RB Auctions Apr 25

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Digging deep into construction machinery news

Scandinavian Hymac still puts in a good days work (Blog Post Re-Visited)

Fri 07 Jul 2017

Scandinavian Hymac still puts in a good days work (Blog Post Re-Visited)

The Hymac 580C was the company’s best-selling excavator of all time with manufacturing numbers totalling 5,600 machines during the period from 1970 – 1981. The 580CT and CS models were launched in the latter stages of the 1970’s and were the forerunner to the 580C’s eventual replacement the 580D. They were aimed at the Swedish market and proved to be very popular in that Nordic region. They featured what was described in Hymac promotional literature in those days as, a Scandinavian approved cab, which as keen eyed readers will notice, bears a striking resemblance to the future 580D cab, only on the CT model it is still mounted on the right hand side of the upper structure. These machines featured a number of improvements to make them more suitable for dealing with the harsh winter weather in Sweden, including heavy duty heating systems in the insulated cab, additional and improved working lights, more access steps and thinner grade winter oils. This particular example is still in superb condition considering its age and apparently is still used on a regular basis. Sadly I do not have any details on where this machine is actually located or who owns it, but it’s an interesting piece of classic British built kit nonetheless. Of course being a Swedish owned machine it’s been adapted to meet there more demanding style of operation, with the fitment of an early and rather crude looking rotation grab attachment. Although rare to see in the UK now, there are still a good number of these old machines at work on farms, timber yards and privately owned land in Sweden. Like this nice example from a post on the famous Swedish website Maskinisten.net. Let’s hope they had more luck with the old and troublesome running gear then we did in the UK. Memories come flooding back of broken gears and snapped drive chains on many old Hymac’s I operated over the years. Still have deep affection for the old classics though.        

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