Pine Island Cranberry prides itself on efficiency, and both our hard-working team and our equipment program reflect that. To that end, our equipment program recently started test-driving a Hydrema for hauling.

“We got the Hydrema about a week ago and we’ve been running it hard ever since,” says equipment team member Coco Mercado. “Joe [Colon, Bog Renovations Manager] has been out there on it just about every day.” He was working yesterday to remove the hitch, as it’s heavy enough to do some of our major towing as well. “We used it to bring the sand screener out and I got to drive it back; it handles like a Cadillac!”

Equipment supervisor Carlos Baez is impressed as well. “There are a lot of tight turns on the bogs,” he says. “In a regular dump truck, you really have to work it. But the Hydrema is articulated, so it’s easier to make turns or back up to the sandbox. And the tires are big enough to keep it from wearing deep ruts in the dams or getting stuck in soft sand.”

The Hydrema can also take double the load that a dump truck can carry. “It moves a little slower, but we can load seven buckets as opposed to the 3.5 we can get in the regular dump truck,” Carlos says. “That’s still the equivalent of two loads, even taking the slower speed into account.” Our demo model also has the “multi-tip option”, which means we can drop sand from the right side or the left side in addition to the back. This is an highly useful option in many of our typical tasks, such as sanding and bog renovation.

But the ultimate review might be from our bog renovation manager. Though he was working on another project and was unavailable to comment, he’s been keeping the equipment team updated. “Joe loves it,” Carlos says. “And you know Joe doesn’t hold back.” COO Bryan vonHahmann concurs: “Joe was skeptical at first, but he’s been the primary driver ever since!”