Gradall, not your conventional excavator (Blog Post Re-Visited)

by Nick Drew | Fri 05 Oct 2018

Gradall, not your conventional excavator (Blog Post Re-Visited)

The telescopic boom style excavator more commonly known as a Gradall has been around for a very long time and although the concept is rarely if ever seen in the UK, the machines made by Gradall Industries remain popular in the North America and Canada.

This grainy black and white photo from the Digger Man Blog archives, shows an early version of the Gradall concept mounted on what looks like a half-track style chassis and even features what looks like a crude tilting bucket arrangement.

The company have made a wide variety of versions over the years and continue to do so to this day. These versions also include tracked models with boom rotation like the one in this photo from the 1970’s.

Also from the 1970’s is this large mobile version mounted on an eight wheel lorry chassis, seen here placing rock armour on the banks of a newly formed V ditch. I must say the machines don’t do much for me personally and I feel there are far better and more modern solutions available, but it’s good to take a look at different machines and ways of tackling jobs. Similar models featuring the telescopic rotating boom concept were also made buy another American company Warner & Swasey.

I spotted this tracked Gradall XL5200 III during my trip to Bauma in 2010. I am going to see if I can check them out again at this year’s event.

Check out this latest promotional video from Gradall featuring one of their newest models in their range.

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Gradall, not your conventional excavator (Blog Post Re-Visited)

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