The Classic Machinery Network

Hehe that is good Nick!

Well after yesterday evening/night I dont want to hear the name "Mariestads" no more.. if you know what I mean!

Haha! Niklas is going to wake up sunday morning wearing what we call a concrete cap!

Nothing of that for me as I´ll be working with the new roof on my house tomorrow (as I did today). And my excavator will be preparing a 141 m2 foundation for a new house tomorrow, driven by a rented driver (my dad!).

AAAHHH! NOW I see! It took me two Veltins Beer to see that the undercarriage was missing

Hello!

Here is a link of an old Ã…kerman 700 standing in Schweiz. The link is taken from bauforum24 in Germany.

http://forum.bauforum24.biz/forum/index ... opic=14627

Lars-Gunnar

IBH wrote:Nice photos.
Ive always had the impression Akerman excavators didnt take much market share here in the UK, even under the ownership of VME and latterly Volvo Construction Equipment and that Akerman excavators were very strong, robust, sturdy machines but lacked some of the cutting edge technology and design of their Japenese and other european competitors.

Since Volvo bought Samsung their current excavators seem to combine the robustness of former Akerman machines with modern Korean technology to produce a very successfull range.

Up until the early 80's Akermans were pretty much up there technically with any manufacturer; one of the first to use servo controls (one of the first if not the first to test electro-hydraulic controls although never installed), design quick fits and provide cab comfort that was back then second to none. They didn't though venture into electronic management systems soon enough and by the late 80's were dated in comparison to Japenese designs.

Within their weight classes I never knew anything that could out-dig them in hard ground. The H series were often referred to as slow but that depended on the material type. On an easy dig Cat's 200 series would run rings round em but get into something that required real muscle and it was very much the other way round. H25 was the worst in the range in terms of reliability but it could dig material that a 245 could barely touch.

Everything about them was heavy and although they could be prone to boom and stick cracks, certainly to some extent that was due to their power.

Akermans pricing wasn't really suited to the UK plant hire market but they were pretty popular with contractors. Sometimes we'd receive quotes and the asking price was higher than Cat and sometimes a bit less, I guess depending on stock, but in any case they never came cheap. If they had it's doubtful that say JCB would have sold more 808s than Akermans would have the tad heavier H12.

As a company Akermans had balls so off they went to try and conquer the US, but to try and establish a dealership network that could rival Cat was never going to happen; this quest all but broke the bank so no investment. Maybe Volvo could have done more to turn them around but that was gonna take some doing by the late 80's.

3 Akerman H16Ds still going in one location - don't see that every day!

Nice pics Rob can I ask where these machines are located?

Jeremy

That's a good advert for Ackerman , shame they are no more

It is a real shame!

The site is very close to Dortmund. The main reason for 3 is because parts are becoming more difficult to get hold of and the owner does not want to run anything else. They all run well and the 2 I jumped on for while felt as tight as you could ever hope for:)