by Nick Drew | Wed 03 Apr 2024
Sticky situation for iconic blue Liebherr
Regular followers of this blog may recall that the 60000th excavator to be produced at Liebherr's facility in Colmar, France, back in 2019 was something rather special.
The machine was finished in a stunning blue livery and artwork from famous illustrator Jean Linnhoff, who is also from Colmar, who worked on the artwork in secret in a hidden part of the facility for six days.
A map of the world was painted on the side of the machine, acknowledging the worldwide distribution of Liebherr excavators produced at this long-established factory.
The know-how of the Colmar employees was also recognised with all the employees first names featuring on the undercarriage.
The machine made an appearance at Bauma in 2019, however, not on the giant booth which is always a focal point at the Messe Munchen site, but it was presented at the demo area in a local quarry just a stone’s throw away from the main show area, where a number of us from social media platforms, had our photo taken with it.
The machine was eventually sold to a customer, and as the photo below shows, it’s had the misfortune to become stuck on the edge of a river and become partially submerged. I don’t have any details on this, but it appears that the machine is fitted with a rotary grab and may have been engaged in clearing timber debris close to a bridge when its slipped ‘into the drink’.
Photo source Facebook, DM me for credit
Two other Liebherr machines were used to assist in the extraction, and hopefully the machine hasn’t suffered too much damage from water ingress and is up and running again.