A Top Up Yellow Injection

As you might have seen on our Digger Man Blog social media accounts, following my return from holiday, I headed straight up to the ever-impressive facilities of JCB in Staffordshire yesterday for another “hands on” experience with some of their latest machines.

One can never fail to receive an overwhelming feeling of patriotism as you arrive at the doors of the JCB VIP Visitors Centre. For me personally, it always brings back memories of my late father, who as an operator, was a JCB man through and through, I often feel quite sad that he never ever got the opportunity to visit the facility in Rocester, as I know he would have loved it.

I have been fortunate to visit so many times now, but I never take it for granted, and every visit is filled with new experiences and insights into the latest innovations coming down the line from the famous British based manufacturer.

On this occasion, a selected gathering of journalists, both from the UK, International trade press members, and social media characters were taken down to the company’s Kevin Quarry where we had to opportunity to spend more time on certain products.

For me the main focus of this visit was on the 3CX backhoe loader, the 480 wheeled loading shovel, and I had hoped to spend some time in the new 715 articulated hauler, but unfortunately that wasn’t quite ready to be driven by anyone other than JCB’s own demonstrator, so that will have to be sorted for another time in the future.

I did get to spend my time on the 3CX and the 480, and I will be reporting further on those in future editions of Earthmovers Magazine in due course so look out for that.

The JCB story never fails to impress me, from the humble beginnings of trailer building in a small lock up garage, to a family-owned global business that it is today, and with George Bamford becoming Co-Chairman alongside his father Anthony, I think we can safely say that more exciting times are ahead with larger products joining the range as well as the usual innovations that JCB have become well known for over the past 81 years!

Checkout this fantastic video recently released by JCB, which charts the growth of the business.