I’m continuiing to confirm  my impression from yesterday that the engine makers will be in a pitched battle at the big Bauma show in April. An example: Scania doesn’t sell a lot of engines in the U.S. but it has its sights set on making a better impression when the U.S. market leaves the door open a crack. The company will have 9-, 13-, and 16-liter engines at Bauma in April.

Doosan will of course be sharing its big outdoor booth at Bauma in April, one that includes a big demonstration area. Doosan will exhibit its 490 and 530 excavators. Bobcat willl show its 500 platform  skid steers (five of  them) and a track loader model. Doosan Portaable Power will show two new generators and two new ccompressors.

LiuGong will be a BIG presence at bauma in April. The company will bring three new excavators to its 3,000 square meters of outdoor exhibition space including the 45 metric ton 945 E. This is a much larger version of the 922 E  launched at Intermat in Paris last spring. Two other new models that expand the 922 will be here, the 930 E and the 925 E. The hefty 945 E is Liu Gong’s largest excavator. The company will also demonstrate its skid steers (although the emphasis here will be largely on the European models especially the 375 B and the 385 B). LiuGong will have a full range of products including the a motor grader and four rollers.

I literally did a double take on this one. Not like OMG, but nonetheless something that at first sight seems rather ordinary and predictable but in fact has some very cool characteristics. Hinowa is displaying its Minitransportrer (water-cooled Kubota engine) at Bauma in April, and the Italian company has taken a basic functional, predictable ho-hum product and given it some, well, flair. It’s a motorized bucket and scoop. It has a zero-turn radius so its something you use on job sites (especially interior jobs or really tight spots), to load and dispose/clear junk, but it also feels like a very small wheel loader. There are three models: a basic one you load yourself, a self-loader (using a front blade/scoop) and a self-loader with an extra lift capacity of six feet so you can use it to load trucks. It’s a one-metric-ton tracked vehicle, but the tracks can be spread, together or alone, with hydraulic pistons in the undercarriage so you can create a wider, safer footprint for work. A relatively long wheelbase adds to its job site stability and lift capacity. The company touts its easy-access maintain door, and also concedes that the rental market is its probable U.S. destination.

Finally,Manitou will hit Bauma running in April, highlighting its display with an upgrade to the three-in-one Rotative Telescopic Handler. As the company says “It’s a crane, it’s a telehandler, it’s a platform.” The machine now comes with a Mercedes engine and an attachments recognition system to make using and changing attachments easier. It now also comes with an automatic stabilization pattern that reads the terrain and automatically creates the most stable base in setting the stabilizers. There’s a new color display monitor and a see-through roof that lets operators always see the boom as they work. The company will also have its rough terrain forklift in its latest iteration at its booth. That booth will also feature Gehl and Mustang products.