Hillhead/QMJ 2024

News

Digging deep into construction machinery news

Hymac’s big brother (Blog Post Re-Visited)

Wed 03 Oct 2018

Hymac’s big brother (Blog Post Re-Visited)

I’ve often been described as something of a “Hymac geek”, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to look back at the type of kit many of my generation started out on and to be honest, when you recall the foot stomping and lever pulling one had to do to make those things perform, it kind of makes you appreciate the type of kit we are all blessed with these days. The most popular Hymac of course was the 580 model but another machine had a soft spot in my affections, the larger 880. Tipping the scales at 22.3 tonnes the Hymac 880 was not a large machine by today’s standards but back in the day it was considered to be an excavator of choice for deep excavation works, bulk earthmoving and scrap handling. It was only eclipsed in the Hymac range of that time by the 1080 and 1290 models which were only really built in small numbers. The first 880 models were launched in 1968 with that model remaining in production until 1972 during which time 135 were built. During 1972 the machine was upgraded to 880C status and was to feature a Volvo engine as standard, with some models being offered in face shovel configuration. It was one of these models owned by Reed & Mallick that I used to watch as a schoolboy as it tore its way through my local park in Southampton on a deep sewer line project on hire to Oldham based Queghan Construction, the same job that Queghan had a Priestman Mustang 220 working on that I used to be allowed to operate in exchange for doing the lads shop run for essential supplies of their staple diet of steak and potatoes!
The 880C was to eventually be superseded in the range by the 890 model but more on that in a future blog.            

Loads more

LOADS MORE

This website and services embedded within it use cookies to offer you the best user and functional experience and to provide us with performance statistics. Please click more information to read about cookies and to view the cookies we use.

More information | Block cookies

If you choose to block cookies some parts of this website may not operate. To block cookies please do this within your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block cookies within their settings and we have provided links to the most commonly used browsers. Please view our cookie details page for more information on the cookies we use.

Chrome | Firefox | Safari | IE

Accept + close