Case Studies

Basel City

For sport lovers the city of Basel offers a wealth of facilities including around 50 football pitches for amateurs as well as for the professionals of FC Basel, ice rinks,  ice hockey pitches and artificial grass pitches. Basel City Sports Department looks after the maintenance of these which includes mowing in the summer season and snow removal in winter and five Multihogs are making these tasks more cost effective and efficient.

Sports Facilities Manager Eric Hardman saw the Multihog at an exhibition and was immediately struck by its potential to fulfil an outstanding niche in the market: “The combination of its compact size, but with a roomy cab, robust build and powerful performance was just what we were looking for to meet our requirements of operational cost savings whilst retaining a first class service.”

Much better snow clearance from the turf and artificial pitches, from the ice surfaces as well as the paths around the sports grounds has been achieved thanks to snow blowers fitted to three of the Multihogs. Mr. Hardman says: „With our older, less powerful snow blower we needed to deploy two tractors plus an extra vehicle to take the snow away, three members of staff  and also had to reckon with half a day’s work to clear one pitch. Now with 1 man and 1 Multihog it is all done and dusted in 1½ hours. Due to the number of pitches we clear we also used to have to work nights but this is no longer necessary.”

The mowing of turf pitches is the most expensive aspect of their maintenance and thanks to the Multihogs’ hydraulic power and speed they are 30% quicker than the old mowing equipment which translates into substantial savings in the warmer months of the year too. The first cut of the relatively long grass in spring is carried out using a rotary mower and the Multihogs are then fitted with their summer attachments:  four are kitted out with 5 gang cylinder mowers for use on smaller sports grounds and the fifth uses a 7 gang cylinder mower. This ensures a very fine and particularly high quality finish where required and also prevents the grass drying out too quickly.

When it comes to comfortable working conditions the 25 trained drivers are more than satisfied. According to Mr. Hardman they have plenty of room in the cab and don’t feel hemmed in as is the case with other types of machines – this of course is a major benefit during long shifts, and excellent visibility contributes to safer operations.

Mr. Hardman is full of praise for the versatile machines: “The Multihog system is simply better all-round, from a cost-performance ratio it is unbeatable and the savings made to the municipal budget are positive for everyone concerned.”

  • Basel City
  • MH

Applications

X

This website uses Cookies.