Visiting the Spider’s Web – A number of the UK turf industry press attended a factory visit in the Czech Republic enabling them to catch up with the latest developments being made by the manufacturers of the unique four-wheel drive wheel Spider remote controlled slope mower.
The company’s new 1.8 million Eur, 3,500 square metre factory that was officially opened in 2014, replacing the old factory owned by DVORAK – machine division was opened in 2004 by its current owner, Lubomír Dvořák, the man responsible for coming up with the original concept of the remote radio-controlled slope mower, which was named the Spider.
The idea stemmed from the need of their highway construction company, who having constructed many miles of motorway embankments, were then tasked with the ongoing maintenance of the steep grass road verges. So, to help reduce time and make the job safer, Lubomir came up with the solution of a remote-controlled banks mower.
The first Spider the ILDO1 was launched in 2003, offering an 80cm cutting width, using one blade with the capability of mowing slopes of a maximum of 55 degrees using a winch.
This was then followed three years later with the ILD02 in 2006, offering a 123cm cutting width using four blades, again with the capability of cutting slopes of a maximum of 55 degrees.
In 2014 the company launched its now popular Spider, offering a 56cm cutting width using one blade with the capability of mowing slopes of a maximum of 30 degrees.
The company manufacture over 1500 parts of the mower themselves, reducing the reliance on other providers, thus improving their quality control and waiting time.
The factory is geared up to produce two spider mowers a day, while there are plans to extend the factory doubling its size in the coming years enabling to cope with the growing demand for spiders worldwide.
Like most companies, not content to rest on their laurels, they spend a huge amount of money on research and development, refining their products, improving performance and above all listening to their customers.
With the future in mind, the company was keen to allow the press a chance to witness a demonstration of a new prototype of one of the next generation of machine expected to come on line next year, to be named Spider 3.
It is essentially a remote-controlled ride on transport unit that can offer different mowing options to the end user. The operator can sit on and operate it from a seated position, when mowing reasonably flat areas and then jump off and stand and control the mower on steeper slopes.
Offering a triple deck option will no doubt be a big hit with Local Authorities, Highway agencies and contract firms thus allowing the machine to operate efficiently over flat and steep ground using the same mower and operator.
The company has recently changed their distribution in the UK and are now represented by T H WHITE Machinery Imports Ltd. They also recently recruited two well-known UK Sales Managers, Nick Penn is European Sales Manager, while Jason Bristow leads the Americas sales operation, supported by Lubor Hladik, International Sales Manager.
