Of necessity trailer couplings are resilient bits of kit. Designed to stay on a vehicle they are pretty unforgiving when it comes to removing them and man-handling them.

The Easy Coupler is easy to use. Photos Anthony Rihari-Allen.

In fact their excellent design qualities in ensuring trailer and vehicle remain in contact is almost their worst feature when that need ends.

Getting a trailer disconnected, even in good weather and broad daylight incurs effort, the odd expletive, and risk to anyone.

Fingers can be bashed, bruised or even burned on an adjacent exhaust, and toes crushed under a misguided jockey wheel.

But probably the most vulnerable part of the anatomy in any trailer operation is the back.

It would be safe to hazard a guess that the ACC has more than a disproportionate number of claims caused by this nasty drawback to the ordinary trailer.

There is a saying that necessity is the mother of invention, and the Beard family have come up with a single lever that means taking a trailer on or off a vehicle is now a simple/near risk-free operation.

“It was down to my grandmother really,” Anthony said.

“We had a heavy trailer for taking silage out to the beasts towed by a quad bike. My grandmother handled it on her own, but we could all see it was an accident waiting to happen.

“We tried to alleviate it by fitting a jockey wheel, but we all kept thinking there had to be a better way somewhere.

“It was my grandfather who came up with the idea of a lever working in reverse, so we started tinkering in the workshop.

“We came up with a prototype which I was actually a bit doubtful about. But as we worked with it and refined it we began to see it was almost universally adaptable to most trailers.”

The ‘Beard Mk One’ Easy Coupler has the virtue of simplicity.

Using one hand to unscrew the jockey wheel, the lever allows the coupling to be opened or closed, one-handed, at exactly the right moment.

It doesn’t of course put the trailer and vehicle in exactly the right place – that is still down to reversing skills.

But it does take all the effort out of trying to manoeuvre the trailer, open the coupling and drop the jockey wheel all at the same time – an operation that really seems to require about five hands.

A very big advantage of the Easy Coupler is that it is easily retro-fitted.

“The problem with trailers is that almost no two are the same, so we specifically designed the easy coupler so it could be fitted to any model without welding.

“This means it is easily adjustable and quite flexible.”

“Essentially all you need do is send us the measurements as we specify on a diagram, and we can custom build on the spot.

“It doesn’t matter if the trailer is an A frame or single spar either – once you’ve got it you simply bolt it in place. If you do happen to get it in the wrong place it is easy to undo the bolts and start again.”

Anthony believes the market for the Easy Coupler is pretty limitless.

“Horse floats, calfetaria, mealfeeders and motorbike trailers are likely to be the biggest user, by dint of the people using them.

“Far more women drive quads around these days, and will appreciate the ease of operation.

“It was very interesting to note at Fieldays that far more women made enquiries about the Easy Coupler, but more men bought it.

“Presumably it was for their wives!”