This is a bit of a departure from our more normal used machinery articles. If you ring up the importers of Vervaet equipment, J Riley Beet Harvesters, and ask to look at its stock of used Hydro Trikes you will be asked if your Passport is up to date. Well not literally, but the widest choice of used models will be located at the Vervaet factory at Biervliet in the Netherlands. Riley in the UK work directly with the factory to support those looking for a used buy and are best placed to offer advice on what could be on offer to meet your needs and budget.
The Hydro Trike name attaches to a machine that first appeared in 1990. These and subsequent models share the same tricycle design template with all three wheels hydrostatically driven. Many early machines remain in active service but not necessarily in the form in which they would have originally left the factory. Modified, updated, or even completely rebuilt, a Hydro Trike made 20 plus years ago may now have a considerably enhanced specification. The early models still in use are unlikely to have their original cabs, a point to note as it is difficult to ‘age’ the machines on looks alone.
The way these vehicles are used has also evolved. Developed initially solely as self-propelled slurry application units, alternative kit was soon offered to extend their versatility such as fitting muck spreader or bunker bodies and more.
Early Hydro Trike models developed as dedicated slurry machines will have a tank capacity of 10m3 or 12m3. These early units are now becoming a rare used find, not because they have all worn to a point where they are no longer viable but more that those that run these models are likely to hang onto them. Later late 90s15 machines were made. By the late 1990s, Hydro Trike sales would have exceeded 40 to 50 units a year.
