JCB’s 800 Series Hydraulic Excavators #FlashbackFriday

As a youngster growing up in the in the 60’s and 70’s I spent a lot of time watching JCB construction equipment, not least because my father was a JCB operator throughout his long career.

JCB were always most famous for their backhoe loaders which have led the way forever as far as I’m concerned. But the innovative British manufacturer were always coming up with new machine designs to compete with other global construction machinery manufacturing giants.

Machines such as the 100 Series tracked loading shovels for instance, were way ahead of the game with the rear mounted engines and hydrostatic transmissions.

But it’s the 800 Series hydraulic excavators that always stick in my mind the most, as I used to have the glossy posters of them working in exotic locations across the world on my bedroom walls back in those days.

I even had at least two of these JCB 807B die cast models in my then extensive collection, wish I still had them today! My dad purchased these for me at the time from Berkeley JCB who were our local dealers based in Eastleigh, near Southampton.

Some years later in 1985 when I was operating a more modern 805B Turbo it had an issue which meant it had to go back to the dealers and so they lent our firm an older 807 as seen in the video below, I have to say, after spending a day on it with the sticks on the front console, you certainly knew you had done a shift! But they were very much a machine of their time it has to be said.

Leap forward to today, and the JCB X Series machines are at the cutting edge of hydraulic excavator design and performance.

Anyway, lets enjoy this trip down memory lane thanks to the archive department at JCB.