Lakesdigger
Member
Jcb haven't changed the basic design that much or a lot of the major components. What they have done is added complicated electrics etc driven by the customer wanting more bells and whistles like the competitors have, the same competitors who may have added bells and whistles to try to make you buy their arguably inferior to many people machine. Problem is add the additional stuff which maybe isn't as reliable to the general niggly stuff that jcbs have always had and they start to get a bad name. IF you get a good one with jcb it'll be bad to beat imho. Despite having a jcb telehandler (construction spec basic as) I am definitely not a jcb fanboy btw before anyone thinks that. Telehandler is about the only machine they make i would have.I'm not a fan of hydrosatics and haven't driven a Merlo for a while now but the Claas and Kramer aren't in the same league as our old 536-60 which I think was the best JCB made. The new JCBs I haven't tried yet but I can't think they dropped the ball that badly.
Everyone expects or wants some major leap forward but in reality as a working machine if ur happy with what you've had you just want something to do the job as well as it did. You can't keep reinventing the wheel (even though jcbs marketing dept tell you that on a weekly basis).