The 3CX Compact is certainly a little vehicle with big capabilities, providing 75% of the lift capacity of a 3CX. “We spoke to many customer groups and the best description we got was, ‘We need a little big machine.’ So we said, ‘What on Earth’s a little big machine?’ And they said, ‘Well, just imagine a machine that could do pretty much the same as the large machine – maybe 10% or 20% less in terms of its duty – but you just need to shrink it down, because working environments are now tighter and more challenging.'”
Tim Burnhope, JCB’s chief innovation and growth officer for the UK, takes up the story of the 3CX Compact’s conception.
As Bamford says, “More and more of our customers have been telling us that they need a backhoe loader that is smaller, simply because they are operating in congested towns and cities and on narrow streets.” As company chairman Lord Anthony Bamford says, “It was the backhoe loader that built JCB into the company it is today and made us famous around the world.”īut rather than resting on its laurels, JCB prides itself on achieving resilient performance in the face of uncertain market conditions by producing machines fully equipped for the future, through a policy of continuous innovation. Such has been the company’s success that nearly half of all backhoe loaders sold worldwide are JCB-made and the name JCB has entered the language as a generic term for a backhoe in the UK and also in India, where almost 75% of all backhoes sold in 2016 were JCBs. The 3CX Compact is 35% smaller than the 3CX and aims to bring the performance of its full-sized older sibling to groundworkers and municipalities working in confined or congested building sites, particularly in urban areas such as London, where UK construction is growing most rapidly.Įarly pioneers of the backhoe loader concept, JCB began the first UK backhoe production operation in 1953. A direct successor to the 2CX tool carrier and essentiallyĪ scaled-down little brother of the 3CX backhoe loader, JCB’s new 3CX Compact tool carrier, billed by JCB as an innovative solution for the construction site of the future, looks set to perform strongly in 2017.