GVM Inc
Built to last
With a rich history of product innovation and a large emphasis on building the most reliable equipment available, GVM is today among the very finest manufacturers of agricultural application and snow equipment
Originating in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, in 1975, GVM began life as a fertilizer dealership known then by the name of Andgrow. The brainchild of Jack Anderson, he quickly decided that he wanted to be able to offer his employees year-round full-time employment. This resulted in the decision for Andgrow to begin manufacturing foam markers in the ‘off-season’. Then, in 1977, the company became GVM and continued to add to its product lines to become a full-service agricultural retailer and snow equipment manufacturer.
Today, GVM places a large emphasis on designing and building the most reliable, innovative, and versatile equipment on the market. Its ultimate goal is to provide end users with the best available products in a constantly changing marketplace. GVM focuses on speed, comfort, fuel efficiency, and mechanically friendly equipment. It continues its rich history with a commitment to be the industry’s leader in innovation and to develop equipment that makes sense for the farmer, custom application, dealer, and government agency.
GVM’s track record for achieving the above aims really began to come to fruition in the early 1980s, when the company established a new manufacturing base in Biglerville, Pennsylvania, in which to manufacture foam markers and sell pumps, tanks, and accessories. At the same time, GVM also began distributing other product lines, including Norwesco, Mobility and Layco.
Breakthrough technology
During the mid-1980s, GVM was designing and building boom systems, pull sprayers, lawn sprayers for custom application, pick-up truck sprayers, three-point boom sprayers, and semi-floatation sprayers. In 1984, it also manufactured its first self-propelled floater on an international chassis. A year later, GVM introduced the HydraSpray Pickup Sprayer and the Double Duty Pull Spreader to market, with the latter being labelled a ‘breakthrough’ in the fertilizer industry due to its unmatched spread pattern for both lime and fertilizer. The Double Duty spreader remains in production to this day and is the most popular spreader choice for a Prowler chassis.
Moving into the 1990s, GVM continued to pursue its mission of developing versatile equipment by introducing the HydraSpray Flatbed Kit. This kit allowed the HydraSpray to be converted to a truck for hauling materials in the winter, delivering chemicals in early spring, as well as pull spreaders and anhydrous trailers in the fall. In 1993, the company began producing the TranSpread pull-type spreader, a popular machine that is still in production today, and a year later it unveiled the ComputerSpread TranSpread, which allowed operators to program their rate per acre, regulate the spinner speed, and program up to nine different jobs at a time.
Fast forward to 1997, and GVM celebrated its 20th anniversary by creating its first-ever, self-propelled sprayer, the Row-Cat 800-G. This four-wheel drive machine featured a mechanical drive train, road speeds of up to 45 miles per hour, a cab forward design, an air ride suspension, a 200-horsepower engine, an 800-gallon stainless steel tank, and 60 or 80-foot fold over booms. Designed for pre-and post-emergence spraying, the Row-Cat was the first machine of its kind, and also the first-row crop sprayer/spreader combo unit with an easy on – easy off liquid to dry change over in less than one hour. It would eventually evolve into the Prowler, and in 2011, to the E-Series Prowler.
Machine launches
Over the course of the next decade, GVM continued to innovate, bringing to its customers machinery such as the Agri-Cat, the first self-propelled spreader, the Row-Cat Combination Liquid-Dry System, which was the first piece of large custom application equipment to boast a quick-change package, the Prowler combo unit, which is the largest post sprayer on the market with up to a 1500-gallon liquid system and a 9.5 ton Double Duty spreader, and the Predator, its first high clearance, mechanically driven sprayer.
The theme of consistently releasing new products has perhaps predictably led to awards success for GVM, a number of which have been presented at key trade shows and expos that the company has attended in recent years. In 2008, for example, it was presented with the Show Stopper Award for its Stars and Stripes Predator model at the 2008 MidWest AgIndustries Expo. The same accolade was then bestowed upon the company at the 2010 edition of the expo for the E350 Prowler with AgriWAVE.
The E350 possesses 32 inches of crop clearance, 11 ton dry and 1800-gallon liquid capacities, a variable coil spring 43suspension, a new cab featuring 360-degree visibility and an electronic monitoring system. The incorporation of AgriWAVE allows the customer to view machine positioning, engine and transmission data, and flow control, while also allowing GVM to remotely dial into the machine for troubleshooting. The E350 was the first machine in the industry to feature this kind of technology.
Not to be outdone, GVM’s Snow Equipment business has also been busy with new machine launches. These include the PowerPlatform, a multi-use municipal vehicle offering high road speeds, manoeuvrability, a large cargo capacity and excellent operator visibility, and the EZ Rider, a stand-on self-propelled machine to apply granulated salt, pre-wet at the spinner, and spray anti-icing liquids.
In the last few years, the company has continued to revolutionize the market, introducing the E-Series Prowler in three models, and in 2015 the Mako, a small self-propelled, high-clearance, 400-gallon sprayer. In doing so, GVM further solidifies its position as the business that best understands the need for mechanical drive, multipurpose machines for agriculture, government institutions, and the transportation industry – bringing to the world a portfolio of equipment that is built to last.
GVM Inc.
Products: Agricultural application and snow equipment