The Last Throw of the Dice for Weimer-Werk #FlashbackFriday

Trawling the web at the weekend I came across the video at the end of this post, of an unusual machine and figured it would make for a good #FlashbackFriday topic.

Hydraulic excavators were manufactured in East Germany from 1968 to 1990 under the brand name Fortschritt, however in 1990 the company underwent restructuring and was reformed as Weimer-Werk GmbH.

The Weimer-Fortschritt machine featured in the classic old promotional video below, which has been dubbed into English, was the T 188, which was the last series of machines produced by the company at that time, and was first introduced in 1988 before it was eventually withdrawn from the line-up in 1992.

Photo Credit: Robert Wiebner

You would have to say, the machine had quite a futuristic look to it for the time, especially the rather futuristic cabin which offered panoramic views around the machine, but also featured quite a strange boom geometry, typically German from that era, in that you could take out the pins to adjust for increased reach if needed or retract in for maximum lift capacity, of course, it was such a faff, that nobody hardly ever did it!  

One can imagine that in the retracted position grading would be tricky, as you would be constantly chasing that dipper down as you pulled it in with that geometry.

In 1996 Danish manufacturer Hydrema took over the business, which then became known as Weimer-Werk Baumaschinen GmbH. They built ´Weimar´ Excavators after the German reunification that are the predecessors of the current Hydrema MX -series. The excavators are now built in Denmark but the dumpers are made at the Hydrema factory in Weimar.

Checkout the video below.