JCB 100 Series Remembered Fondly: #ThrowbackThursday

Yesterday we reported on the current electric machine developments at JCB, today we take a look back to 1971 when the Staffordshire based manufacturer entered the then extremely competitive crawler loader market.

Our friends at JCB have released yet another fantastic old clip from the archives, this time focusing on the 100 Series crawler loaders, which were hydrostatically driven machines, with rear mounted engines, which were somewhat radical in design and a concept that was way ahead of its time, offering a much more well-balanced loader with exceptional visibility to the front end.

This design was set to become the benchmark for manufacturers in the coming years with Liebherr launching its LR 631 in the mid 1980’s and Caterpillar with the 963 model around the same time.

Three models were produced, the first being the 110 which was powered by a Perkins 4-cylinder 73hp diesel engine. This was followed in 1975 by the larger 112 model, with power again coming from a Perkins powerpack, this time a 6-cylinder lump offering a power output of 101hp. A year later and they introduced the largest model in the range, the 114 fitted with 126hp Perkins engine.

According to many commentators on social media, these machines were exceptionally fast across the ground especially on the turn, but as a result they did suffer from premature track wear, and were also quite prone to “throwing a track” if due care wasn’t taken.

I can’t personally comment on what they were like to operate, although I grew up during that era, and saw the odd example around, I never actually got the chance to use one in anger unfortunately.

These machines were eventually phased out of the JCB product line up in 1979 as the popularity of tracked shovels started to decline, even though, in certain applications, there is not much that can compete with them in terms of production in the right hands.

Checkout JCB’s excellent old footage below.