The History Of Erdvark Engineering

The Erdvark Factory was started in 1952 by Willem Marais in Moorreesburg.  During 1971 his son, Sarel Marais joined the business.  At that time, they were running 2 factories, one in Philippi (Cape Town) and the other in Moorreesburg.  The factory in Philippi mainly manufactured wear parts and bigger implements and the factory in Moorreesburg manufacture small implements.

During 1975 Willem Marais passed away and his son, Sarel, take over the business.  In 1986 Sarel sold the Philippi factory and moved the business to Moorreesburg.

Thian Rossouw bought the Erdvark factory as a running business from Sarel Marias. The whole factory and all its employees was relocated to Trawal.

In the beginning, the main range of implements manufactured was moldboard ploughs with a unique reset design and chisel ploughs.  Then the market changed to One-way Disc implements and Erdvark followed with its own designs. Erdvark add a wide range of 3pt and trailed Offset Discs. Erdvark also designed it own bearing system for all the disc implements. Erdvark also developed a wide range of the popular Graders and Scrapers. Erdvark are currently the leading manufacturer of tractor drawn graders and scrapers/levelers.

Around 2007 – 2008 modern farming started in Africa. Erdvark followed with some unique implements for land clearing and other equipment that was robust enough to work in the hard African conditions. Erdvark stays at the forefront of development and building new implements for these conditions.

During the 2015/2016 Erdvark received lots of enquiries on ridging equipment for fruit and nut trees. The small reversible disc was redesigned for the job. Within one year the DOS11 range was developed and are currently the top seller in this category.

Erdvark has developed a range of rippers with a hydraulic reset system. It is very successful in heavy conditions. Erdvark received numerous requests for a more robust Chisel Plough system for the Africa conditions. The whole development took 2 years to get the the first out of the factory. The new range consist of 4 different products with one frame, coulter, hydraulic and roller system. These Chisel Ploughs and Minimum Till Rippers only differs on the shank that is assembled on the frame and hydraulics. During 2024 Erdvark add a range of In Line Rippers and In Line Chisel Ploughs.