The Classic Machinery Network

Hello there, new to this forum and just wondered if there were any Lewis Badger owners around here, or do we need to be in a mini digger forum ??
Anyway I bought one last year for a self build project and it's turned out to be an excellent little machine, seems to punch above it's 3t weight as well, easy to operate, some nice design features, and so far very reliable too.
It's a 1994 model and the last owner had done quite a bit of quality restoration work so it's in pretty good condition, all electrics work as well, cost me £7500.
Have attached a couple of pictures for anyone interested :

Hi Sandy, welcome along.
I've not seen one of these before but it would definitely be on my toybox wish list.

Thanks, yes a nice toy and must admit I've grown quite attached to my Badger.

Lewis are/were a fairly small UK company who make a lot of attachments for compact tractors, including back hoes and loaders, I think they might have been taken over now by another company.
They made 3 versions of the Badger, mine is the first with a Ford 27hp engine, the Mk3 below had a 47hp Isuzu engine I think, have added a picture of it below.
Lewis also made a special lightweight trailer for the badger which gave a total towing weight of just under 3.5t.

Some more info here :







Latest one is called a Kombi-Dig, the Mk4 I guess.

Hi Sandy and welcome to the site that is a nice little but rare machine that you have there I have only seen one of these machines in the flesh and that was being used on grave digging duties; I would imagine that the small company who make these would not have a high production capacity hence they are rare.

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy.

To be honest I never knew they existed until I saw this one for sale on Gumtree, and it just looked ideal for my needs and which has turned out to be the case.
I had originally been thinking it would be a choice between a JCB 2CX or maybe an MF 40 if I could find anything at a decent price, or my other thought was something like a Kubota with fitted loader and backhoe, although they did seem a bit on the small side for any real digging etc to be honest.
Anyway very happy with it, and I think I'll be keeping it for a while now.
As you say they are quite rare, but parts still seem to be fairly readily available which is good.

Another couple of pics :

What a tidy little machine. I did not realise they are 4wd.

Yes 4wd was standard, all in all quite a well equipped and thought out machine really, basically like a scaled down 3CX I would say.

I think if it were to be parked in a field without anything near it as a perspective reference, it could easily be mistaken for a JCB.
Mind you, if I happened across it in a field - it wouldn't be there long!!!

Nice, I always thought they looked very neat , were they built on a compact tractor skid unit or are they all Lewis ?

Craig

Hi Craig,

It's built around a Ford compact tractor, not sure which one exactly but it's 27 hp.
Later ones had a 47hp Isuzu engine I believe, which I imagine gives things quite a boost.

Sandy