by Nick Drew | Tue 14 Jun 2022
Trying to Save Another Hymac
This particular example is now lying in a scrap yard somewhere between Kiel and Flensburg in Germany, having arrived there from Denmark.
Apparently, the machine had been stood for some considerable time, and was being overgrown by bushes. It had been dragged out and pulled onto a low loader. To move it they cut the drive chains to enable it to be “free wheeled” as it was unknown if the engine was a runner.
For its age, the machine is in a reasonable condition, but obviously shows some wear and tear from its working days as you would expect.
Dirk’s friend would like to see the machine saved and via our social media channels put a shout out to anyone in the UK who might fancy saving her.
Its pretty urgent though as the scrap man is more interested in cutting her up which would be a real shame.
There was quite a bit of interest most notably from demolition man Jamie Lord, who already has a decent collection of old excavators including a Hymac 880, however at the time of writing this I have not heard if a deal has been done on this one, but I truly hope it gets saved.
The 580D has a special place in my heart, as I spent 9 years of my youth back in the 80’s and early 90’s operating one of them, which has been well documented in the past.
As a matter of interest according to the bible for all things Hymac related, The Illustrated History of Hymac, by my good friend Jeremy Rowland, there were a total number of 870 Hymac 580D’s produced from 1980 – 1986.