-way tipping trailers. The trailer includes the familiar Lee Trailers logo and has been finished in the original red and grey colours that he has used for almost 50 years. Paddy has restored other Lee Trailers’ products for customers. For more than 50 years in the trailer business, Paddy has built in excess of 3,500 Lee trailers. Many of them are still in use today and a fitting tribute to his expertise was that more than 60 trailers turned out for the Lee Trailers challenge at the recent Silage Extravaganza event in Fethard.

He introduced a number of novel trailer systems in his time, including the automatic tailgate, which he patented and a drawbar skid system. He developed a trailer braking system based on the tractor’s hydraulics and linked to the trailer parking skid, which was not widely taken up at the time.

Paddy introduced the Lee high-lift tipping trailer at the 1974 RDS Spring Show. It was a 5t capacity trailer and the first Irish-built one of its type. He produced a slurry tanker in 1988 and did not pursue this as the market soon became uncompetitive.

Peninsula ploughing for Cooley, Co Louth

The Peninsula Ploughing and Field Day takes place this Sunday 23 August in Cooley, Co Louth, where the emphasis will be on vintage tractor ploughing and horse ploughing, supported by a huge display of vintage machinery.

The top prize for the award-winning plough combination is €1,500 and there will be other prizes for competitors on the day.

All of the proceeds from the event are going to the Children’s Respite Centre at Lordship, Co Louth.

Castleconnor tractor run in Des Flynn’s memory

The community of Castleconnor, Co Sligo, is coming together for the third annual Des Flynn tractor run this Sunday, 23 August.

Over the last two years, with almost 400 tractors taking part, the event has raised over €8,000 for the Irish Heart Foundation and the Castleconnor Defibrillator Fund. This year, organising committee member Eddie Flynn (087-2450116) is hoping for another large turnout.

The event is organised by friends and family of the late Des Flynn. Des passed away in May 2013 at the age of just 46. His sudden death left a deep void in both the social and farming community and all who knew him will remember the significant role he played in life in Castleconnor.

Registration for the event will begin at midday on Sunday 23 August at the Castleconnor Community Centre.

The one-hour, 12-mile run begins at 2pm and will travel via Des’s homeland of Carragun through Enniscrone and back to the starting point.

The entry fee for this community fundraiser is only €20 per tractor.