PistenBully: Precision on customised AL-KO VT axles
The PistenBully is a versatile precision system on tracks. Depending on the application scenario, the AL-KO Vehicle Technology Group (AL-KO VT) supplies specially adapted axles – designed, manufactured and robust to the same high standard as the rest of the Kässbohrer tracked vehicle.
The PistenBully: High-end mobile with AL-KO VT axles
Precision on Tracks
If you think a PistenBully is basically just an oversized motorised snow plough, you might as well claim that Parship has something to do with clearing snow from your front door with your neighbours.
PistenBully vehicles are high-precision machines – even though, in their ultimate configuration, they can operate with a permissible gross weight of up to 14.5 tonnes. They measure snow depth and groom even extreme terrains with utmost precision. At the same time, they offer drivers in the climate-controlled high-tech cab a driving experience reminiscent of a luxury saloon on fresh asphalt. Much like a modern road saloon, PistenBully vehicles are available with different drive units: alongside the diesel version, they can be operated with synthetic fuels or electricity in order to be as climate-friendly as possible in particularly sensitive operating environments.
Virtually Unlimited Application Scenarios
Not Just for Snow
With a wide range of base vehicle variants and numerous additional and custom build options, PistenBully vehicles are not confined to working in ski resorts. A shovel, crane, front mower or round baler, for example, make them suitable for agricultural use as well. They can operate on soft or sensitive moorland just as effectively as they can spread and compact chopped maize plants during harvest. The extreme demands on the chassis remain unchanged. Snow, ice, moisture, dust, coarse dirt and all kinds of uneven ground pose constant challenges for any vehicle technology.
Axles for Extreme Demands from AL-KO VT
Industrialised Special Designs for Extreme Applications
"For these high-end vehicles, which are sometimes used in 24-hour operation at peak times, exceptionally robust axles are needed that can be flexibly tailored to the specific application profile," says Karlheinz Spägele, Vice President Sales for commercial trailers and light commercial vehicles. AL-KO VT is able to bring its full axle expertise to bear here.
Basing their work on AL-KO VT core types of rubber suspension axles and torsion bar axles, the specialists design the required variants according to Kässbohrer’s specifications. The final components are manufactured with the precision of highly efficient, industrialised production processes. Manfred Schmid from Business Development at AL-KO VT explains, “Special steels are used here, along with multiple overlapping welds, to vary axle loads, axle widths, mounting points and swing arm lengths as required.”
Cross-site Collaboration Between Kässbohrer and AL-KO VT
From Simulation Through to Delivery
To ensure the specialised axles can be seamlessly integrated into the overall PistenBully system, the cooperation between Kässbohrer and AL-KO VT must work flawlessly right from the design phase. “We supply Kässbohrer with model values calculated on the basis of the initial specifications; they are responsible for the full vehicle simulation,” explains Manfred Schmid. “Through intensive dialogue, we then move towards the ideal values, which we subsequently implement in manufacturing.”
Production of the rubber-suspended half axles for independent wheel suspension takes place at the manufacturing team in Kötz, Germany. The continuous torsion bar axles come from Louhans in France and Paderborn, Germany. For totally new system developments, specialists from both companies and all locations are happy to get together in person – to set the right course for a project from the very start. Schmid sums up: “The collaboration works – and so does the result.”
