JCB Issues Special Platinum Edition Backhoes to Celebrate 70 Years of Backhoe Production

Company founder Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE invented the backhoe concept, the company said, and the first JCB model was manufactured in 1953 after he combined a lightweight backhoe with a Major Loadall tractor loader.

Michael Roth

Dec. 27, 2023

3 min read

658bb0c1f6436b001e6bab8c Jcb 70year Backhoe

JCB is celebrating 70 years of manufacturing its iconic backhoe loader with the unveiling of platinum editions of the 3CX and 4CX models. Company founder Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE invented the backhoe concept, the company said, and the first JCB model was manufactured in 1953 after he combined a lightweight backhoe with a Major Loadall tractor loader. It created, for the first time, a single machine which combined a front shovel and rear excavator arm.

While it took 20 years for JCB to build 50,000 backhoes, under the leadership of JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford, more than 900,000 have now been made. JCB has been world market leader for backhoes for almost 25 years and today manufactures them in the U.K., India and Brazil. A total of 70 limited-edition 70th birthday 3CX PRO and 4 CX PRO machines will be manufactured.

Lord Bamford said: “The backhoe loader is an incredibly versatile machine, and thanks to continued innovation and evolution, it remains just as relevant today as the day it was first invented. The JCB backhoe loader remains one of the most popular pieces of construction equipment in the world, and it has a very exciting future ahead of it.”

The Platinum Edition models will have servo excavator controls, Powerslide, air conditioning and bi-directional auxiliary flow hydraulics. The machines will also have limited edition platinum decals and grill badge and platinum-colored wheels. The cab will have an embroidered graphic in the carpet and upgraded seat material with 70^th anniversary branding, along with a steering wheel center cap featuring the 70^th logo. Each machine will also have a special plaque, and customers will receive a special platinum gift pack with the backhoe loader.

Over the last seven decades JCB has continued to develop and enhance the backhoe loader concept, with turbocharged engines, powershift transmissions, all-wheel drive and extending dipper arms. The machine has broadened in appeal, with the launch of the skid-steer-based 1CX, the all-wheel steer 3CX Compact and the larger 4CX and 5CX equal-sized wheel machines.

For more information, visit www.jcb.com.

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.