Inchgreen Backhoe Loader

[XS650]

Any photos Hamish ?

[nosneb]

Any photos Hamish ?

Unfortunately no, but I have some static images on 8mm cine film which some friends and I are attempting to convert to DVD and when finished I will post it here, don't hold your breath though as the equipment is only available once a week.
As I remember the machine in Wales belonged to Chepstow Plant hire.
A fair few of these machines ended up in Ierland. Second hand.
Three in Denmark, one in Spain. New.
As the senior moments clear I will post more stories not necessarily important but some of the asides of the factory.
Regards
Hamish.

[FOWLER MAN]

Hello Fred, I don't think they were around in the 50s started in the early 60s.
Hamish.

Thanks for the reply Hamish. It's hard to keep trck of time over 45 years.
It seems a shame that it was killed off when they had allmost got it right, and after all that investment too, what would £100,000 be in todays terms.
Regards Fred.

[essexpete]

Very interesting thread, and so near but so far in terms of a success story.

[Qbritgohm]

hello, this tread was a interesting find, i thought id put up a picture of our (sad) IG5, which was aways surrounded in mystery.
it had an inchgreen badge and a big bulky cab at one time

more pictures at http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/plantmachinery/1309147

[Martyn Henley]

Hi Steve, and a big welcome to CMN

Amazing pictures you have there ... but you say the machine is surrounded by mystery, how so ?

Martyn

[Qbritgohm]

just that there was never any information on who built it, where it came from etc. theres miles of weld on it now! serious built yoke. We are out in west coast of Ireland, and never seen any others around. does anyone know where to find serial numbers or something on them?

[Qbritgohm]

hello again, after seeing this thread we got interested inthe digger again. we started her today after nearly 15years, she started on the first tip . we would love to find more information on them and what was on the emblem. it seems to be a triangle over a rectangle with the word inchgreen. what was in the triangle? as she was used as a cattle scratch post, nearly all the pipes are gone. also a picture of the dowty badge.
also eagerly waiting for hamish's photos

[nosneb]

Hello everyone, I just had a PM from steelfab which reminded me of an episode in the Inchgreen factory.
A wee bit of history to put the tale into context.
On the IG 6 , built around the Ford 5000 unit, the hydraulic pump was changed about the middle of the build time
The early pumps were non standard and had suction and discharge ports of the same size, this was changed to a standard pump with a smaller suction port and a larger discharge port. This of course required new hoses and clamps.
Part of my job was to turn the customers spare parts order into part numbers the stores could supply.
While checking the availability of spare parts I noticed that the componnent parts of the hydraulic hose kits were running low which was a bit strange.
On investigation it was discovered that a former demonstration driver who had left and set up his own plant hire company, was buying a lot of the kits. This was odd and prompted a stock check of pumps and we found several pumps were missing.
The pmpps were in boxes on shelves in the store and we found that the thief had been taking pumps from the back of the shelf which was full leaving the front kooking full and normal.
We instigated an ID system for the pumps and soon caught the culprit.
Our ex driver had an apprentice steal the pumps and then sold them on to customers in Ireland.
He was jailed for his efforts if I remember correctly.
It was a lucritive business as these pumps failed at an alarming rate.
I think it was due to the uneven loading on the pump as the hydraulics loaded and unloaded the pump it caused the pump geare to wear the bearings which then allowed the gears to wipe the aluminium bodymaking too mhch clearance.
Soooo there must have been a few of the IG 6 living in Ireland at that time.
Regards
Hamish

[Steelfab]

Thanks to Hamish who has sent me a copy of the film I have edited it and uploaded it to youTube for everyone to enyoy. Its only a short film but nevertheless fascinating to see the old machine in its glory and possibly the only footage still around on the old machine (?)

I am quite interested in finding out more about this company so going to embark on searching for information about the company and its products so if anyone has any information or pictures then please get in touch with me

http://www.youtube.com/v/lY2jBbRgOx8?fs=1&hl=en_GB&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6