Auburn’s Ariens Plant Now Shipping Out New All-Terrain Vehicle Product Called the Gravely Treker

While many businesses and industries have bellied up in recent months due to the current economic climate, one local company is expanding.

Ariens Company - Auburn Operations is building and shipping out a new product. The new piece of equipment is known as the Gravely Treker, an all-terrain utility vehicle.

Tim Mercer, director of operations at the Auburn facility, said response to the vehicle has been positive. Within the first week of making the Treker about 150 orders for the utility vehicle had been made.

A good majority of the parts used on the utility vehicle are built at the Auburn plant. Mercer said he anticipates that in the future more parts used on the Treker will be built in-house. The standard color of the Treker is called Gravely Red.

The Auburn plant’s paint process is unique. Human hands do not touch the product until it is time to assemble the parts. Mercer said all paint is powder sprayed on to each piece and then dried in a large oven set at a temperature of about 350 degrees. At that point the paint is liquid but as soon as the paint cools it takes on a hard shell.