| New Generations
The Fastest Mower on Earth
Tiger’s new truck-mounted Truckat
brings a new dimension to mower productivity.
by Kirk Landers,
Editorial Director
 Tiger Corporation bills its
new Truckat as “the fastest mower on earth,” and even if it didn’t
cut grass or brush any faster than an identical mower assembly and cutter
head mounted on a tractor, it will out produce a tractor-based rig for
almost anyone.
Eh? you say.
The truck-mounted Truckat saves hours a day getting to and from the
work site, and that translates into double-digit increases in productivity
for any municipality, county, or contractor with enough work to justify a
high-production mower.
Truck based
 Tiger mounts the Truckat on a GMC W 5500 cab-over chassis powered by a
175-horsepower Isuzu turbo-diesel. With a car-like 109-inch wheelbase, the
cab-over chassis is extremely maneuverable. The tradeoff is a somewhat
rough ride at highway speeds.
Mounted on this 17,950-pound gross-weight-rated chassis is an
80-horsepower Perkins diesel to power the mower, and Tiger’s
top-of-the-line mower assembly featuring a boom with a 19-foot, 10-inch
vertical reach and a 21-foot horizontal reach. The entire mowing apparatus
fits within the truck’s 96-inch width for transportation, and its
12-foot road-ready height is 10 inches lower than a tractor-mounted unit.
The 50-inch rotary cutter head used for the unit’s initial
introduction was redesigned a year ago. Five other cutter-head options are
available: a 60-inch rotary, a 50- and 63-inch flail, a 50-inch saw blade,
and a 22-inch ditcher.
The mower assembly is mounted on the right (passenger) side of the
vehicle, with the auxiliary engine on the left. Up to 2,150 pounds of
counter weights can be positioned on the vehicle’s left rear corner.
Although the weight distribution is asymmetrical, the chassis has plenty
of payload on each axle and tire to deal with the weight.
 Operators use the standard driver’s seat to drive the Truckat to the
job site, then switch to a special operator seat on the right side of the
cab for mowing. The operator seat has a steering wheel for the truck and a
single joystick to control the movements of the mowing assembly.
Benefits
Tiger representatives outline a number of benefits that come with the
truck mounting of the mower, all of them derived from the unit’s great
mobility.
To demonstrate the productivity benefits compared to a tractor-mounted
unit, engineering manager Brian Hardy used the example of a job 15 miles
from the home office. A tractor traveling at 15 miles per hour spends two
hours going to and from the job and spends six hours mowing.
Since the Truckat can travel at highway speeds, its round-trip
transportation time can be as little as 30 minutes, depending upon speed
limits.
Hardy also claims that in light cutting, such as mowing roadside grass
where there is little or no debris, the Truckat can operate at 12 miles
per hour while a tractor unit may average just 2 miles per hour. His
example yielded a productivity advantage for the Truckat of around 50%.
 While the Truckat’s productivity benefits increase most as distances
to and from the work increase, Tiger’s research indicates that traveling
times are a significant factor for mower users. A telephone survey of 150
municipalities that operate mowing equipment found that 41% average more
than 30 minutes a day in transport times, and 77% average 15 minutes or
more.
The Truckat also consumes less fuel per mile, according to Hardy, who
estimated the fuel efficiency advantage at just under 50%.
Other benefits cited by Hardy — less exposure to vandals and better
maintenance — stemmed from always being able to return the unit to the
yard each night.
The Truckat is expected to carry a price premium of about $7,500
compared to a tractor-mounted mower.
Why now?
Tiger managers say they got the idea for the Truckat while touring the
facilities of Schwarze Industries, a sister company in the Alamo Group.
During the tour they saw a street sweeper truck chassis being prepped for
production and immediately saw the application for mowing.
“We stopped right there and said, ‘why hasn’t anyone put a mower
on one of these?’,” says Tiger sales manager Randy Jensen. “The more
we talked about it with the Schwarze engineers and each other, the better
it looked.”
That was two years ago. With Schwarze’s help — their personnel
instructed Tiger’s staff on a variety of truck chassis engineering and
production issues, starting with the dual operator stations — Tiger was
able to move quickly from etchings to a production prototype to what Tiger
President Denny McConnell proudly proclaims, “The fastest mower on
earth.”
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Reprinted from Better Roads Magazine
August 2002 |
