THE HISTORY OF
TERRATRENCHER®, GEOTRENCHER® AND MINITRENCHER
GR Manufacturing was founded in 2014 by Mike Smith and Peter Blundell.
Mike Smith has worked extensively in New Zealand with the Terrasaw® product lines to develop and improve mini trenchers. Terrasaw trenchers were developed, designed and manufactured in New Zealand as a kit that converted chainsaws into hand-held trenchers. The product had a 15-year history in New Zealand. The two main advantages of the product were the design of a chain reduction system that slowed the chain speed down to a third of a standard chainsaw. This had the advantage that the digging chain lasted much longer and the position of the digging bar allowed for a comfortable and less tiring working position.
The kits were developed to work with certain models of Stihl® chainsaws. Stihl® did not support the structural modification. In June 2014, Peter Blundell became a distributor for Terrasaw in the U.S. under TerraTrench USA, Inc. Mr. Blundell was the pioneer in the marketing and distribution of portable minitrencher in the North American market.
Mr. Blundell approached Makita®, who saw it as a good opportunity to expand their product line in the American market. Makita® offered the Dolmar® PS6100 and PS7910 chainsaws as a viable alternative to the Stihl® units.
Within the first year of sales in the US market, more units were sold in New Zealand than in the last 15 years.
Peter received a lot of positive and negative feedback about the product. The most important points were:
- Premature engine failure
- Insufficient air filtration
- Extensive maintenance requirements
The problems led to the development of the GeoRipper® Minitrencher in 2015, after Mike and Peter had worked together to improve the mobile trenchers. The main difference was to replace the chainsaw type engine with a grinder type engine.
This change was the solution to many of the earlier problems faced by users of the chainsaw models. A comparison of these two engines shows: chainsaw engines were designed to run intermittently at approximately 14,000 RPM, and cut-off saws were developed to run continuously at 9,500 RPM. The cut-off saws run cooler and last longer because of this lower maximum RPM.
The air filtration system on the cut-off saws is far superior to the chainsaw as it is designed to filter concrete dust rather than wood dust. Digging in the ground produces a dust that is similar in physical properties (abrasiveness) to concrete dust.
The system for reducing the drive speed in cut-off grinders eliminates the use of a reduction system, which is used in the TerraTrencher®, thus eliminating a major maintenance problem.
Development and testing of the new GeoRipper® mini trencher continued in 2015 before it was launched in the US market in early 2016.
The first units were introduced with the following Makita® engines: the two-stroke engine EK6101 (Dolmar® PC6114), the four-stroke engine EK7651H and the two-stroke engine EK8100 (Dolmar® PC8216).
Conversion kits for Stihl® and Husqvarna® cut-off machines followed shortly afterwards. The Stihl® kits are available for the TS700 models. The kits available for Husqvarna® are suitable for the K770 and K970 cut-off machines.
Since 2018, the hand trenchers have been imported and marketed exclusively by LTW GmbH for the German market and neighboring countries.
As part of a strategic realignment, the brand name of GeoRipper® was changed to GeoTrencher® in 2022. The actual product remains 100% the same. Also, the distribution, service and product support by 72 German specialist dealers remains unchanged.
An extension of the possible drive motors to the popular Stihl® cut-off saws TS420 & TS500i, Echo CSG-7410ES are now available.
The Makita CSG002G, the first battery-powered GeoTrencher®, is available from 2023.
With the introduction of the GeoTrencher GET at the GaLaBau trade fair in 2024, the company is setting new standards in efficiency and sustainability.