by Nick Drew | Tue 14 Dec 2021
And Now for Something Completely Different!
I recently came across this Indonesian brand called Tatsuo, who are based in Surabaya, and I speculate that this company may be based at the old premises of Barata Industries where some modified Kobelco excavators were produced for the regional market in the late 1980’s.
Today Tatsuo provide a range of 5 excavators starting with the sub-1-tonne JP10-8 mini excavator up to the 8-tonne class JP80-8 wheel/crawler model which features conventional steel tracks, but also combines wheels that can be hydraulically lowered to offer high speed mobility from job to job.
It is my understanding that these machines are all of Chinese origin which are manufactured and branded in China as Xiniu Rhinoceros, and simply badged up as Tatsuo in Indonesia.
Other models in the range include the 2-tonne class JP20-8, JP80-L8, 8-tonne wheeled model, and the 7.5-tonne JP75-8 centre mount fixed boom midi excavator.
Checkout this video of the unusual JP80-8 wheeled/crawler model in action.