The trailer team
01 Nov 2019
They call themselves “Gav’s boys”, and for the last couple of years they have been beavering away in the workshop, putting their newly acquired mechanical engineering skills to use building a trailer.
Year 13 students Logan Quigley, Lachie Hazlitt, Tom Dobson, Jamie Batchelor, Tim Bassett, Reuben van Leeuwen, Will Macdonald and Jack Elvy all had a hand in the work, but Eddie Peak and Henry Batchelor (who recently left school) did the lion’s share.
“It was a long-term project because it was built from the ground up and it had to be roadworthy,” says Technology teacher Gavin Love. “Two boys were assigned to work on it for the whole year, and they grabbed other people as they needed to.”
Gavin has high standards and firmly believes in the value of hands-on learning and trades training. Throughout the process, the boys learned a wide range of practical mechanical engineering and fabrication skills. Every detail had to be perfect before being signed off, and Gavin is understandably proud of the commitment the boys showed and the quality of the work. “The skills they’ve learned here can be used in whatever they go on to do. They can all weld and now know the nuts and bolts of putting machinery together.”
Gavin and the boys are grateful for the input of Brent Wright and Pegasus Engineering, who sponsored the anti-corrosion galvanising on the trailer.
There is still some minor work to be done before the trailer is finished – but when it is, the trailer team have decided it should be raffled, with all profits going to the charity the Mechanical Engineering students support – the Home and Families Trust. If you would like a lovingly handcrafted trailer and want to support a very worthy cause, look out for the tickets, on sale next year.
