Winner of the IAgrE SSAB Health and Saftey Award 2016
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Trakjak wins first SSAB health and safety award at LAMMA
Thursday 21 st
January 2016
Trakjak wins first SSAB health and safety award at LAMMA
The world’s first two wheeled jacking device that maintains mobility while the rear of the tractor is elevated has won the first SSAB health and safety award at LAMMA. Called the Trakjak, this simple and easy to use device was designed and built by Pauric Fay from Cootehill, Co Cavan. The annual award created by the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) in partnership with SSAB, the Nordic and US - based steel company and was judged by a panel of eminent agricultural engineering specialists.
Alastair Taylor, CEO of IAgrE said, “Agriculture is the most dangerous industry in the UK and at IAgrE we are committed to help the industry improve this figure
We believe this award is a way of raising and promoting health and safety.
IAgrE cannot endorse particular products but we felt Trakjak reinforces the importance of health and safety within the workshop . The panel also thought it was noteworthy that with the increas ing size and weight of machinery attention was focussed on the safe handling and jacking of tractors during service operations.”
Johan Mattsson, SSAB Key Segment Specialist, Agriculture said, “SSAB is committed to a safer world. We achieve this through producing stronger steels which in turn allow machines to be lighter. Anything we can do to promote health and safety across the agricultural industry and celebrate new ideas will help in keeping this important subject in the minds of those designing and building farm machinery”.
To use the Trakjak, the rear lift arms are connected to the Trakjak frame which runs under the rear of the tractor. Ra i sing the lif t arms pulls the frame against the pickup hitch and simply levers the tractor off the ground. With the rear wheels removed, Trakjak’s solid wheels enable the tractor to be slowly manoeuvred, with four wheeled drive engaged, from workshop to wash bay and vice - versa, making it easier to clean a tractor ahead of a strip - down or service.
Designer Pauric Fay said, “I am delighted to win this award for Trakjak. It is the challenge of cleaning and manoeuvring tractors before and during service and maintenance which led to this invention. This presented me with an interesting engineering challenge and I am pleased to recieve this award.
Every now and again a new product comes along that surprises in both its simplicity and ingenuity.
Every now and again, a new product comes along that surprises in both its simplicity and ingenuity. The Trakjak, designed and built by Pauric Fay from Cootehill, Co Cavan, is one such product.
Pauric recently picked up an award at the LAMMA Show in Britain for his Trakjak. The Trakjak was the winner of the Farm Machinery and Equipment nInnovation Award.
The Trakjak is a device that uses the lower lift\\n arms of the tractor to jack itself off the ground. Pauric designed it \\nprincipally with safety in mind but it also had to be simple and easy to\\n use.
Pauric explains: “I saw the need for something safe to use to jack up the rear of a tractor. There are no real designated jacking points on a tractor like you would see on a car. And there’s too much guesswork with setting up ordinary jacks.”
Typically, a conventional bottle jack is used to jack each side of the rear of a tractor individually. Often, timber blocks are needed to compensate for \\nthe short height of bottle jacks. Unless the workshop is organised and tidy, this can be a task in itself to locate the appropriate blocks.
Positioning of the bottle jack can be precarious enough. Concrete solid and level ground is needed for safe jacking. Wheels also need to be chocked to stop the tractor rolling and toppling off the jack.
As Pauric says, it can be hard to position a jack correctly and with confidence \\nunder a tractor. Ideally, anything being jacked needs to be jacked at its outermost point. The large nature of tractors’ rear wheels and \\nancillary equipment bolted onto the rear-axle housing can make it difficult or altogether impossible to jack at the outermost positions.
The hitch is the usual jacking point but is not very wide. This means that \\njacking up the side of a tractor is usually done close to the tractor’s centre line. Not the most stable jacking point, requiring careful \\npositioning of the jack and axle stands at the ready.
Pauric’s Trakjak, on the other hand, couldn’t be simpler. Reverse the tractor over the Trakjak, hook the lift arms into the brackets and pins provided before raising the tractor’s lift arms. The rear of the tractor is completely jacked off the ground.
Level surface
Naturally, a level concrete or similarly hard surface is required for safe operation. Two stands at the rear are lowered to the ground to allow the weight to be taken off the lift arms. Simple and safe.
How does the Trakjak work? “We adapted the law of the lever in designing the Trakjak,” explains Pauric. The wheels of the Trakjak remain on the ground at the front end and lift arms attach to the rear.
In the middle is a large solid bar with two heavy duty sleeves or bushings that can rotate on the bar.
As the tractor’s lift arms are raised, this bar and sleeves come up against the underside of the tractor’s hitch. The sleeves can be slid inwards or outwards to suit different hitch designs.
The entire Trakjak effectively pivots on the central bar and sleeves under the hitch. As the lift arms rise, the entire frame pivots, pushing the front wheels of the Trakjak down while raising the tractor off the ground.
In practice, the system and tractor is incredibly stable with its rear wheels completely off the ground. Combined with solid rubber wheels on the Trakjak, the tractor is stable enough to allow the tractor to be driven on suitable terrain, such as level concrete.
The tractor’s rear wheels can be safely left at one location while the tractor is driven to another. That may be to another shed to fit row crops or to a wash bay.
The ability to wash a tractor without its rear wheels is important, as Pauric points out. “Tractor transmissions and hydraulic systems have become very sophisticated. Being able to wash down the transmission before changing hydraulic and transmission filters greatly reduces contamination risks at servicing,” he says.
Pauric adds that it helps to keep workshops cleaner by allowing them to be washed off before coming in for work. “You would often see a wheelbarrow full of dirt where a tractor was stripped down in a garage for repair.”
The Trakjak is adaptable to nearly any tractor, according to Pauric. Because a tractor’s lift arm range is so broad, Pauric found that just two settings on two elements of the Trakjak were enough to cater for all tractors.
There are two settings for the pivot bar and two \\nsettings for lift arms and that’s about it. Rear stand heights are adjustable to suit whatever height the user requires.
Versatile enough to suit the broadest range of tractor makes and models, Pauric produces just one model of Trakjak. Sitting on the ground ready for action, just 12inches of ground clearance is needed to reverse into and yoke up to the Trakjak.
Standard equipment with the Trakjak is an A-frame that connects the tractor’s pickup hook to the Trakjak’s rear stands. This feature locks the Trakjak in place to allow the tractor’s lift arms to be removed.
“A lot of tractors have the lift arms attached to the trumpet housing half axles. If you want to remove the lift arms and axles to inspect or work on the tractor’s brakes, then you can with an A-frame attachment,” explains Pauric.
Pauric has also developed an innovative half-axle removal tool, which we may cover at a later stage.
At around 350kg in weight, the Trakjak is solidly constructed. The Trakjak is proof load tested for 12t, so it should cater for even the biggest of conventional iron horses. Each Trakjak come with its own cert to keep insurance firms happy.
This is perhaps outside of the scope of ordinary farmers but it is an option worth considering where multiple wheel changes are made throughout the year. It is a definite asset in a tractor garage or even a tyre garage. It is not a product that wears out or goes out of date so once purchased it is a Trakjak for life.
Pauric Fay can be contacted on 087-2678902 or emailed at [email protected]
Above article by Bruce Lett Farmers Journal
Thursday 21 st
January 2016
Trakjak wins first SSAB health and safety award at LAMMA
The world’s first two wheeled jacking device that maintains mobility while the rear of the tractor is elevated has won the first SSAB health and safety award at LAMMA. Called the Trakjak, this simple and easy to use device was designed and built by Pauric Fay from Cootehill, Co Cavan. The annual award created by the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) in partnership with SSAB, the Nordic and US - based steel company and was judged by a panel of eminent agricultural engineering specialists.
Alastair Taylor, CEO of IAgrE said, “Agriculture is the most dangerous industry in the UK and at IAgrE we are committed to help the industry improve this figure
We believe this award is a way of raising and promoting health and safety.
IAgrE cannot endorse particular products but we felt Trakjak reinforces the importance of health and safety within the workshop . The panel also thought it was noteworthy that with the increas ing size and weight of machinery attention was focussed on the safe handling and jacking of tractors during service operations.”
Johan Mattsson, SSAB Key Segment Specialist, Agriculture said, “SSAB is committed to a safer world. We achieve this through producing stronger steels which in turn allow machines to be lighter. Anything we can do to promote health and safety across the agricultural industry and celebrate new ideas will help in keeping this important subject in the minds of those designing and building farm machinery”.
To use the Trakjak, the rear lift arms are connected to the Trakjak frame which runs under the rear of the tractor. Ra i sing the lif t arms pulls the frame against the pickup hitch and simply levers the tractor off the ground. With the rear wheels removed, Trakjak’s solid wheels enable the tractor to be slowly manoeuvred, with four wheeled drive engaged, from workshop to wash bay and vice - versa, making it easier to clean a tractor ahead of a strip - down or service.
Designer Pauric Fay said, “I am delighted to win this award for Trakjak. It is the challenge of cleaning and manoeuvring tractors before and during service and maintenance which led to this invention. This presented me with an interesting engineering challenge and I am pleased to recieve this award.
Every now and again a new product comes along that surprises in both its simplicity and ingenuity.
Every now and again, a new product comes along that surprises in both its simplicity and ingenuity. The Trakjak, designed and built by Pauric Fay from Cootehill, Co Cavan, is one such product.
Pauric recently picked up an award at the LAMMA Show in Britain for his Trakjak. The Trakjak was the winner of the Farm Machinery and Equipment nInnovation Award.
The Trakjak is a device that uses the lower lift\\n arms of the tractor to jack itself off the ground. Pauric designed it \\nprincipally with safety in mind but it also had to be simple and easy to\\n use.
Pauric explains: “I saw the need for something safe to use to jack up the rear of a tractor. There are no real designated jacking points on a tractor like you would see on a car. And there’s too much guesswork with setting up ordinary jacks.”
Typically, a conventional bottle jack is used to jack each side of the rear of a tractor individually. Often, timber blocks are needed to compensate for \\nthe short height of bottle jacks. Unless the workshop is organised and tidy, this can be a task in itself to locate the appropriate blocks.
Positioning of the bottle jack can be precarious enough. Concrete solid and level ground is needed for safe jacking. Wheels also need to be chocked to stop the tractor rolling and toppling off the jack.
As Pauric says, it can be hard to position a jack correctly and with confidence \\nunder a tractor. Ideally, anything being jacked needs to be jacked at its outermost point. The large nature of tractors’ rear wheels and \\nancillary equipment bolted onto the rear-axle housing can make it difficult or altogether impossible to jack at the outermost positions.
The hitch is the usual jacking point but is not very wide. This means that \\njacking up the side of a tractor is usually done close to the tractor’s centre line. Not the most stable jacking point, requiring careful \\npositioning of the jack and axle stands at the ready.
Pauric’s Trakjak, on the other hand, couldn’t be simpler. Reverse the tractor over the Trakjak, hook the lift arms into the brackets and pins provided before raising the tractor’s lift arms. The rear of the tractor is completely jacked off the ground.
Level surface
Naturally, a level concrete or similarly hard surface is required for safe operation. Two stands at the rear are lowered to the ground to allow the weight to be taken off the lift arms. Simple and safe.
How does the Trakjak work? “We adapted the law of the lever in designing the Trakjak,” explains Pauric. The wheels of the Trakjak remain on the ground at the front end and lift arms attach to the rear.
In the middle is a large solid bar with two heavy duty sleeves or bushings that can rotate on the bar.
As the tractor’s lift arms are raised, this bar and sleeves come up against the underside of the tractor’s hitch. The sleeves can be slid inwards or outwards to suit different hitch designs.
The entire Trakjak effectively pivots on the central bar and sleeves under the hitch. As the lift arms rise, the entire frame pivots, pushing the front wheels of the Trakjak down while raising the tractor off the ground.
In practice, the system and tractor is incredibly stable with its rear wheels completely off the ground. Combined with solid rubber wheels on the Trakjak, the tractor is stable enough to allow the tractor to be driven on suitable terrain, such as level concrete.
The tractor’s rear wheels can be safely left at one location while the tractor is driven to another. That may be to another shed to fit row crops or to a wash bay.
The ability to wash a tractor without its rear wheels is important, as Pauric points out. “Tractor transmissions and hydraulic systems have become very sophisticated. Being able to wash down the transmission before changing hydraulic and transmission filters greatly reduces contamination risks at servicing,” he says.
Pauric adds that it helps to keep workshops cleaner by allowing them to be washed off before coming in for work. “You would often see a wheelbarrow full of dirt where a tractor was stripped down in a garage for repair.”
The Trakjak is adaptable to nearly any tractor, according to Pauric. Because a tractor’s lift arm range is so broad, Pauric found that just two settings on two elements of the Trakjak were enough to cater for all tractors.
There are two settings for the pivot bar and two \\nsettings for lift arms and that’s about it. Rear stand heights are adjustable to suit whatever height the user requires.
Versatile enough to suit the broadest range of tractor makes and models, Pauric produces just one model of Trakjak. Sitting on the ground ready for action, just 12inches of ground clearance is needed to reverse into and yoke up to the Trakjak.
Standard equipment with the Trakjak is an A-frame that connects the tractor’s pickup hook to the Trakjak’s rear stands. This feature locks the Trakjak in place to allow the tractor’s lift arms to be removed.
“A lot of tractors have the lift arms attached to the trumpet housing half axles. If you want to remove the lift arms and axles to inspect or work on the tractor’s brakes, then you can with an A-frame attachment,” explains Pauric.
Pauric has also developed an innovative half-axle removal tool, which we may cover at a later stage.
At around 350kg in weight, the Trakjak is solidly constructed. The Trakjak is proof load tested for 12t, so it should cater for even the biggest of conventional iron horses. Each Trakjak come with its own cert to keep insurance firms happy.
This is perhaps outside of the scope of ordinary farmers but it is an option worth considering where multiple wheel changes are made throughout the year. It is a definite asset in a tractor garage or even a tyre garage. It is not a product that wears out or goes out of date so once purchased it is a Trakjak for life.
Pauric Fay can be contacted on 087-2678902 or emailed at [email protected]
Above article by Bruce Lett Farmers Journal
