Equipment Roundup: Cat improves design on latest backhoes; Volvo intros new excavators; Tiltrotator demand on the increase; Takeuchi intros new excavator; Ford to build electric trucks | Dump Truck Company
Ford to introduce electric, hybrid F-Series truck models
Ford’s iconic F-150 is going electric.
Ford’s president of global markets, Jim Farley, announced today at the Deutsche Bank Global Automotive Conference in Detroit that the best-selling F-Series line-up will be offered in electric and hybrid models.
“We’re going to be electrifying the F-Series — battery electric and hybrid,” Farley told conference attendees at the MGM Grand according to the Detroit Free Press.
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Takeuchi launches TB250-2 compact excavator
Takeuchi has released what it calls “a true 5-ton excavator,” the 10,957-pound TB250-2.
Designed for landscaping, general contracting and rental, the machine uses a long arm with an integrated thumb mount and has a max dig depth of 12 feet 4.8 inches.
Takeuchi’s Fleet Management telematic system is standard, offering information on location, utilization, performance and maintenance, helping ensure machine uptime and availability.
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As North American demand for tiltrotators grows, early adopters tout their versatility
An attachment that’s considered a machine standard in northern Europe is now making headway in North America.
Generically known as a tiltrotator, the attachment originated in Sweden in the mid-1980s and gained steam during the ensuing years. It’s now so well established in Scandinavia that operators there regularly express amazement on social media that it still gets a golly-gee-whiz reaction from operators here.
You may have seen a tiltrotator demonstrated at a recent trade show or viewed a video on YouTube. There’s no doubt about it: explaining what a tiltrotator can do requires visuals.
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Volvo launches ECR18E, EC20E excavators on redesigned variable width platform (VIDEO)
At World of Concrete in Las Vegas, Volvo Construction Equipment has unveiled a new compact, ultra short-swing excavator model in the ECR18E, alongside an update to the EC20.
The ECR18E represents Volvo’s first 1.8-ton model for the U.S. Product manager for compact excavators, John Comrie, says though a 1.5-ton model introduced several years ago was short-lived, Volvo has seen growing demand for a short-swing excavator in the ECR18E’s size class.
”This is a huge market back in Europe, the rental market and we know there’s a demand here not just in rental but in other segments as well,” Comrie says.
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New design brings more balance, better load control to Cat’s powerful 440, 450 backhoes
A new 440 center-pivot backhoe joins Caterpillar‘s backhoe lineup, featuring advanced controls and a 25-percent backhoe lifting improvement over the 430F2. And improvements to the 17-foot Cat 450 deliver 15 percent more backhoe lifting capacity and 14 percent more loader capacity than the 450F – along with a new cab designed for operator comfort.
Breakout forces have also significantly increased on both the 440 and 450, and electronic control allows the new single-tilt loader arms to provide full-time parallel lift, say product specialists.
“We’ve been working on a lot of new features with this machine,” Todd Lange, who manages backhoe products sales and support for Caterpillar, told editors recently at Cat’s facility in Edwards, Illinois.
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