Old Hymac “Duck” still putting in a shift

by Nick Drew | Fri 18 Mar 2016

Old Hymac “Duck” still putting in a shift

Wheeled excavators have been a hot topic this week, what with the official unveiling of JCB’s new 10/11 tonne class machine. But here is a video clip of classic old British Hymac which is still working to this day.

Wheeled excavators have always been something of a niche market in the UK, unlike central Europe where they are used a lot more and in many different applications, but I am noticing a rise in “rubber ducks” as we affectionately know them in this country. User uptake is definitely on the rise thanks in some part to the social media presence of the “Dream Team” and the like who continue to raise the duck profile with their all signing all dancing machines and arsenal of attachments. However back in the 1960’s & 70’s the Hymac was the king of excavators in the UK with its popular 580 tracked model, its wheeled variant was the Hymac 610 was built from 1965 to 1970 during which time 263 were manufactured, many of these old machines went on to work in scrap yards around the country and some can still be found to this day. 6a00e54efb2c7088330192ac2e960b970d-800wi

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This video shows one of those 263 still working somewhere abroad. They were not the fastest of machines either, incredibly only able to travel at 12 mph, but in the dig they are still better than a 1 RB! [youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjHqisifhTc[/youtube]

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