To all users of Haban product,
I have mentioned on,as well as off the “Haban Users Group” website that I would be traveling to Racine,Wisconsinfor a day with the intentions of performing a complete walk-through of the Haban Manufacturing plant. I needed to see with my own eyes if there was anything left that may be of value to owners of Haban product. This was planned in an effort to gather any Engineering Drawinginformation, Product Manuals, Part Number Cross Referencesas well as the availability of any service parts that may help Haban customers.
The date set for this was March, 29th 2008. I met the current owners of the facilities (several buildings) at 10:00 a.m. and we spent the next 3-1/2 hours performing this complete walk-through. I have to say, I’m very appreciative of the new owners giving me that much of their time. The two buildings of primary interest were Building #1, which was the manufacturing plant and building #4 which was used for finished packed whole goods that was stored awaiting shipment.
I’m very sorry to report that the main manufacturing plant, building #1 had been completely cleaned out around the year 2000. I expected much but gained little. No production blueprints were found. The new owners purchased the property about 5 years ago which puts that around 2003. They said it was all cleared out before they purchased it which supports the cleaning out around the year 2000. All current and non-current inventory as well as service parts must had been scrapped out for material value at that time. With 25 years of “stuff” accumulated at the new plant, considerable effort must have been put forth clearing this out in anticipation of putting the complex up for sale. I did find a couple of closets on a mezzanine overlooking what used to be the machine shop that they had overlooked. These areas yielded some information, but no production drawings. Information consisted of a box of original layout tracings that date back to product from the mid fifties and early Snow Thrower layouts dated in the early 60’s. I also found some old Haban Field Chopper Instruction andRepair Parts manuals that will help me fill in information for the 1,000-3,000 series of part numbers. I did also find several 4” thick Computer reports/printouts of various annual activities dated 1994/1995 which should help in the identification of part numbers from 17,000-22,000. I brought this all back to my home in Manitowoc for review.
In building #4 (which always was more industrial rental space than anything else), I did find the balance of the Kardex files that I hoping for. These Kardex files are the Production Control records, pre-computer, which were used from “day-one” until being phased out in the later 1980’s. This is of significancebecause I understand the content as I did work with these Kardex files as a parallel system when we were implementing the IBM-MAPICS computer system in the mid1980’s. I had found only about 1/3rd of these Kardex files the first trip down last month and this balance of files completes information on part numbers up to about 18,000. There are about 80+ drawers to these files and the most that I can comfortably load into the Haban Part Number Database are about (2) drawers per night. Additional useful information on these cardswould be additional part descriptionsor part specifications as well as Vendor (if not Haban) information. When noted, I’m adding this Vendor information intoan additional column titled “Supplier” in the database.
When I have as much information as I can find loaded in the database. I have permission and have taken, (16) 4’ x 4’ x 3’ high boxes of New Old Stock – OEM V-Belts that were stored in the basement of building #4. Theseboxes took40 feet X 8 feet of room on a semi size open trailer. They are currently stored in an enclosed building on my property in Manitowoc. What’s in it for Haban users? Most,but not allof these V-Belts have the Haban part numbers inked on the on themalong with the belt size and manufacturer. This additional information will be added to the database for these V-Belts. I will purchase a V-Belt measuring gage to document the O.C. of each V-belt, this is the most valued information for the users. The belts could then be listed as available users so I could have a chance of recouping some of the trucking costs from Racineto Manitowoc.
So in the end, it seems the most that I can help Haban users will be building of the Haban Part Number Database and getting all the owners manuals that I have scanned and available to all on line. The V-Belts may help some, but all in all, I won’t have the impact to Haban users that I had originally hoped for.
I will update the Haban Part Number Database periodically with my progress. I’ve started another Database Haban Model Number to Product and Tractor Make and Model cross reference. If any of you have additional information, just get it to me and I’ll edit it in.
Respectfully,
Erwin