Show us your Arb Diggers please.

[John Shutler]

 

Grab arrived this afternoon, getting it welded onto the boom on the way to a job then it's on big chipper feeding duty for a couple of days

[briquette_seller]

Disappointed,was waiting for a demo .

 

On the subject of diggers got a call at 7am asking for help dig a footing out That I priced up , I was to expensive so he dug it by hand and building inspector told him it was not deep enough and he now wants me to dig him out of trouble . I hung up .

 

Ste

 

 

I had a similar scenario, but the guy hired a digger instead as i was too expensive.

He dug himself into a corner, and then phoned me up to go help.

 

Iam on my way sir.............

[SteveA]

[ATTACH]201411[/ATTACH]

 

Grab arrived this afternoon, getting it welded onto the boom on the way to a job then it's on big chipper feeding duty for a couple of days

 

That looks like a strong grab - who's it made by & what was the £damage? (if you don't mind my asking).

cheers, steve

[Matthew Storrs]

Looks like an RSl engineering grab to me. I have one on my 3 tonner and it is well over engineered (in a very good way). I spend most of the time grappling with granite boulders that way half a ton plus at it has worn very gracefully over the 2.5 years iv had it.

 

Get one- you won't regret it- much stronger than a 'thumb'.

[SteveA]

Looks like an RSl engineering grab to me. I have one on my 3 tonner and it is well over engineered (in a very good way). I spend most of the time grappling with granite boulders that way half a ton plus at it has worn very gracefully over the 2.5 years iv had it.

 

Get one- you won't regret it- much stronger than a 'thumb'.

 

Great ta. Would you say they are much better than a hydraulic thumb?

 

I've also been wondering if anyone makes an affordable rotating grab for mini diggers? I was quoted £6k for one recently!!... errr, no chance!!

cheers, steve

[Matthew Storrs]

depends what you are doing really- if your just after a general purpose handling tool them the thumb comes into its own- as its always there on the machine and obviously you still have the bucket on- if you start doing a lot of dedicated handling whether its logs/rocks/scrub or whatever then a proper grapple is much better- stronger- and you can really get a good grip round things where the thumb would flounder a bit.

I think a rotating grab is really only worth it if your into forestry/timber handling in a big way- a fixed grab will go far once for most things- use ofset boom etc to get the log at the right angle to the stack- and you can use the grab to 'knock' the log into the right position if your not quite lined up right- you soon get the hang of it.

[SteveA]

depends what you are doing really- if your just after a general purpose handling tool them the thumb comes into its own- as its always there on the machine and obviously you still have the bucket on- if you start doing a lot of dedicated handling whether its logs/rocks/scrub or whatever then a proper grapple is much better- stronger- and you can really get a good grip round things where the thumb would flounder a bit.

I think a rotating grab is really only worth it if your into forestry/timber handling in a big way- a fixed grab will go far once for most things- use ofset boom etc to get the log at the right angle to the stack- and you can use the grab to 'knock' the log into the right position if your not quite lined up right- you soon get the hang of it.

 

I'm mostly wanting to use it for:

 

a) Moving and mixing/turning compost materials (hay, green weeds, manure, etc).

b) Grabbing soil or compost to place onto raised beds.... like how a clamshell bucket works.

c) Ripping out a fair amount of bramble on the edge of our woods (preferably plucking out roots n all).

d) Spot plucking unwanted Willow saplings & Populus Tremula.... (with roots).

c) Occasional moving of logs.

 

The diggers been great just using standard buckets but really wanting something I can do all the above with as well; a single solution without great expense!

 

I've thought about a wide hydraulic thumb but not sure if it would be much cop for grabbing soil, or plucking smallish saplings?

 

Cheers, Steve

[Matthew Storrs]

don't think a grab is the right tool for you by the sounds of it- you can't grab loose material unless you had some sort of add on plates made up to make it more clamshell like- fairly sure you can buy clamshell grabs in the same format as the fixed grabs....

 

Yes, I think if i was you Id look at getting a fabricator to make me a thumb to suit your application- ie wide as you say but with the tine filled in to assist grabing loose material- or rather keeping it in the bucket.

[Stephen Blair]

Wonderfull, keep us updated with plenty of pics of it in action:thumbup1:

 

Is it a Jcb? have you got it on servo controls?

 

Im keeping my eye out for a decent backhoe too, I,m thinking I may actually use one far more than a larger tracked machine which is the alternative. save carting the tractor/loader AND digger to the job which is what im doing at the mo

 

I've taken it as Px against my CAT 307, it wasn't doing much and shifting it about was a pain!

I'm going to play about on this and if it works get a new 1!

It's the Grey Cab Turbo, old school guys claim it's the best 1 they ever made, it's on normal JCB controls so will take a bit of getting used to but I'll stick at it!

It's piped up for a grab and rotator with electro hydraulic switches on the levers!

She isn't pretty paint wise and has a few scuffs as you can expect from a 29 year old machine. They say they still dig better than the new ones.

If she works out I might just keep her for my village work and not bother with a lump of finance

[SteveA]

don't think a grab is the right tool for you by the sounds of it- you can't grab loose material unless you had some sort of add on plates made up to make it more clamshell like- fairly sure you can buy clamshell grabs in the same format as the fixed grabs....

 

Yes, I think if i was you Id look at getting a fabricator to make me a thumb to suit your application- ie wide as you say but with the tine filled in to assist grabing loose material- or rather keeping it in the bucket.

 

That confirms my suspicions, thanks. I'll drop a line to RSL and see if they can come up with something.

cheers, Steve