Kassbohrer All Terrain Vehicles in Lewiston is a layover point for high-end snow-grooming vehicles coming from Germany and heading to the mountains of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada.

PistenBully snow machines are built in Germany and delivered by ship to the East Coast before being delivered to Lewiston by truck.

Kassbohrer built the PistenBully 200 model in Gray from 1980-85 before production was moved overseas. Gray continued to be the company’s corporate office location before moving to Reno, Nev. The Gray operation moved to Lewiston in 1998. 

Seven employees work at the Lewiston distribution facility, said operations manager Harry Turgeon. “The season started early this year,” said service technician Scott Sylvester of Auburn. “We have been very busy.”

Kassbohrer has been receiving equipment since May and started delivering snow groomers to ski mountains, Nordic centers and snowmobile clubs on Oct. 1, said Turgeon.

Machines range from a 7-foot-wide groomer to the PB600, a 14-foot-wide, 400 horsepower “cat” equipped with a 4.5-ton winch to help it groom steep terrain in Vermont.

“The product is unique. The application is unique. The customers are unique,” said Turgeon.

Kassbohrer builds snow machines 10 months out of year. The remaining two months are dedicated to building beach-cleaning machines such as the BeachTech 2000, 3000 and Marina, units that clean the top one foot of beach sand and leave a pattern of groomed “corduroy” similar to what appears on a ski mountain first thing each morning.

2010 was a banner year for beach-cleaning equipment, said Turgeon. Kassbohrer sold 35 units to BP following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Cleanup crews determined that the BeachTech machines could pick up the oil from the beaches each evening after the cooler temperatures caused the oil to gel.