Mystery backhoe loader spotted

[Nick Drew]

Easy just ask IBH he's bound to know.

Jeremy

Yeh IBH !! of course He is CMN's version of the Stig ...an international man of mystery but font of all knowledge on the machinery side of things !

Come on IBH put us all out of our misery

Nick

[IBH]

In the first photo I can just make out a red JCB logo on the backhoe however i'm adament that this is not a JCB.
My gut feeling is its an Italian backhoe loader Benati or FAI.

Benati, note similarity in loader arms.

[Nick Drew]

Yes IBH,

I thought FAI in the first instance ...thats why I asked if it were Italian ???

[newjcb123uk]

How about VENIERI ?

[usedjcbdave]

Ok,some excellent guesses but the machine is actually a .................... Hinomoto which JCB evaluated several years ago as a one off prototype.It has a Hinomoto 3 cylinder engine with 6 speed box.The machine is still used daily with a local land drainage company.

Thank god for that !! This has been driving me nuts

Very interesting thread though David thanks for starting it !

Nick

[newjcb123uk]

Ok,some excellent guesses but the machine is actually a .................... Hinomoto which JCB evaluated several years ago as a one off prototype.It has a Hinomoto 3 cylinder engine with 6 speed box.The machine is still used daily with a local land drainage company.

Ahem - prototypes are really interesting

Hinomoto was the trade name for tractors produced by Toyosha, of Japan. Toyosha can trace its roots to plows built by Denzou Tanoue in 1863. Hinomoto compact tractors appeared in the late 1950s and have been exported worldwide. In 1990, Toyosha was purchased by Hitachi Construction Machinery. Hitachi changed the trade name to Tierra in 1997.

[IBH]

This is intriguing, firstly I never knew about Hinomoto producing a backhoe loader and if its a prototype why were JCB testing it? And why it it carrying JCB logos?
I know that manufacturers regularly test their machines against those of competitors but were JCB doing this or testing on behalf of Hinomoto and if so were JCB going to market the machine?

Last but not least, is that a genuine photo above and even if its is real it does look like a Britains toy

[newjcb123uk]

Hi IBH whenever I was on placement with JCB 1991 I saw a number of competitors machines in various nooks and cranies around the factory.For JCB to be confident to produce a machine better than anyone else the only way to do it is buy whats already on the market and use/replicate/improve the already proven tehnology and then incorporate these aspects in an improved manner in their own products. JCB do come up with orginal and ground breaking concepts but then so do other manufacturers as well. The reason for putting JCB logos on these type of machines is really to allow them to blend in their surrounding JCB environment in disguise. Bit like the way the car industry covers up and hides parts of cars on test tracks that they haven't launched to the public yet.

Joe Bamford didn't come up with the idea of the digger - he only improved upon (albeit on a legendary scale) a machine that he saw on a trip to switzerland.