Recently we were minding our business, rolling down the road, when we spied this neat old orange beast. This is a really cool machine made by the long dead Scoopmobile company. Aside from having a name that sounds like a child’s toy, the company innovated many features of large equipment that we still see today.
Speaking on this particular loader, we’re looking at an Scoopmobile LD-350 that we believe dates from the 1960s. It is packing a four cubic yard bucket up front and a 220hp Cummins six in the aft section. The loader also features some unique styling cues that were the result of the most imprtant facet of the machine. That facet? The ability to articulate.
Scoopmobiles (you know you love saying that) were the first ever articulating large loaders. Prior to Scoopmobile rolling this technology out in the early 1950’s most large front end loaders used rear steering that was limited to a few degrees of turning ability on its best day. Tractors with that setup had a turning radius like a cruise ship. Why does that matter? Money, that’s why.
Loaders make their dough by their ability to “cycle” quickly. What’s a cycle? Scoop, turn, line up, dump, scoop, rinse, lather, and repeat. Old machines with the horrid turning radius would take a long time cycling, whereas the far more manuverable Scoopmobile could move volumes more material and load significantly more trucks in the same time.
Like all new innovations, it was years before people starting taking advantage of it, but when they did, the design and construction of large loaders changed forever. There’s nothing but articulating loaders out there in the world of large equipment today.
Scoopmobile had a good run as a company spanning from the 1920s through the late 1960s when they were bought up by Westinghouse Air Brake’s construction division. The machines were then sold under the Wabco name.
We know that construction equipment isn’t eveyone’s thing, but we really dig the fact that all of this stuff, from cars to tractors, has cool history. Admit it, you’d never even heard of Scoopmobile before today!
Did this beast appear to still be in use?