JCB’s ARTIC Backhoe Loader concept

Recently came across a great photo of the 4CX ARTIC posted on the Facebook group of the highly respected French machinery forum Technique TP, by its legendary founder Herve Exca, which triggered my memory of this machine which never made it into full production.

The influential Herve, once worked for JCB as a demonstrator and test operator back in the day, and was one of the lucky ones who got to test drive a prototype of this machine which were built back in the late 1980’s. According to Herve, one of these machines was assigned to France, where in true JCB style, it was tested in complete secrecy for many months.

Photo: Courtesy of The JCB Golden Jubilee Album by Michael D. J. Irwin.

One of the UK based prototypes was first revealed to the general public in April 1988 at the SED (Site Equipment Demonstration) which was held at Whipsnade, it later made an appearance as a concept at the Intermat Show in Paris, as seen in the colour photo above. For reasons unknown the concept was abandoned in favour of a new version of the 4CX 4x4x4 model.

I searched high and low for some video footage of this machine in action, but was not able to find anything, if anyone knows differently I'd be delighted to hear from you!