Benati Another Taste of Italy: Blog Post Re-Visited

by Nick Drew | Wed 21 Nov 2018

Benati Another Taste of Italy: Blog Post Re-Visited

There has been a long standing association with building hydraulic excavators in Italy and in this post we take another look back at Italian brand Benati.

The business was founded as far back as 1887 by Andrea Benati starting out producing crude wooden plough's with iron strengtheners. By the 1930’s the company had evolved further and was producing agricultural implements to fit tractors. Manufacturing of these work tools continued well into the 1950’s. But following a takeover of the business by Renato Bacchini the company was rebranded to Benati Spa and moved into the design and manufacture of construction equipment. In 1961 the company launched its first hydraulic excavator, the 8 tonne class MAX70 followed a year later by the MAX80 model. In this photo courtesy of Maskinisten.net we see a surviving MAX80 which it has to be said is a crude looking beast to say the least. Benati MAX 80

Machine production continued through the 60’s and 80’s with many new models being launched during that time including this 160 BEN HD model. This machine would have been built in the company’s main factory at Imola, one of four factories that the company eventually had up and running. Imola went on to become a manufacturing facility for Fiat-Hitachi who had taken a controlling interest in Benati in 1989.

Check out this video of a surviving Benati BEN 160 CS machine (minus its cab) which is still in operation today. The 1973 model is powered by a 6 cylinder Perkins lump of some 110hp.

It’s great to see these ageing excavators still working and during trips to Italy myself I am always on the lookout for them on my travels. As well as Benati other famous Italian makes from years gone by include, Bruneri, Colmar, Eurocomach, FAI (now Komatsu), Fiat (in its various guises) Gallmac, Hinowa, Hydromac, Laltesi and Simit just to name a few. In this video we see a collection of archive photos featuring milestones in the Benati company's history.

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