TAKING out the top gong of last year's Sheepvention invention competition gave great exposure to Rod Davidson's ute/truck mounted crane.
The engineer by trade, who runs Davidson Engineering, Casterton, said it was terrific to get a lot of enquiries from far and wide following the event. He built one for a man north of Adelaide and he's been in talks with another South Australian man who would like to measure up the Davidson family's crane, and then build one himself.
"That's what it's about, getting that idea around. It doesn't bother me if it's me building it or if people take inspiration and get photos and measurements," Mr Davidson said.
"If you're a bit handy you can make it up."
He said he'd fitted a similar fold away crane to his 6-tonne truck as well because it was convenient (taking up little space when folded away) and saved him from lifting heavy objects unassisted.
Mr Davidson will enter a road grader this year, which can be towed with a tractor.
He said the 5-6t piece of equipment gave people, including farmers, an option to the standard motorised grader.
He's been working on the grader in his spare time for about two years, and since finishing it has hired it out to farmers to do their on-property roads and even to grade a Blue Gum plantation after the stump grinder had passed over the land.
"It's made to handle heavy stuff."
Its construction was an example of "recycling at its best" according to Mr Davidson, who said its main frame is an old excavator arm and the axle if off a truck.
