Rare Swedish Excavator Restored

I came across some photos of what is a very rare Swedish manufactured machine last week on the excellent Maskinhistoriska Föreningen Facebook group, which focuses on classic machinery from the past, a topic that has always been of great interest to me and this blog.

The machine in question is a Carman 600 hydraulic excavator, which has been fully restored to near factory condition. According to my research, this machine was one of only two 13.7-tonne 600 machines ever manufactured by the company. It was launched in 1966, however the company closed its doors in that same year.

AB Carman was based in Lindesberg, which is around 22 miles north of Örebro and was founded in 1959 by Ingemar Carlsson and Sven Willerman, the business name features aspects from the two guys names, to create Carman.

Photos Courtesy of Anders Rådenstein

The company was formally known as ABS (Arboga Byggnads Smide) who had previously been manufacturing crude rope-controlled excavators for towing behind tractors since the late 1940’s. During the ABS/Carman manufacturing era in total, the company manufactured around 1,800 excavators.

This last remaining 600 was dragged out of a soft spot where it had led for a number of years before work started on this stunning restoration. The photos were posted by Anders Rådenstein but I have no idea if he is the owner of the machine, it would certainly be interesting to find out more.

Photo Courtesy of Torbjörn Tobbe Petersson

This was a completely new machine to me, I had not heard of a Carman before, so it’s been great to see this rare machine looking so good and to discover more about the company’s history.