wider than that when set up for working in the fields, some of it about 20 meters (over 60 feet), yet each machine had the capability to meet those requirements.” Ryan added, “Teir innovation in design in making the large equipment small enough for transportation generally incorporated some type of folding system, but how that folding was accomplished varied.”
Obviously, that mandate affects sod delivery. John reported, “To accommodate having to work with the narrower roads, their sod delivery is with 10-wheel trucks, often with the sod loaded on a flat-bed trailer pulled behind it.” Bob added, “Tey have lift gates, similar to what many of our delivery vehicles have, that they use when they deliver the sod curbside. We also saw forklifts with front forks about 96-inches (2.44-meters) long that were designed to carry two pallets of sod.”
Mower features drew attention, including heavy-duty construction. Photo by Bob McCurdy
Bob reported, “Teir spray rigs had a large fan mounted on the back of the sprayer which used forced air to disperse the material. Tose sprayers also had steerable axles in the back which gave them a tight turning radius at the end of the field.”
Bob noted operation of a big irrigation unit different from what he’d seen in the U.S. “On ours, you pull the gun out. On this one, the hose is pulled out and the machine follows the hose, rolling up the hose as it travels the path laid out for it. (Te rain train concept.) Tey could do a serpentine pattern with the hose, creating any path they wanted. Te wheels drive the machine.”
And he was intrigued by the varied hooking systems used to connect tractors to other implements, noting pins and unusual stakes which were used like a drawbar is in the U.S. “Teir implements hook to the tractor on the front with generators that are driven by the front-mounted PTO.” He also noted box or bucket attachments mounted on the front of a tractor or a forklift, making the machine a double-duty unit.
Ryan reported, “Te push for autonomous or self-controlled equipment in Germany seemed to be about the same as it is the U.S. Tey showed a commercial autonomous mower and had a charging station, too.” Bob commented on an autonomous mower, noting they operated it with a joystick. On autonomous tractors, Wade reported, “Tey had some prototype aftermarket devices in place that were operating their tractors without drivers. Tese devices are still in the experimental stage, but they were quite impressive.”
Roadway Regulations
A major issue of government regulation resonated with the TPI group. John said, “Another interesting bit of technology was how their big equipment was designed to comply with government regulations that nothing wider than three meters can travel on their roads. (Tree meters is the equivalent of 9.84 feet.) Te equipment was much
TPI Turf News November/December 2022
Innovative folding systems brought large equipment to within the three- meter roadway regulation. Photo by Ryan Menken
Efficiency of Land Use John reported, “In most of the places we saw, the farmhouses and farm buildings were in the villages, not on the farms. As you drive around our rural area, the farm buildings are on the farmland. In Germany, you can drive 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) and just see farm fields. So, they don’t travel far to get the machinery to the farmland, but they go often. It appeared that they took it home every night, where we might leave a machine in the field overnight if we’d be using it in the same field the next day.”
Bob said, “Te resourcefulness of the Germans in finding ways to use their resources to generate income really stood out for me. Teir infrastructure is so old, and they have so much to maintain, there’s a never-ending need to find ways to finance the required maintenance. Owning property in Europe is such a privilege and ownership has been kept within families for so many years, it’s hard for others to
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