The machines we use every day are some of the toughest pieces of kit you’ll find, built to keep working and earning for decades. Here are some of the best vintage machines we’ve come across.
While everybody loves a new machine with all the modern bells and whistles, it’s fun to take a look back at the way our diggers used to be. These beasts of burden come from a simpler time, a time before GPS guidance and heated air suspension seats.
Our man Ron Horner is a sucker for the old iron, and loves getting to know these classic machines and the characters that run them.
5 classic vintage machines
1979 Kato 550G excavator
Kato used to be a much bigger name in Australia, and were the first brand to bring excavators down under. This 550G was found sitting on a Queensland farm kitted out with swamp tracks. “What is significant is that this would have to be one of the first original swamp tracked excavators bought into Australia in the mid-to-late 1970s or early ’80s and (although not confirmed) it seems to have been worked as one of the first hydraulic swamp excavators on the Gold Coast during the peak of the canal developments in that era,” Ron says.
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Allis Chalmers DD Model grader
Caterpillar 633C scraper
1982 Komatsu D65E-6 dozer
O&K RH6 excavator
O&K is an ancient name in the earthmoving business, manufacturing cable-operated excavators since the early part of the twentieth century. The group was one of the only companies to then make the jump to manufacturing hydraulic machinery. This particular O&K is the RH6 model from the early 1970s. “This particular classic machine weighs in at about 16 tonnes in weight and is powered by an air-cooled 5-cylinder Deutz engine, which was very popular in some European designed machines back in the day,” says Ron.
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