Hello, Hydrema!

Apr 24, 2025 - 4 months ago

When I was in the process of making my plans for the Bauma tradeshow in Munich, I was having lunch with my friend Allen Patterson from Hydrema, and he suggested that I incorporate a trip to the Hydrema factory as part of my journey.

Hydrema Factory Tour 2025

He was planning to host a small group and hoped I could join in. Never being one to decline a good time, it was set. After a day trip to the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart earlier in the day, I made my way via the Autobahn to Weimar Germany. We stayed at the Hotel Kaiserin Augusta right in the heart of the city. A quick online search will lead you to the Wikipedia page describing Weimar’s rich history in music, culture, politics and more. After a short and un-planned detour (AKA overshot my exit and didn’t realize it for half an hour!!) on the way up from Stuttgart, I met Allen and the guys for dinner. Mike, Randy, Lars, Darren and the 2 Stephens were already there unwinding from their long day of travel as well. We enjoyed some laughs, some schnitzel and called it a night. We had all travelled over from Canada recently, so the time changes and our schedule the following day made it easy to call it a night early. The thing that struck me is that they seemed like a pretty tight group, even though some had only met on this trip. They have a commonality in these Hydrema products and there just seemed to be a natural fit in the personalities of the group.

Hydrema Factory Tour 2025

After a quick breakfast the next morning, we joined our tour guide Henning Andersen at the Hydrema factory, just up the street. Their building has a rich 125 year history including use in the manufacturing of railway wagons, a small amount of armoury, agricultural harvesters and over 50,000 excavators during its peak usage. Hydrema acquired the property in 1996 and uses it predominantly as the manufacturing and assembly plant for its flagship 912 and 922 articulated trucks. These trucks are used worldwide in construction, water haulage, rail and countless other arenas. Over the course of 2.5 hours, we toured the facility, met the dedicated manufacturing and assembly crew (I had wanted to capture a few photos of the team in action, but EU privacy rules are quite strict and the publishing of “on the job” staff images is generally forbidden). I was particularly intrigued with the guys desire to see every detail of the machines. Randy, in particular, had plenty of interesting questions for our hosts, which really enhanced the amount of information we took from the experience. I’m not a huge gear-head myself, but I have a great appreciation for those who are and it just seemed to me that the more questions the guys asked, the happier they became with the product. In each case, the group are either Hydrema dealers or customers, and their appreciation of the ingenuity and care taken by the assembly crew was not lost on any of us. It’s easy to appreciate the machine when you see the hand craftsmanship and care that goes in, by the people responsible for that work. As one guest quietly said to me “It just makes you want to buy one!!”

Hydrema Factory Tour 2025

Our tour took us from laser cutting and fine welding through to components and parts, eventually on to final assembly and inspection. Outside, we checked out a few of the final products, noting features on the finished trucks that were pointed out to us at the assembly level earlier in the tour.

Hydrema Factory Tour 2025

After bidding our tour guide farewell, we stopped into the downtown area of Weimar for a traditional lunch and a beverage. Again, I was impressed by the guys attention to detail as they continued their discussions about these amazing trucks. Like any good family, they had some good laughs (mostly at each others expense) as we wrapped things up. After a quick solo walk through the rest of the downtown, I collected a couple of small souveniers and headed back down the Autobahn to Munich for Bauma. I was pleased to see the Hydrema booth jam-packed each time I walked past it. Hopefully some more dealers and customers getting ready to take the leap into one of these amazing trucks.

If you’re in the market for a mid-size articulated truck, consider a Hydrema. You’ll be treated well at all turns, just like I was.

By Jeff Watson
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