Mowing on 4000 kilometres of river channels

4,000 km of mowing channels are just a part of the work that our long-time business partner Vuka from Croatian city of Osijek does during the year. They exist for 144 years, and over the past few decades have been working intensively to build and maintain river channel networks.

Vuka has recently added four new John Deere tractors to their fleet, to which we upgraded BRK side-mounted crane mowers, in-house at our factory. We visited them soon after delivery and to see the complexity of the terrain they mow with the help of our equipment.

River channel networks make up most of their daily work. They are responsible for maintaining 4,000 kilometers of the Vuka river basin, from the far east point in Croatia, city of Ilok, all the way to Našice: they build new canals, renovate existing ones, and maintain them. They mow 6 to 8 months a year, depending on the vegetation and weather conditions, and have a total of ten RASCO crane mowers in their fleet. Our reliability is the key to this long-term successful partnership. As the head of the service Krunoslav Ćošić told us, machine downtime is unacceptable once they start with mowing:

More than 70% of our work are crane mowers and mowing. We mow 6 days a week, 8 to 9 hours a day. We work exclusively on the river channel network, which means that our machines and mowers go over difficult terrains where the rotors of the mowers and working heads suffer very heavy loads. That is why it is most important for us to have a complete package that comes with the mowers – spare parts, service, maintenance and, of course, quality. Due to the difficulty of the work, we pay great attention to regular maintenance, and once a year we do a complete repair of crane mowers.

When mowing on such terrains, sometimes the failure occurs due to the human factor: mowing operators, unfortunately, often encounter large waste of all kinds. The biggest problem is when it gets stuck in the working head of the mower, which often causes downtime and unforeseen repairs. However, with new kilometres of maintained canals, there are fewer and fewer such cases every year.

Head of service in Vuka company, Mr. Krunoslav Ćošić

Tractor drivers point out that they are most satisfied with the simple and precise controls for operating the mowers, and the available places for lubrication and daily maintenance of crane mowers. When choosing and buying equipment, Vuka company considers the opinions of companies engaged in the same activities, and they buy from both domestic and foreign manufacturers:

In terms of support and quality and according to our experience and knowledge, RASCO is at the very top. In addition to the 6 models of mowers you saw today, we have a few more, and the oldest model is from 2003 and still works without problems.

It is interesting that Vuka works almost exclusively with John Deere tractors, on which our crane mowers have been upgraded. In recent years, they chose John Deere for the same reasons they chose RASCO: spare parts, service, maintenance, service technician training and tractor quality.

As a manufacturer and business partner, we are very happy to hear the opinions and experiences of customers, especially after years of cooperation and partnership. That is why we will be glad to do a follow-up on any successful project such as this one in Vuka.