Why do vintage excavators have the boom on the left?

[Metalman 55]

Is that a 710 in the background?

I don't know.....we were on vacation in rural New Hampshire when I spotted the Insley H875 alongside the road & had to stop! It had been 40+ years since I sat in the seat of one of these!!

 

[skyking1]

I had forgotten, the 1500 was the first excavator I ran and it was right side drive.

 

[Truck Shop]

 

[pjflyer]

Speaking of Insley, I just resurrected an 875 from a local guy getting too old to work on them. Engine (Detroit 471) was seized, had to repack a cylinder, change a hose or two, scrape/wash 30 years of dirt and grease off, weld up the cracks I found and repin the tracks. Enlarged one of our ponds with it, so it's time for a hydraulic fluid change (never seen it look like milk). The plan was to use it a bit to see if it still has life before doing the fluid change. Works for what we do!

 

[pjflyer]

A couple more pics.

 

[skyking1]

sweet rig!

 

[Tones]

Early on excavators had mechanical controls to the hydraulic banks and the front of the engines on the right-hand side. My guess is that keeping all the hydraulics on the left made it easier to manufacture. The early Hitachis also had rods going from the control banks to the pumps to control the swash plates ,again another reason for left mounted cabs.

 

[pjflyer]

Early on excavators had mechanical controls to the hydraulic banks and the front of the engines on the right-hand side

True, I've seen a Hein/Werner H12D with push rods to the valve banks, and push/pull cables on Insley's. The cables would have to be even longer if it were on the other side. I changed an Insley 560B to push rods because the cables were very hard to move. It was easier and much cheaper than replacing 7 large push/pull cables ($$$).

Who knows, maybe there wasn't any particular reason at all, just the easy or logical way to design it!