Show us your Arb Diggers please.

[jonnygurkha]

Consequently I now want to join the club. Looking to buy a 1.5 tonne machine to play around with in my field but also to start using for a bit of tree work here and there. I don’t think I’ll use it huge amounts initially but enough to warrant buying rather than hiring. I’ll have about £6-7k. Is this enough to get a reasonable 2nd hand or do I use it as a deposit to get a newer 2nd hand. Makes and models? I’d like under 2t to make it easily towable. TIA

[william127]

I'd say that's plenty, providing you don't want shiney paint! Mine was about £5400 I think, 1.5 ton Kubota.

I started to paint mine, to match my defender. That was 3 years ago, and I don't have that defender anymore!

[jonnygurkha]

That’s exactly the sort of thing I had in mind William. Nice machine

[LGP Eddie]

On 19/01/2019 at 08:56, jonnygurkha said:

Consequently I now want to join the club. Looking to buy a 1.5 tonne machine to play around with in my field but also to start using for a bit of tree work here and there. I don’t think I’ll use it huge amounts initially but enough to warrant buying rather than hiring. I’ll have about £6-7k. Is this enough to get a reasonable 2nd hand or do I use it as a deposit to get a newer 2nd hand. Makes and models? I’d like under 2t to make it easily towable. TIA

You’ve already hit the magic numbers required to get you into a Takeuchi TB016. 

There’s plenty of other offerings out there, but with a decent reach, plenty of power, expanding tracks, brilliant reliability and ability to shrug off what the average utility lads paid by the metre can throw at them!

 

They cost that bit more for a reason, but hold their money like no others.

I’ve known people run them years and still make a profit selling on.

 

Plenty out there, best of luck, you’ll not regret it.

 

 

Eddie.

[william127]

38 minutes ago, jonnygurkha said:

That’s exactly the sort of thing I had in mind William. Nice machine

So useful and when you own it you can use it whenever you like, no mater how small the job!

I'd always go for a canopy over a cab on this size as its  much easier to get in and out, especially as you can climb out in any direction if you need to! And it comes on and off in about 10 minutes.

[william127]

14 minutes ago, LGP Eddie said:

You’ve already hit the magic numbers required to get you into a Takeuchi TB016. 

There’s plenty of other offerings out there, but with a decent reach, plenty of power, expanding tracks, brilliant reliability and ability to shrug off what the average utility lads paid by the metre can throw at them!

 

They cost that bit more for a reason, but hold their money like no others.

I’ve known people run them years and still make a profit selling on.

 

Plenty out there, best of luck, you’ll not regret it.

 

 

Eddie.

I really wanted a Tb016, they are a cut above all the rest! Unfortunately I couldn't find one for 7k when I bought mine that wasn't at the other end of the country!

Even a used Kubota dealer I talked to when looking for my machine said they are the ones to go for!

Prices have come down a little though, like you say it should be perfected doable now?

[jonnygurkha]

That’s interesting, I had in my mind kubota/yanmar/tak. Would it potentially be possible to pipe a tb016 to take a rotating grab?

[william127]

Kubota, yanmar or Volvo are all excellent, with the Takuchi being just that bit better. In my experience anyway!

Its certainly possible to pipe a grab like you describe, but an electric solenoid/diverter will probably be needed to get two functions at the grab? Not really my area of expertise!?

 

[dig-dug-dan]

44 minutes ago, william127 said:

Kubota, yanmar or Volvo are all excellent, with the Takuchi being just that bit better. In my experience anyway!

Its certainly possible to pipe a grab like you describe, but an electric solenoid/diverter will probably be needed to get two functions at the grab? Not really my area of expertise!?

 

Was surprised at how much louder the yanmar engines are compared to kubota, only noticed it the other day! 

[Matthew Storrs]

1 hour ago, jonnygurkha said:

That’s interesting, I had in my mind kubota/yanmar/tak. Would it potentially be possible to pipe a tb016 to take a rotating grab?

 

1 hour ago, william127 said:

So useful and when you own it you can use it whenever you like, no mater how small the job!

I'd always go for a canopy over a cab on this size as its  much easier to get in and out, especially as you can climb out in any direction if you need to! And it comes on and off in about 10 minutes.

This is why I have cabs on my machines! But get your points.