Hopto 200

[dayexco]

here is a picture of my dad's hopto 200. not sure of the exact year this was taken, but my guess is in mid, late 50's. he had it mounted on a ford cab over truck. that 54 international dump truck in the pic was dad's first dump and the one i learned to drive in. i bought the truck at his estate sale, he never sold it all those years. i had it repainted, used as kind of a "parade" truck for awhile, and got tired of it taking up shop space and sold it, now wish i'd had found a place for it

[Bill zimmerle]

Hi Dayexc
I am interested in old hopto backhoes. I have a model 105D this is a trailer mounted. It is restored and I showed it at the HCEA show in 2003. I have a master parts book for all Hopto's built by the Badger Machine Co. Till 1958 Showing all models. The 105D started with Serial# 100 mine is #289 anyone have a lower #? I would like to talk to other hopto owner's or other's with Interest.
Thanks Bill

[dayexco]

my dad got into the excavating biz in 47 after WW2. his first machine was a "badger" trencher, had that several years, and first hopto he had was a 180. i've never seen pics of that, but did see the 2-3 hopto 200's he had after that, and that he and my older brothers used to go to the winona, minnesota factory to pick them up. all of them were truck mounts. the last hopto he had was a 300, still a truck mount. it was an excavator, but would not rotate a full 360 degrees if i remember right. my brother in calif. has a bunch of literature on the 200's i think. he then switched to drott machines, had a 40 mounted on a ford twin screw truck. and the last was a tracked 50. that was a pretty decent machine. it was the one i learned to operate on.

[Bill zimmerle]

Hi Dayexco
My Dad started in the excavating bussiness 1955 with a fegurson TO 30 with Davis loader with Down pressure. 1957 a new JD420 with loader 1960 JD 440 with loader. I started in 1967 with TLDT 20 Michigan truck crane. I went to work for the City of Elkhart as Construction supervisor 1992. I have Case Davis Scatback loader 1976,1963 C350 Dragline Crane,Long 460 tractor. I sold a austin western back filler. and the fellow got me hooked on joining Historical Constrution Equipment Asociation I have been to 4 National Show's and met may other's interested in old equipment. Look's like badger made the hopto model 80 RTM then went to the model 180 RTM then The model 190 SPC Crawler 190 SPR Rubber they made their own carriers. I would really like to know if anyone knows of a 190 SPC or The 200 SPC I have lit on the warner swasey Hopto Model SPC 200 and the SPR 200, Hopto 500 truck mounted. Badger started making the model 360 in 1957 with serial # 100 it shows parts to Serial # 160 but could go higher. I have ad from 1957 showing the model 360.
Thanks Bill