Wheel loaders, also known as front end or bucket loaders, are used primarily for material handling, digging, road building, site preparation and load-and-carry. Starting as small agricultural tractors outfitted with a loader bucket to transport light materials, these machines evolved, first as rigid frame wheel loaders in the late 1930s, then to articulated wheel loaders in the 1940s.
As wheel loaders increased in size, safety concerns arose, particularly concerning the positioning of the loader pivot arm. These concerns ledto the adoption of a front mounted pivot in the late 1950s. Hough was one of the first manufacturers to produce a wheel loader with a safer design, followed quickly by Caterpillar, Case and Allis-Chalmers. Today's wheel loaders are comprised of a pivoted frame with the engine mounted over the rear wheels. A cab or canopy rests over the frame. The machine's pivot arrangement gives the wheel loader the ability to work in small turning circles.
Hills Machinery and Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Inc. (HCMA) recently established a partnership to market the Hitachi excavator and wheel loader equipment lines.
Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas will display its HL930A wheel loader at Booth 1021 at this year's SIMA (Snow & Ice Management Association) tradeshow June 23 and 24 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee.
Offering long-term durability in a wide range of applications, the new Cat 966 GC wheel loader is designed for reliable, performing and efficient operation.
Wacker Neuson's new articulated wheel loader, the WL28, is a versatile material handling machine that is compact in size, but big on features.
Building on the success of the Cat M-Series compact wheel loaders, the new Next Generation Cat 906, 907 and 908 wheel loaders boast a reengineered operator's station, leveraging exclusive Cat technologies to improve operator experience and provide larger wheel loader model comfort on a smaller platform.
Volvo Construction Equipment has launched new functions on its wheel loader productivity software, Load Assist.
Doosan Infracore North America is introducing three additional models of its next-generation -7 Series wheel loaders in the United States and Canada.
John Deere is bolstering its wheel loader lineup with the 904 P-Tier wheel loader. Available later in 2022, the new 904 P-Tier is a two-pass loader solution that provides the durability and reliability to take on processed aggregate stockpiles and more efficiently load trucks or rail cars all day long, according to the manufacturer.
Yanmar Compact Equipment's line of compact wheel loaders, which includes the V4-7, V8, V10 and V12, are built for maximum efficiency and ease of operation.
FPT Industrial announced at the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo that it has approved B20 biodiesel for use in its NEF4, NEF 6 and CURSOR Tier IV Final diesel engines.