Case Studies

Traverse City, MI

Traverse City in northern Michigan is a city of almost 16,000 inhabitants and its location means that it gets on average 120” (300 cm) of snow each winter. The city operates two Multihog CX compact tractors for use in autumn, winter and spring. The machines were delivered in 2021, one month apart, and to date have racked up almost 600 hours between them.

According to Joel Tapio, Vehicle & Equipment Technician for Traverse City, the machines are used with Metec snow blowers in the winter, and with self-designed and manufactured leaf pushers in autumn and spring. The main purpose of the Multihogs is snow removal on 103 miles (166 km) of the City’s sidewalks and wooden boardwalks.

The second task for the City’s Multihogs is leaf removal throughout its neighbourhoods. The Loose Leaf Pick Up program is an eco-friendly initiative which prevents leaves from ending up in landfill and catch basins. The leaves are then turned into rich topsoil for the Parks Division’s flower beds. Traverse City carries out the leaf collection twice per year (once in autumn, once in spring), using leaf pusher attachments which they manufactured in-house. They were adapted to fit on the Multihogs, and now serve as very useful tools in this green composting initiative.

Joel explains one of the main reasons that Traverse City chose Multihog over other maintenance vehicles: “We have a lot of boardwalks in our City, and the curb weight of the Multihog CX allows us to drive across them. Our other machines exceeded the weight restrictions, so we couldn’t use them. The Multihogs were ideal for us, as they’re much lighter than our old machines. That was a big plus point for us when it came to making a decision. It has allowed us to remove snow from our sidewalks and boardwalks much more efficiently.”

Having proved their versatility in their first season, the City is now considering other tasks to keep the Multihogs busy year round, including broom and mower attachments for summer use.

According to Joel, the Multihogs have really made a difference to the Traverse fleet and are much-loved by operators. “Operators love to run our Multihogs! The suspension improves cab comfort greatly compared to other tractors in the fleet. Aside from that, they’ve really helped us to clear snow quickly from our many sidewalks, trails and boardwalks. For tractors with such power, they really are so compact, nimble and relatively lightweight – all features which are important to us.”

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