Early Backhoe Loaders

摘要

Several widely used con-struction machines were originally developed for agriculture. The crawler tractor, skid-steer loader, and backhoe loader, were all first designed for farming applications, and over time were improved upon and accepted within numerous other industries. Loader attachments for both wheel and crawler tractors date to the late 1920s, but a backhoe attachment took longer. Backhoes of that time (and, for that matter, those early loaders) were operated by cables, and there was no realistic way of mounting a backhoe onto a tractor because of the machinery needed to operate the boom and bucket. Maine Steel Works made a go of it with a small cable backhoe attachment for Cletrac crawler tractors; but while it could dig trench, it had no swing capability; to move the bucket clear of the trench for dumping, the entire tractor had to be turned.