JCB is proud of its reputation as a serial innovator, and there is no doubting that the recently launched Hydradig fits into the 'rewriting the rule book' category. None is prouder that the company's chairman Lord Bamford,who puts the Hydradig firmly in the lineage of innovations that reaches back to his father's decision to combine digger and loader to create the backhoe,back in 1953 (see box, opposite page). The Hydradig shares something of the backhoe's creative DNA, too - it is effectively an excavator on top mated with more of a telehandler-style undercarriage. The result, the manufacturer says, is an excavator with unparalleled stability, built in response to increasing demands from contractors for machines that will do the heavy lifting from narrow confines and will be manoeuvrable as well.
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