Day two of ICUEE was radically different than day one. There was sunshine and smiling faces; the aisles were filled with attendees; the demonstration machines were roaring; dirt was flying; and people were talking about buying equipment. The air was filled with a positive attitude and optimism.
The first press event of the day was bright and early at 7:30 AM. JCB introduced a new zero tail swing excavator, the 8065 along with a package of light equipment to the North American market. (See new products for more details on both).
Shortly after this event, and on the other side of the lot we went to an introduction of Oyden’s plug-in hybrid power system for utility fleet trucks. The system uses lead-acid batteries that store electric energy and release it as needed while the vehicle is shut down. The company currently has three systems: the 10 kW system that provides up to 2 hours of continuous operation; the 18 kW series that delivers up to 3 hours of uninterrupted service; and the 9 kW system that is currently the highest capacity system offered.
We got to meet and talk with Jim Blekicki, distribution superintendent, for the Grand Haven, MI Board of Light and Power, a Michigan municipal utility company that purchased the first 18 Series unit in the state. They will be taking delivery of the unit shortly and have scheduled a press conference announcing the acquisition next week Friday in the beautiful city of Grand Haven. More will follow on the units as well as on the press event.
Following this activity it was hopping back across the outside lots to the other side for a booth visit with McLaughlin and an opportunity to meet their new products that included a new cradle boring machine; a new Xtreme line of vacuum excavators and a new steering head for auger bores. Check the new products section in a day or so for details on all of these intoductions.
We went to the Ditch Witch booth where we were introduced to a series of new products including a track update for the Zahn.
Other introductions included the XT 855; the RT115 Quad; the JT100 All Terrain; the PT20/PT30; the RT80; the RT45; the PR100;MT45 and a few other products. If you’re wondering what all these machines are or do, you should have come to the show. We would have made room and squeezed you in… actually, we understand. You will get to read all about these machines in the next couple of days.
Our next visit took us across the aisle to the ASTEC/American auger booth where we were inundated with string a new machines that included augers, drills, trenchers and virtually updates or new products for the company’s entire product lineup. Over the next couple of days we will go through the whole listing of these important product introductions.
We moved across another aisle to the Vermeer booth for a one-on-one with Vermeer staff for up close introductions to the company’s new products that included the S800tx; the RTX 550; a direct look at the windmill-farm cable plow, tha we covered recently in a product introduction; and an opportunity to see the new laser-guided underground boring machine. The Australian inventor of the system was there as were the new owners of the first rig sold in the U.S. Again, more on these over the next couple of days.
We left Vermeer and ended up back across the outdoor lots at the Stellar booth for a look at a new line of cranes controlled by Crane Dynamic Technology, a Stellar innovation that provides crane operators direct control over their lifts. Right, you’ll have to wait to read the details on this one too.
It back outside and inside for the last day of the show. There are no scheduled events but we still have several one-on-one visits scheduled and then we hope to have time to walk the floor and see what we missed and you can be certain we missed a lot.