Wheeling the difference

Landmaschinen Wienhoff GmbH, with its headquarters located in Bawinkel, Emsland in northwestern Germany, has been producing agricultural machinery for almost 90 years. Every year the company’s machine building specialists produce some 200 machines, slurry tankers, tank trailers and other specialized vehicles. In its highly customized solutions Wienhoff relies on system integrator Niehues and hydraulic motor designer and manufacturer Black Bruin for the special and unparalleled driven axle, the wheel drive – a perfect solution for the farmers in the area.

Wienhoff have a wide variety of slurry tankers and liquid manure trailers in their portfolio ranging from single-axle tank trailers with the capacity of 1,000 litres to the tridem trailer with capacity up to 38,000 litres. Wienhoff use both ADR and BPW axles in their solutions, more specifically, ADR for the biggest trailers – the 1-axle up to 18,000 litres and 2-axle solution with capacity over 22,000 litres to 30,000 litres – and a BPW axle solution for tankers with lower capacity.

Since 2017 Wienhoff have relied on Black Bruin hydraulic motors in many of their larger scale products. According to Daniel Weyer, Wienhoff’s Head of Technical Support in Electronics, their system integrator partner Niehues prefer by far Black Bruin hydraulic motors in their axle solutions: “In fact, it is always Black Bruin when the control system for the motors is supplied by Niehues – and since they are a very good partner to us, it is very straightforward and works perfectly. The system from Niehues is very good. We integrated it with our control center and added some goodies, for example the automatic direction selection – because we wanted it to be even more farmer-friendly,” Daniel Weyer explains the rationale behind his company’s product development work.

More extreme weather conditions including some really heavy rain is hitting us. Without the wheel drive, there would be many days during the short slurry season when it is impossible to work on the fields at all. And that would be catastrophic.

Customization and long experience: Wienhoff’s greatest advantages

In Germany there are of course other slurry tanker producers, but Wienhoff’s position is very strong in the German market. “For special slurry tankers we are proud to say we are number 1,” declares Daniel Weyer and continues: “In that tanker category, it is actually difficult even to compare between competing solutions, as our products are designed and built exactly for just that specific need based on the terrain, land area and harvest and so on. Our solution is customized for the farmer, based on a Black Bruin wheel drive solution customized for us – an unbeatable formula. For more standard or ‘general’ solutions there are other suppliers.”

Wienhoff also look back proudly on their long experience with those special liquid manure trailers: “We can truly say that they are tried and tested in all conditions,” Daniel Weyer declares. “The 1-axle model with 30-ton capacity is a very special model, and so is the tandem, and we have manufactured those for over 10 years.”

No surpise, then, that Wienhoff’s solutions are gaining ground in Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic and France, too. “At the moment, the Czech market is particularly strong for us. Lots of investments are being made in agriculture there,” declares Daniel Weyer.

Hear it from the farmers

Wienhoff’s customers are very happy with the extra torque and traction they get from the Black Bruin motors. Daniel Weyer lists the benefits of Wienhoff liquid manure trailers equipped with Black Bruin wheel drive. “With a slurry tanker equipped with our driven axle solution and Black Bruin hydraulic motor as its power source, work on the field can be started earlier than, for example, with a solution based on a sliding axle and accomplished clearly faster. The farmers have reported that with our solution they can get out onto the fields two weeks earlier – holes and mud just don’t matter. That early start is really a crucial advantage, as the seasons are getting shorter. And also, the wheel drive means that the trailer and tanks exert far less pressure on the ground, so with our solution, while doing the job, the farmer can actually protect the ground.”

And are the electric motors a viable alternative for these applications? Daniel Weyer has a firm opinion: “Of course they are an option but at least at the moment they are too expensive for the farmer – so not a realistic option, after all. As far as I know, there is currently only one tractor and system with an electric motor of this type that really works.”

Climate change is really making itself felt

“Over the last two or three years, we have noticed a distinct change in the weather: absolutely anything is possible. Decidedly more extreme weather conditions including some really heavy rain is hitting us, and that, of course, immediately necessitates a wheel drive. Without it, there would be many days during the slurry season when it is impossible to work on the fields at all. And that would be catastrophic. In practice, the slurry season is getting shorter and shorter. Against that background the extra cost of having slurry tankers equipped with Black Bruin wheel drive is no obstacle.”