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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Wed 07 Apr 2021

One of Colmar’s Finest

The recent launch of Liebherr Mining’s new 600-tonne class R 9600 hydraulic excavator, prompted me to reminisce about the one and only time I got anywhere near remotely close to the manufacturers ultimate big boy’s toy, the 800-tonne R 9800.

One of Colmar’s Finest

Its long been on my “bucket list” (forgive the pun) to pay a visit to the giant Liebherr excavator manufacturing facility in Colmar, in North Eastern France. My primary goal for such a visit would be to get to experience the overwhelming size of the Liebherr R 9800 first hand, and if I was really lucky to spend some time behind the controls of one of these giant beasts!

So far, my only chance to imagine the size of these machines was during the 2013 edition of the Bauma Trade Fair, the largest construction machinery and equipment show in the world.

On the ever-impressive Liebherr stand the company displayed a backhoe configuration bucket from a R 9800 on the stand, which people queued for long periods of time to have their photos taken stood inside it. The bucket displayed has a rated capacity of 47.5m3 which is a mind-blowing amount of material in one scoop!

I came across this video over the weekend from a guy who has visited the Colmar facility and has created a great point of view video of his experience on the day, which I’m sure you will enjoy as much as I did.

 

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