Infield Rascal MVP- Walk-Through (Full Version)
Transcript
Hello, my name is Scott Holmes and I’m the Executive Vice President at ABI. In this white booth video, I’m going to walk you through the most popular and innovative pull behind infield groomer on the market today. With three different models available, ABI Sports Turf has provided a pull behind infield groomer for every facility and every budget. If you carry the responsibility of making sure that America’s favorite pastime is played on a safe and effective infield, you do not want to be left behind on the newest and most effective way to maintain those infields. So let me introduce you to and walk you through the Infield Rascal from ABI. In this video, I’m going to focus specifically on the Infield Rascal MVP, the most versatile and effective of the three Infield Rascal models.
The Infield Rascal MVP is a rugged baseball and softball infield surface groomer that has the versatility to daily groom the highest level infield surfaces, perform light infield renovations and regrade a gravel parking lot that is full of potholes. The Infield Rascal MVP is the first and only infield groomer, that can make that claim. The bottom line is that the Infield Rascal MVP performs on and off the field.
The Infield Rascal MVP is reinventing the way sports complex facilities are managing their properties and especially their infields. And I know this to be true because of these three reasons. First, ABI’s motto is always be innovating. We never bring a product to market simply to have something to sell. Never. We research, invent and solve problems like no one else can, or we won’t sell it. Period. Secondly, ABI is always listening to you, our customer, on the challenges you are facing in your day to day workload. And we are always making our equipment better. We never settle for what we’ve done in the past, but are always challenging ourselves to provide you something better. And the third reason that I know that ABI is reinventing the way you manage your complexes is because we start at the top and seek out real industry experts to help us design and develop the equipment that you will be using. So as I’m walking you through the Infield Rascal MVP, you don’t have to believe me. I know that trust is earned and not given, but know that many of the world’s top industry experts trust us and stand behind the products that we built. So let’s take a close look at the Infield Rascal MVP.
So let’s start with the overall construction of the MVP. One of the problems with most other infield groomers on the market is that they are made of cheap construction and simply do not last. As we were developing the Infield Rascal. One of the most common complaints that we heard was that most of the competitive groomer’s were always breaking down, not with the Infield Rascal MVP. Remember, we had to design this frame to not only take the abuse on the field, but to be able to hold up to the aggressive ripping action of regrading a gravel parking lot.
Now one of the most important components of the Infield Rascal MVP is this pair of stabilizing and transport wheels. These tires are 16 and a half inches tall and eight inches wide. These are real flotation tires, and are a critical part of the patented wheel lift system, which we will look at in just a minute. These tires serve four different functions for the MVP. First, they offer quick and easy transport from all parts of the complex. Secondly, these tires keep the Infield Rascal from pitching from side to side when making tight turns on an infield. With groomers that don’t have significant stabilize wheels the attachments can pitch side to side, gouging your infield and leaving a very inconsistent surface. But not with a Rascal MVP Our stabilizing wheels will keep the frame and its ground engaging attachment stable, giving you consistent infield material. The third function of the stabilizing wheels is to allow the Infield Rascal to float on loose aorre wet material, which will keep it from sinking into the soft spots, which again would give you an inconsistent depth. When it comes to a stabilizing tire, size does matter. The taller and the wider the tire is, the more stable a pull behind implement will be. Don’t be fooled by the little tires found on other infield groomers. They just don’t do the job. The ABI stabilizing tires are real tires with replaceable hubs and spindles and bearings for long service life. But the fourth and ultimate function of these tires is that they give you the operator control of all the ground engaging attachments that go with the Infield Rascal MVP.
It is critical that you have control of your. Why is this important? Because an attachment with no operator control will never produce consistent results. Never. Let me say that again. An operator who has no control over the ground engaging attachment can never get consistent results. The moisture in your ground changes from day to day. The conditioner’s moved around during the games. How hard or soft an infield is changes from week to week with the weather and the volume of play. Your infield is never the same. And if you want an infield where the ball bounces true, athletes stay safe, and you’re most trafficked areas properly manage moisture, then you must have control of the infield groomer and not be satisfied with an attachment that just flops around while you drive in circles. The tires on the Infield Rascal MVP allow you to control the amount of weight and pressure applied to your infield.
And this leads us to our patented wheel lift system that controls the stabilizing wheels. By simply spinning the handle of this two thousand po und crank jack, you can easily raise and lower the stabilizing wheels of the Infield Rascal MVP. This allows you to control the ground engaging attachments that come with the MVP. Although this wheel lift system is controlled with a manual jack, one of the options that you can purchase is an electric actuator that lets you raise and lower the wheels from the seat of your tow vehicle. This wheel lift system serves three purposes. First, it allows the Rascal to be lifted off the ground for easy transport on and off the fields and around your complex. Secondly, it allows you to gauge and control the maximum depth of penetration into the surface, whether that be a quarter inch deep for daily grooming or a half inch to three inches for light renovation. When a surface is extremely hard, the wheels may be raised at a play to allow the full weight of the tool to be placed on the ground for more aggressive action. Finally, when the wheels are all the way down and the frame is lifted into the air, this allows for easy swapping of the underbelly attachments. And in just a moment, I’m going to take through all the Mid-mount and finish mount attachments that the Infield Rascal MVP can receive.
But first, I’d like to give you an overview of the VibraFlex drag and the profile blades for the Infield Rascal MVP. Now on this Infield Rascal MVP, we had the VibraFlex attachment that’s mounted. We call this the VibraFlex attachment because of the action it offers to your surface. And when daily grooming and infield, it is critical that you produce the exact results you want, regardless of the condition of the ground. The VibraFlex attachment allows you to get these results. Now instead of using a homemade nail board which gouges the infield when wet and hops around on top when the ground is too hard, the VibraFlex tines flex with the condition of the infield and vibrate side to side, literally dancing across the infield to properly shatter surface tension. So with the controls of the Infield Rascal and MVP, this action produces a beautiful, consistent mixture of your soil or conditioner at the exact depths that you desire. So that’s the VibraFlex attachment. And I’ll get into more detail in just a moment.
Now let’s talk about the biggie. The one attachment of ABI infield groomers that has the whole industry buzzing and our competitors scrambling. Let’s talk about the profile blade attachment. ABI has invented the way to manage one of the most difficult conditions in infield maintenance, the compacted subsurface. Your infields are always in great condition when the first game of the season is played, but after the rain, games, and the wear and tear of hundreds of ballplayers, the subsurface becomes hard as a rock. The problem is that it’s not even consistently hard. The infield is so compacted and hard, that balls bounce in all directions and bounce hot. No one wants to see a player get hit in the face because the ball doesn’t bounce true. So all ground keepers want to relieve this compaction at least once or twice per year. But how do you do it without tearing up the infield and having to get a laser box out and put it back to grade? The ABI patent pending profile blade attachment is the way.
For light renovation the profile blades will renovate to ballfield by slicing through the profile of your infield at any desired depth between half an inch to three inches. This depth depends on the structure of the soil layers. These blades will slice through the subsurface without displacing the material. They simply lift and release the infield skin without pushing it around like attachments to have rippers or loosening teeth. Now these other attachments would change the grade of your infield and will require a skilled operator with specific equipment to set it back to grade. These profile blade effectively loosen a compacted infield, allowing air and moisture to get back into the mix. Now, when you reset the infield, it will be as firm as needed while still having a light cushion and perfectly consistent depth. And by using the profile blades and the VibraFlex attachments to lightly renovate, you can now decompact and reset your infield in just a few hours. An additional benefit to the profile blades is that they cut weeds and grass at the root level to remove creeping grasses from infields and warning tracks, as well as removing lip buildup along the outfield edges. The VibraFlex drag, profile blades, and the scarifiers or ripping teeth frames all slide into these receding pockets and are connected with these bit pins and lynchpins. Each pocket has four different depths and positions which allow you to set the mid-mount attachment at your desired depth.
For example, if you wanted to use the ripping teeth for some gravel parking lot maintenance, you could set them to go as deep as five to seven inches. Earlier, I made a big deal out of the stabilizing wheels, giving you control of the ground engaging attachments. Well, not only do the stabilizing wheels give you control, but the Infield Rascal MVP has an adjustable turnbuckle at the top of the frame and this allows you to adjust the angle in which the attachments make contact with the ground. This is critical because there may be times and conditions when you want the Rascal attachments to pitch forward or backward for a more aggressive or passive contact with your infield. This adjustment also makes the variance and hitch heights of multiple tow vehicles a non-issue as with so many of our competitors.
Now, right behind the adjustable turnbuckle is a manual jack, that’s used to adjust the ground contact angle of the finish or grading rake. This feature is an incredible differentiator when it comes to other infield groomers. There is a term used in the world marketing, it’s the term purple cow. A purple cow is a feature or benefit that nobody has. It’s completely unique. And although there are a lot of unique features with a line of ABI infield groomers, the pivoting finish and grading rake is the ultimate purple cow for the Infield Rascal MVP. You won’t find this feature function on any other infield groomer, guaranteed.
This rake is made up of half inch, abrasive-resistant steel and comes in one foot replaceable sections. This pivoting rake has five very important functions. The first is that in the pulverizing position, it leads a beautifully smooth and level surface on a recreational infield that consists of a high sand content. Secondly, it will break up clumps of material during a light renovation or regrading job. And the third function is that with the help of the term knuckle, it will pivot 90 degrees and give you a grading blade that will cut material from the high spots, drop it into the low spots with ease. Regrading around home plate without tearing up your clay foundation is now possible.
Now, if you’ve purchased the electric actuator to replace the crank jack that controls the wheels, you can literally move dirt from highs to lows while on the move. It’s simply incredible. The fourth function, again in the grading position, is that this rate works like a landscape or york rake and has the ability to pull off loose vegetation and debris. Finally, this rig is durable enough because it’s made with abrasive resistant steel that’s found in the beds of dump trucks to finish off a gravel road or a parking lot.
Now, do you see why we can clearly say that the Infield Rascal MVP performs on and off the field? Finally, on the angle arm, where the finish or grading rake is attached are two quick attach connectors. These i-bolts enable the quick and easy connection of all the finishing attachments for the MVP. When you want to transport your Infield Rascal MVP from place to place, simply lift the finish attachment off the ground and set it on the included attachment carrier.
Now that I’ve walked you through the details of the Infield Rascal MVP, let’s look at all the attachments available to this revolutionary into a groomer.
You will notice that on this display stand or all of the ABI ground engaging attachments. Not all of them will work on all the Infield Rascals. So it’s important for you to know which ones will and which ones won’t work for the Rascal that you are most interested in. All of these attachments are available for the MVP. However, the Pro cannot use the scarifiers, and the Rookie cannot use a scarifiers or the profile blades.
The first attachment on this stand, is a row of scarifying, or ripping teeth. These teeth come standard with the Infield Rascal MVP but are not available on the infield Rascal Pro or Rookie. Let me say upfront that these ripping teeth were not made to be used on an infield. Once in a great while we have had customers use them for installation of a new infield or complete renovation, but they are not designed to be used on a daily basis.
It’s these scarifiers or ripping teeth that make the Infield Rascal MVP powerful for off the field work, such as grading gravel parking lots, seedbed preparation, or trail maintenance. These ripping teeth are made with a casted shank and a bolt on replaceable tip and can penetrate the ground from a half an inch to seven inches deep. The second attachment is the VibraFlex drag, and one of these two models comes standard with the Infield Rascal MVP. So ABI developed the VibraFlex drags to give us much finesse as possible and yet be aggressive when needed. And here’s how we did it.
We have designed two different VibraFlex frames. The 5800 and the 3800. These numbers refer to the amount of evenly staggered u-pins. The 5800 should be used in a more professional high clay content infield where the skin plays really firm and the materials do not move around much at all. In this example, you would want to use the 1/8 inch pins so that they literally dance across the surface, shattering the surface tension at less than a quarter inch in depth. That’s all the depth you really need to properly groom infield with a higher clay count. It’s with the 1/8 inch u-pins that you will get the most flex and vibration. You can swap out the 1/8 inch U-pins for the quarter inch u-pins If you want a more aggressive loosening action at different times in the season. More often than not, most of our customers will want the 3800 VibraFlex because for recreational and high school level infields where the silt and the sand content is higher, this model will work better. And here’s why.
The 3800 has thirty eight u-pins which creates a three quarter inch space, not the half inch spacing of the 5800. This allows more material to flow through the VibraFlex drag without the material building and plugging up. The 3800 accepts the one quarter inch and the three eight inch u-pins and the quarter inch is what will most commonly be used for daily grooming. You will only want to use the three eight inch u-pins first thing in the Spring if you really want to open up the infield.
Now I will say that for many of the multi field complexes you might want both the 5800 and the 3800 VibraFlex drags as they can be swapped out in minutes and we’ll give you great flexibility in maintaining your infields.
At the bottom of this display stand is a combo piece, which is for display only and it’s made of the rigid drag mat and the coco mat. Both the rigid and coco mats are members of the quick swap finishing attachments for the Infield Rascal MVP. Both of these finishing attachments are six foot wide income with an integrated leveling bar, which consistently floats your infield material, keeping it level as it knocks down the high spots and fills in the low spots. It’s made with a nearly indestructible tow bar and the steel mesh and the coco mat is designed to be replaced when worn out.
When your infield material is dry, you will normally want to use the rigid drag mat, but when there’s a lot of moisture, mud puddles on the field, you will definitely want to try out the coco mat. Now, on this side of the display stand, we first had the profile blades to come standard with the Infield Rascal MVP.
As I mentioned earlier, these profile blades are primarily designed for light renovation and decompaction work. I already explained why this is so critical for proper infield maintenance, so I won’t bore you by going through that again. However, the profile blades are the only way to decompact your infield without pushing around the material and taking it out of grade.
When you use perpendicular loosening teeth such as a traditional nail board, or a box scraper, or a rototiller, there is no way not take away the grade of the infield. And the grade is critical safe play and proper and quick percolation of rainwater. These Profile blades slice beneath the surface of the infield, similar to a sod cutter, or like a knife going through butter. And it will lift and aerate the infield mix from a depth of a half an inch to three inches. And you don’t lose your grade. All you have to do to reset the infield is to run the VibraFlex drag over it a few times while pulling a heavy duty drag mat behind, and your surface be ready to play in just a few hours.
Additionally, these profile blades can be used to remove vegetation at the root level without using a herbicide such as Round-Up. This is becoming a bigger issue throughout the United States. Also, many of our customer use the profile blades for removing the creeping grasses along the edge of the infield. I recommend that you edge the outfield line and then use the profile blades to slip under the vegetation and the unwanted creeping grass will peel right up. This is an incredible time saver.
We often get questions about the wear life of these blades. And the answer is it all depends. It depends on the type of material you have. It depends on how often you use them and where you use them. For most customers who use the profile blades just a few times a year, they will last for many seasons.
Below the profile blade is the 3800 VibraFlex. We’ve already discussed that in great detail. So I’m going to move right on to the fine finish broom. This broom is seven foot wide and comes with three rows of replaceable bristles. You will notice that the mounting arms are adjustable, so that you can get the exact working angle that works best for your material and moisture content. This broom floats independently from the main frame, and has the perfect weight to produce a beautiful finish to your infield. My personal opinion is that if your infield is already clod-free, the fine finish broom leaves the best finish in both high and low moisture content. And the maintenance of the broom is very simple because when the bristles wear out, they simply slide out and you put the new ones back in.
So there you have it, a complete education on the Infield Rascal, MVP and all of its mid-mount and rear-mount attachments. No other infield groomer on the market can make the claims of the Infield Rascal MVP. No other infield groomer has the backing and endorsement of the world’s leading experts in infield maintenance and materials, and no other infield groomer can do the work of multiple tools, both on and off the field. Bottom line, there is no other infield groomer like the Infield Rascal MVP from ABI Sports Turf.
To find out more about how to make the Infield Rascal MVP a part of your infield maintenance program, call our toll free number at 877-788-7253 and speak with one of our product specialists. They will talk us through our current pricing, money back guarantee, and current delivery availability.