Tilt rotators on excavators

[doobin]

5 hours ago, lux said:

You’re really stretching the excuses for not taking your missus on holiday for another year mate 😉 

 

Somewhat ironic. We had a romantic weekend in Yorkshire in the camper van....

 

 

 

...because that's where I had to go to collect the tilty!

[lux]

3 hours ago, doobin said:

Somewhat ironic. We had a romantic weekend in Yorkshire in the camper van....

 

 

 

...because that's where I had to go to collect the tilty!

did you keep quiet about the tilty and then surprise her saying "I've just seen this on the local Facebook pages.. what are the chances eh" 😂 

[John Shutler]

10 hours ago, doobin said:

It’s the cost. They are silly expensive. 
 

I went down the route of purchasing mini loaders rather than tiltrotators for my diggers and I reckon that’s made me a lot more profit. If I only did excavations it might be a different story. 
 

tilty prices have gone mad in the last few years. At the end of 2019 I had a quote from engcon for an ec02 and top hitches to share between a 2.7t and 1.7t- see pic. Nearly 9k for the unit, two top hitches and three buckets. That would now cost you around £15k. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. 
 

after three years of waiting, I’ve finally picked one up second hand. £3k. Great you say. But adding three buckets and a two top hitches is another £4k, and then I’ve got to spend a bit more and a lot of sweat and workshop time converting any ‘standard’ buckets I want to use in the future, as everything needs to be s30 hitch, even if direct mounted to the top hitch. Should have just bought it in 2019! Easy to say that, but 9k in machinery in 2019 seemed a lot more expensive than it does now post covid and inflation. 
 

plus that price was for an ‘ss1’ control system, whatever that is. This secondhand tilty I’ve bought is a ‘dumb’ tilty just with four pipes- although it does have the ports through its slew ring for a grab plus it has a hydraulic hitch which is good. 
 

I can see why people just buy a new digger on finance with engcon fitted and a bucket set on the finance too! This had better be worth it. 
 

I specced both my e27 and e19 to be optimised for both a grab and rotator and possible future tiltrotator when I bought them. Twin auxiliaries with joystick rollers, extra counterweight each and a short dipper on the e19. If anyone is thinking about a new digger but not wanting to commit to a tiltrotator just yet, think about how you spec it would be my advice. At the very least start off with an s-type hitch and buckets. Wish i had! I share an oddball pin centre between all three diggers, if it has been s30 I’d have saved a few k in time and hassle now. 

 

 

you won't go far wrong with engcon (though all the brands are much of a muchness). The service from Engcon UK is fantastic. Ive had my latest engcon for 3 and a half years without a single problem, got to site today to find an error code and a non responsive engcon. Few phonecalls back and forth with ideas on how to get it sorted to keep me working and replacement parts sent out (pressure sensor and a new cable) today to be with me in the morning. you can't ask for more than that IMO. 

[slack ma girdle]

So far what has put me off:

Price

Weight, when pulling whole trees around weight at the end of the boom is important, or shearing trees,  my lift capacity will drop to almost zero.

They are not designed for pulling whole trees about.

[monkeybusiness]

22 minutes ago, slack ma girdle said:

So far what has put me off:

Price

Weight, when pulling whole trees around weight at the end of the boom is important, or shearing trees,  my lift capacity will drop to almost zero.

They are not designed for pulling whole trees about.

That’s all mine do.

[gdh]

I've got a tilt hitch on our 8 tonner and I would have one again but there are trade offs. Obviously there's the big cost but it also adds weight and a lot of unwanted leverage when digging, especially on rock.

 

It's noticeably more length when you're using a free hanging grab as well but it does balance out by giving you a bit of extra movement at the end.

 

It's strange how different countries do things. I saw the other day that America doesn't use pick up hitches on tractors, they have to jack everything up which seems weird to me.

[doobin]

2 hours ago, slack ma girdle said:

So far what has put me off:

Price

Weight, when pulling whole trees around weight at the end of the boom is important, or shearing trees,  my lift capacity will drop to almost zero.

They are not designed for pulling whole trees about.

 

2 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

That’s all mine do.

I’m sure they are strong enough but I’m just going to change my current grab and rotator combo to s30 and keep using that. No point abusing the engcon when I know the current rotator will take it, plus the grab ports through the tiltrotator are tiny, I reckon it would slow down the grab too much. 
 

and then the tiltrotator can be on the e19 when the grab and rotator is on the e27

[John Shutler]

3 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

That’s all mine do.

and mine

[Slicer Dicer]

I have 4 diggers and yes  I'd like one of them to be tilty equipped for the right jobs but equally would want the other 3 to remain as they are. I want maximum lift and height  capacity and wouldn't want to sacrifice any break out force either so for me it's all about having the right machine for the job. I have a Kinshofer rotating grab on biggest machine I have and the rotator does not like pulling big boulders around etc so think an engcon would suffer same problem.

[doobin]

10 hours ago, Slicer Dicer said:

I have 4 diggers and yes  I'd like one of them to be tilty equipped for the right jobs but equally would want the other 3 to remain as they are. I want maximum lift and height  capacity and wouldn't want to sacrifice any break out force either so for me it's all about having the right machine for the job. I have a Kinshofer rotating grab on biggest machine I have and the rotator does not like pulling big boulders around etc so think an engcon would suffer same problem.

A top hitch is the soloution.