Show us your Arb Diggers please.

[monkeybusiness]

I seem to spend my life dealing with people wanting a different piece of paper to the guy on the previous job (I’m talking about our generics/qualifications etc, not SSRAs which are obviously completed site specifically).

They all want the work their bosses are paying us to do to be done yesterday, but seem to have issues with irrelevant minutiae before the get-go.

And our paperwork is genuinely bang on (it has to be with some of our clients, which is fair enough!).

I can’t believe how many of these people exist, and how much it must cost to employ them all, as none of them ever seem to do anything other than generate filing cabinets full of arse covering crap! 

[LGP Eddie]

I seem to come up against some obviously nice guys, but with the greatest respect they’ve never done the job and know absolutely nothing about kit.

 

I know for a fact it’s being looked at, I’ve been asked, but I’ll not get involved unless the HSE are around the table, I want their take on it not others who actually see a profit angle in piling a load of regulation onto guys running kit.

Sadly an incident will occur and possibly it’ll all get banned whilst the fallout lands and knee jerk regulations take place.

Suppliers have to wake up and be more responsible, media is awash with Tree Shears and Mulcher’s working away, no guards, marguard screens, doors open, top windows open, tracking about swinging big lumps about over the machine etc.

 

Some of the irresponsible selling of Shears to fit carriers is shocking. At the APF there were machines that were actually incapable of picking the actual shear up full stretch over the side within the machines lift chart, and that’s before it cut anything!

 

The other point is the actual guys on the ground. You can have a Chainsaw ticket for pretty much any eventuality, but where’s the Cutter/Banksman Ticket or Excavator assisted Felling type training.

In the last couple of years I’ve been at the mercy of what’s been supplied to work with me, it’s ranged from top skilled guys who’s numbers I have and will happily call on in future, to lads I’d not trust to fetch the leg off a coffee table!

 

I think we’re past the point already of being able to be trusted to do it ourselves, and the usual suspects have spied a chance to cash in.

I predict guarding and the use of marguard screens to be compulsory soon enough, with some form of qualification available for guys on the ground working with the kit.

 

I hate to see machines being used without guards, but I also understand at this point if nobody’s enforcing it and the manufacturers want over 6.5k for it, there’s not a lot of incentive for change.

 

 

Eddie.

[donnk]

that price tells me they dont want the hassle.

 

Wouldnt waste more time on it, drop them and goto another digger manufacturer or have the digger as they normally supply it and add them yourself.

 

As for being 'inspected' I'd refuse the jobs personally. Fuck that.

[Gray git]

I know it's probably been covered on here before but here go's again sorry.
I have been looking more seriously at a sub 3.5ton with trailer digger and the takuchi tb225 keeps catching my attention as a second hand option, all the ones I see for sale are currently piped for hammer circuit which would be fine for my current swinging grab which I could T off the bucket ram for the rotator but what are the options and costs involved in putting another feed to use a fixed type grab?
Any opinions welcome, budget to get going is at moment in my head around 15k for the base as that would leave me a bit for guarding as per recent conversation has highlighted then build up from there.

[LGP Eddie]

I'd be surprised to even see a TB225 for sale used yet? Going to be absolutely rock solid on residuals, is there any about used?

 

Eddie.

[Gray git]

Tb228 sorry phone put it in from all the surches I've been doing while off nd confusing myself with the different models [emoji43]

[monkeybusiness]

You can get the new 2.7 tonne zero Bobcat on 0% at the moment, can be spec’d with double proportional aux and a canopy if you are worried about weight... I don’t know if they are any good, but I can’t see it being too hard to get enough work to cover the payments!

[LGP Eddie]

33 minutes ago, Gray git said:

Tb228 sorry phone put it in from all the surches I've been doing while off nd confusing myself with the different models

Got you now.? Most just go with a six way valve mounted either on the Grab itself or can be done a lot neater on the machine with a bit of effort.

 

I tell people not to use the horn button, it’s a safety item marked up by the manufacturer, instead a foot mounted horn type switch or pedal can be utilised for ease of use to control the changeover from Grab to Rotate.

You’ll need in line restrictors to get the Rotate something like controllable, hence doing the 6 way valve well back on the machine giving you the ability to get them in and pipe it tidy like an normal extra pipe circuit would look.

 

Another way if offset is controlled by a pedal, you can tap into this with a six way valve and pipe it up from there for another circuit.

Offset circuits can be lower pressure and flow, so try it on a rotator first, it should have enough to power it ok.

 

Fitting another circuit properly is possible, quite simply it’ll cost!

 

Crunch some numbers on a fully piped TB225, with a fair confidence it’s going to be worth a good old chunk of what you give for it for quite a long time to come.

They are such a brilliant weight, plenty of capacity left to carry attachments with you, and the ability to almost get where 1.5 tonners can, but still pack a punch.

 

Eddie.

[Matthew Storrs]

The Takeuchi tb225 looks good but a few things put me off it. The ground clearance is pretty poor to accommodate the expanding tracks.  Lack of proper track pedals too. Personally I live with my feet on the pedals and find work so much more productive and flowing- when I get in my smaller machine which has no pedals i feel a bit disabled.

lastly- price. I was quoted £24k+vat. You can buy a Yanmar sv26 for this which is still towable has great ground clearance and ultra stable being 1550mm wide with proportional rollers for attachments. Guess it depends how much you’d benefit from the expanding tracks of the tb225?

[Gray git]

Tempted to make a few phonecalls next week to test the water on new prices, don't think the digging market is really open around here as a local hire company has a few bobcats of this size and carry out works themselves which is why I'm hesident about buying new as it won't be working all the time, we currently hire a bobcat 2.6 tonner off them at the moment and fit our grab to it but I like being self sufficient and would use it more like everything else we have invested in.