The Wrangler's birthday bash
It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a new electricpowered product range - is being unveiled at the Fieldays.
The ROG, launched 2011, can be driven over by a quad, ute or even a tractor, without letting stock through.
Now comes the maker’s new Goliath Gate.
The gate opens with just a nudge from a bike or four-wheeler, closing when the vehicle has passed. And it suits mobile feeding troughs and mobile calf feeders.
It’s ideal for high-traffic areas and beside houses and sheds, as a backup to a road gate or for getting in and out of paddocks.
But ‘full-size’ vehicles – utes, tractors, even farm trailers – posed a challenge, hence the new model.
The Goliath Gate is wider (4, 4.3 or 4.6m options) and much taller so that a vehicle’s front wheels remain on the gate, holding it down, as the rear wheels drive onto it.
Instead of a large steel structure, long, flexi fibreglass rods are used so as not to damage the vehicle that is crossing. A small steel section on one side allows 4-wheelers to cross. The Goliath can withstand heavy loads because the gate lies supported on the ground while the vehicle crosses.
Thomas Chatfield, Otakiri, drives a tractor and feedout wagon over a Goliath Gate several times a day at his wintering barn – driving straight in without having to get off to open the gate. And because the cows will not try to cross, he doesn’t have to thread his way through them.
Robert Cleland, Paroa Stud, has installed a Goliath on his main tractor thoroughfare, and drives his ute over the gate without having to consider stock.
