Mini-est Manitou

When it comes to shifting stuff around in tight spaces, the instinctive tool of choice either tends to be a skid-steer or compact pivot-steer loader. But that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case. Although few show up in the ag world, most of the big players in the materials handling game build scaled-down telehandlers, purpose-designed for getting around awkward construction sites, mines and industrial installations.

It’s just such attributes that Manitou believes could be of benefit to farming operations where cramped conditions pose a perennial problem in getting bulk materials moved. To that end, last year the French firm introduced an ag spec version of its smallest rigid chassis loader – the MLT420-60H. As the numbers stamped on the side of it suggest, it’s a 4m reach machine capable of lifting a maximum of 2t. The second set of digits denote that there’s a Kubota motor of almost 60hp under the hood driving a hydrostatic transmission – hence the ‘H’.

The 420 forms part