Most presents fit under the tree, but three I’ve been lucky enough to receive this year require a 500-acre quarry called Kevin. Located in the Staffordshire countryside, this industrial playground has, despite its name, a serious purpose as the home of JCB Research, the digger manufacturer’s development centre, where tomorrow’s machines are put through their paces.
It’s also the home of JCB Demonstration, where the company shows off its new vehicles to customers as well as to scribes like me who have seen diggers pushing earth around and reckon driving one is as easy as falling off a log. Well, after a day spent doing just that, I’m here to tell you that it ain’t. Never again will I walk past a Backhoe Loader, the digger that JCB has been making for almost 70 years, slightly less than the company has been in existence (it was founded by Joseph Cyril Bamford in 1945), with nothing but respect for its operator.
If you think patting your head and rubbing your belly is hard, you want to try operating a Backhoe’s joystick controls. There are two, and on the Backhoe, they operate the boom and dipper (the two jointed arms) and bucket or shovel and, depending on the model, have buttons and switches controlling features such as gear selection, diff lock and power boost. Each works in left and right as well as fore and aft planes. If it’s one of JCB’s tracked diggers, there will also be a couple of hand- and foot-operated levers for steering the vehicle.
To the right of the driver are panels of switches that control functions such as engine revs, bucket lock and unlock, travel speed and heating and ventilation. Depending on the model, two switches ahead of the driver deploy the vehicle stabilisers for uneven ground.
In short, a modern JCB is a technical tour de force that, despite its uncannily smooth operation and excellent ergonomics, requires a good deal of practice to master to the point that it feels like an extension of the driver. A driver such as Matt Lucas (no, not that Matt Lucas), JCB Demonstration’s team leader. In his hands, a goliath such as the 220X LC, the firm’s newest tracked excavator, can be as gentle and precise as a surgeon. “I could comb your hair with it,” he tells me as he deftly skims the ground with its 600kg bucket. Thank God I’m going bald.
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Brexiter Sir Anthony Bamford has put all his workers closer to poverty. Giving Boris bungs via JCB and himself, he wanted to see his workers paid less, and that's exactly what he did.
He's taken away his workers rights, and freedoms, just for what? $4.5bn wasn't enough for him?
If I were in a position where I needed to buy this type of machinery (and I once was) I'd buy anything but JCB. Bamford wants to put me in to poverty and badly affect my business and livelihood so I will not be helping him.
Happy new year, get some sour grapes for christmas did we.
The sharp end, Happy new Year to you all by the way, anyway JCB, the humble London Taxi, the double decker Bus, all seen all over the Planet, I couldn't name another brand that make diggers etc, they've all brought money, investment into the UK, it's not directly a Government that has lost jobs, and what we're reading about is, how they work, how a complete novice can just about operate them, and also showing an EV machine too, let's leave politics at the Door,and talk about cars.
Let me know how much of your income you would be willing to give up for Bamford and for Boris's Brexit.
And will you then be compensating those who you've put out of work or take business away from?
Just give it a rest and stop bringing in politics to car articles, save the brexit argument for another site. Get it?
Get over yourself. You really need to.
Thats obviously why so many want to work for jcb , I live nr kevin quarry and several jcb factories and the area would only have alton towers and there modest wages , Gordon brown and Blair decimated the Mills in Leek with the cheap textiles he wanted to reduce inflation , he keep rates in the building trade down by allowing unchecked immigration, and persuaded the youth to go to university instead of vocational trades , while at the same time limiting places for doctors and nurses to again promote immigration , bamsfords pay some of the best money around here , spose your one of the 53 of 56 who failed the drug test a few yesterday ago to work there and fell bitter ?..