Mini digger or compact loader

[eddiegts]

No 1 machine is perfect, and the way I look at it is compared to man power.

Maybe a mini digger and flail will be rubbish in the eyes of a road sude verge guy, but any things better than a day hacking away with strimmers and hedge cutters and a week of picking thorns out your fingers and arms!

If I buy a £3k flail, it will either last me 10 years or pay for itself, make me money and I'll renew it every few years.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

 

 

Steve your spot on! Ok the machine is not the best for flail work but I was ALOT quicker than brush cutter & a lot cheaper that a bobcat & mulcher or a tractor & sidearm also when we were done we could rake up the rubbish & use the same tool to load

it. I've used loads of different bits of kit to make life easier & quicker & I think the small diggers are one of the most useful machines!

 

 

 

Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

[Matthew Storrs]

I hear what you're saying re use the biggest machine you can for the job, but a 1.5t will do the work of half a dozen men, especially with attachments like grabs and augers etc.

 

It's the cheapest man on the job by a long shot.

 

And that's the key, attachments are reletively cheap and the more you have the more work you'll get for your machine. Unless your a ground works company or builder then you have to do a hell of a lot of just digging with a bucket to make the machine worhwhile over hiring. But throw in a select few decent attachments and it opens up the machine to all sorts of possibilities.

[LGP Eddie]

Some great posts on this thread, and pleased to see a few more have seen the light that a 1.5 tonner or maybe now larger, is "the cheapest man on the job!"

 

I've posted this up a few times usually based on the Takeuchi TB016 model which has recently received a nice upgrade, but my basic point was, you can pick them up secondhand at around 6.5k, spend virtually nothing on them for 3 years and move them on for perhaps same or very little less money.

They're easy to transport, pack a punch way over their size, expanding tracks help keep it the right way up, and usual wear parts are cheap.

The main point really was you could try one out to see if it works within your business model, and you'd not lose your shirt if you need to get out of it.

Like a few here, you'll perhaps get hooked and find your projects demand something a little larger?

I'm not familiar with the small loader market, but you possibly get stung for a chunk of depreciation in the same instance?

 

I'd say the leap after that is usually to what could be described 3 tonner, but mainly it's something transported on a 7.5 tonner, with the Truck/Body/Machine/Attachments combined weight being an equation the end user will have to work out for their own needs.

I have a good friend with petty much the ultimate setup in this class, being a 7.5 tonner, lightweight body, Komatsu PC27mr, Engcon Tiltrotator, Grab, Breaker and Auger plus Buckets, all fitting tidy and legally on the truck.

 

Some go the 2.6 tonner and trailer route, but it wouldn't be my first choice in terms of trying to remain legal whilst getting a full working days kit and attachments to site.

Anyone using this setup, blag a go in 7.5 tonne beavertail, and you'll not want to use your trailer again!

 

With regard to the never ending argument of an Excavator mounted Flail Head, quite simply forget thinking you're trying to replace a conventional Tractor mounted setup, it's completely different!

There is simply no way you can effectively Track the machine and Flail at the same time, and pretty much any action of the base machine will rob some flow from the head.

There is only one (perhaps two) solutions to this, which is basically fit a powerpack to the machine to separately power the head, or fit additional pumps.

You will be told of 'tricks' to get pumps to work together etc, etc, and I've known people throw good money away at this.

Manufacturers don't fit engines with massively spare capacity, so if someone magically claims to have found a way to power a head fully without robbing machine functions, it would come as a surprise, plus would probably require a whole new cooling setup?

 

The basic fact is you simply cut what's in front of you and move on with an Excavator, and quickly learn to live with what you've got.

Trust me you wouldn't want to go against the most basic setup with a Clearing saw, and use the Excavator to it's strengths, wet, steep, tight awkward places where you can't get a conventional Tractor based setup.

 

For anyone doing more domestic stuff, take a look at the reciprocating type cutters, as these will produce a much neater finish, plus demand very little oil, so you'll perhaps even be able to track along with these?

 

Whatever takes your fancy in attachments really, and I just seem to keep finding more and then wondering how I ever managed without them!

 

Eddie.

[difflock]

Here at Work we are/I am currently getting a lightweight alloy beavertail body built on a Canter/Fuso/Mitibshui chassis.

Body will weigh about 640kg, leaving a legal Payload of just about 4000kg (incl the Dvr unfortunately)

So guessing 3800kg usuable (with an electro-hydraulic full width tail-ramp too!).

This will allow us to move a 3.5 tonne excavator, with some attatchments.

If needs be the allowable 750kg trailer allowance could bring another attatchment/buckets/rockhammer along behind.

Or bung the excess buckets/attatchments on another light truck, since generally more than one truck on site anyway.

The key is carrying the "indivisible" load, being the basic 3.5 tonne digger.

cheers

m

PS

Already bought a "fingerbar" cutter for the digger, should be low oil-flow, so should work, though not tried yet.

The appeal is getting a machine that can top wide/high hedges, as well as face them.

My next cunning purchase is a hydraulic driven chainsaw bar, to cut higher overhanging branchs, without climbing.

If the fingerbar cutter does not work on the digger, it can easily be re-deployed onto the 640 Avant.

Edited July 18, 2014 by difflock

[Stephen Blair]

There was a really good and pretty cheap extension hydraulic saw on here a while back for machines.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[LGP Eddie]

Here at Work we are/I am currently getting a lightweight alloy beavertail body built on a Canter/Fuso/Mitibshui chassis.

Body will weigh about 640kg, leaving a legal Payload of just about 4000kg (incl the Dvr unfortunately)

So guessing 3800kg usuable (with an electro-hydraulic full width tail-ramp too!).

This will allow us to move a 3.5 tonne excavator, with some attatchments.

If needs be the allowable 750kg trailer allowance could bring another attatchment/buckets/rockhammer along behind.

Or bung the excess buckets/attatchments on another light truck, since generally more than one truck on site anyway.

The key is carrying the "indivisible" load, being the basic 3.5 tonne digger.

cheers

m

PS

Already bought a "fingerbar" cutter for the digger, should be low oil-flow, so should work, though not tried yet.

The appeal is getting a machine that can top wide/high hedges, as well as face them.

My next cunning purchase is a hydraulic driven chainsaw bar, to cut higher overhanging branchs, without climbing.

If the fingerbar cutter does not work on the digger, it can easily be re-deployed onto the 640 Avant.

 

 

Sounds like a fair bit of thought going into the setup there, and in my opinion way better than the trailer route.

Have you thought of combining your 750kg trailer allowance into some kind of 'Digga Barrow' trailer setup for actual use on site behind the machine, or perhaps some sort of flat/bolster trailer with lgp tyres if that's more your work?

Try building this for the money they're asking? Could be seriously useful behind a 3 tonne machine?

MOD Tipping trailer 2200kg flotation tyres fantastic trailer | eBay

 

 

I think the saw was a 'Limbinator' or something like that, but it wasn't crazy money and had the all important CE marking, but I've yet to hear an actual user review?

 

 

Eddie.

[cornish wood burner]

You've had some good advice on page 6 of this post.

I would just like to add that all things being equal you will find a larger machine easier to drive.

[Matthew Storrs]

I agree it'd be nice to just load everything onto a truck without having to worry (if you do!) about every kilogram to stay legal. However aside from not having a 7.5tonner license I use the landrover and trailer route for simple reason that I usually (being a fencing contractor) require the 4x4 ability of the landrover once the digger has been unloaded. The landrover (hi-cap) can ferry attachments across fields with all my tools and rolls of wire etc. I think, although wouldn't like to be weighed, that I am legal with my Takeuchi tb125 (2.8t) on the smallest stripped down 3500kg flatbed that Ifor do with around 400-500kg worth of buckets and attachments actually in the bed of the landy- this provides IMO critical ballast in the landy which prevents it being bossed down hills or maintains traction when going up steep hills

The setup isn't ideal, but it works and must be the cheapest way to move the digger around, even if the clutch and transmission requires rebuilding from time to time- fortunately not happened yet!

[LGP Eddie]

I agree it'd be nice to just load everything onto a truck without having to worry (if you do!) about every kilogram to stay legal. However aside from not having a 7.5tonner license I use the landrover and trailer route for simple reason that I usually (being a fencing contractor) require the 4x4 ability of the landrover once the digger has been unloaded. The landrover (hi-cap) can ferry attachments across fields with all my tools and rolls of wire etc. I think, although wouldn't like to be weighed, that I am legal with my Takeuchi tb125 (2.8t) on the smallest stripped down 3500kg flatbed that Ifor do with around 400-500kg worth of buckets and attachments actually in the bed of the landy- this provides IMO critical ballast in the landy which prevents it being bossed down hills or maintains traction when going up steep hills

The setup isn't ideal, but it works and must be the cheapest way to move the digger around, even if the clutch and transmission requires rebuilding from time to time- fortunately not happened yet!

 

Not trying to knock the trailer route, and it's what I use myself behind my Defender 90, but it's really hard to recommend when you've tried the 7.5 tonner route? I think 'not ideal' as you say is possibly the best description, along with 'needs must' or 'use what you have', and it's all a balance like you describe against the other aspects of workload that may take priority.

 

I'm not familair with the in's and outs of them but you sound ideal for one of the fifth wheel type setups that should give good balance and traction for your applications? I bet they cost though!

 

The guy with the full setup I know, actually uses his 7.5 tonner as his daily drive now having moved his small van on. He says the fuel consumption of the 7.5 tonner is excellent and he's always got everything he needs with him and can easily bring the machine back to safety when required.

 

Eddie.

[irish surgeon]

It's really opened my eyes how good this forum is and how helpful, ok here's my state of play, after weighing everything up I decided I should go the mini digger route but not spending a big ball of money from the get go, So in the past few days I was fortunate to pick up a 3 ton 98' bobcat mini digger in good tight condition and have ordered a 7 finger grapple from Vemac engineering which will be dropped to my door for £490 which I think is great, I picked the digger up for £6k and think if I'm happy with it and it brings a new dimension to my company will move it on in a year or so and upgrade, if not it won't go to waste on the farm and a few suitable jobs.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk