Case Studies

Waltenhofen Municipality

The municipality of Waltenhofen is located in a scenic part of Allgäu, southern Germany. It has around 10,000 residents and is a popular holiday destination in summer, but also for cross-country skiing in winter.

The municipality had a demonstration of the Multihog in 2020, organised by the local dealer for the region, Knoblauch-Wohlgschaft. Following on from the successful demo, Waltenhofen rented the Multihog’s compact model, the CX, for the 2021/2022 winter season.
The Multihog CX was fitted with a Westa snow blower, a straight plough and a salt spreader. The municipality changed the front attachment from a blower to a plough (and vice-versa), to best suit the weather conditions as they evolved. Fabian Berchtold and Andreas Trunzer are Waltenhofen’s Multihog operators, and both are very happy with the snow blowing power of the Multihog CX.
Fabian explains what their winter maintenance entails: “We take care of winter maintenance on approx. 180 km of roads in the area and we’re one of the biggest municipalities in the county of Oberallgäu. We have a lot of footpaths and wander trails to maintain, as we have a lot of winter tourism here. Being a popular winter destination doesn’t leave much room for mistakes or slacking – our residents and tourists have high expectations when it comes to snow removal. With the Multihog and the snow blower, it helps us to live up to these expectations. We have really been astounded by the power of this combination, it has so much more torque than our old machines.”

The old machines Fabian refers to are two tool carriers produced by another manufacturer. Waltenhofen also used to use contractors to carry out their winter maintenance, but some time ago they decided to bring the job in-house and do it themselves. “With our old machines, we just had so many problems. They were always broken down, and we had oil leaks and issues with the temperature. They were simply very unreliable. Now we’ve brought the job under our remit, and we have the right machine to do it well. In comparison to our old machine, the Multihog is simply deluxe, and as operators we really love it. Most importantly, it’s reliable, but it also has the power we need for snow blowing. Other plus points in my opinion are that it’s very quiet when operating, it has a solid build and a super comfortable cabin with heating to keep me warm in winter.”

Fabian is also complimentary of the support from their local dealer. “Knoblauch-Wohlgschaft have been there for us any time we’ve had a question about the machine, and good service and after-care is hugely important for a critical piece of winter equipment like this. We’re very happy to have a good partner locally, that’s for sure.”

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