HITACHI ZX30 digger

[donnk]

Anyone own one ? Looking at buying a new/nearly new long arm version. They call it the 33U now, little bit heavier but just about moveable nod nod wink wink.

 

Just on the limit to to be towed and has best reach/dump/dig in the mini excavator world.

 

3.2m dig depth and 3.5m dump height means it could potentially load a 20 tonner if it sat on a pile.

 

Don't see much mention of them, any particular reason ?

Edited July 21, 2016 by donnk

[Matthew Storrs]

I suspect that it would be overweight (but only just) on even the lightest plant trailer, which may explain why they are not as common as the zx27? I did a little job on a newish ZX27 the other day, powerfull machine and nice features but more 'snappy' than my Takeuchi. Id feel alot more confident that i could roll an egg along under the bucket of my Tak than the Hitachi but the owner of the hitachi who was doing the groundworks had shifted some massive rocks (pretty much bedrock lumps of granite) with it- was well impressed with the power.

[LGP Eddie]

Anyone own one ? Looking at buying a new/nearly new long arm version. They call it the 33U now, little bit heavier but just about moveable nod nod wink wink.

 

Just on the limit to to be towed and has best reach/dump/dig in the mini excavator world.

 

3.2m dig depth and 3.5m dump height means it could potentially load a 20 tonner if it sat on a pile.

 

Don't see much mention of them, any particular reason ?

 

It must be a bulk body you're trying to load? Anything from a CAT 302.5, Komatsu Pc27, Kubota Kx71 etc has been no real issue to load standard 8 wheelers generally Thompson muck away bodies given a bit of a stockpile and will get the last bit over too.

 

I would try the Hitachi as they generally have poor geometry for loadover and the Komatsu Pc range excell in this aspect.

 

I think it's the general fact Hitachi don't have as much of a dealer network as such we don't see more?

JCB, CAT, Kubota etc, and now Neuson have dealers more more spread around that people can feel as though they can just nip over to if they have the need.

 

The Hitachi is good, I didn't like the split door arrangement they had.

 

Best little Tilt Bucket in my opinion is the Geith and an unashamed plug for Callum at Highland Hammers who is great on service and price for them.

They are getting more and more popular, the old saying why move the machine just to move the bucket soon rings true after you've tried one.

 

 

 

Eddie.

[donnk]

thanks Eddie

 

The little 3 tonners we've had on hire (Kubota) wouldn't get close to the 20 tonners and to be honest we use the manitou as its quicker its only a nice to have.

 

Will have to do some more research.

[LGP Eddie]

thanks Eddie

 

The little 3 tonners we've had on hire (Kubota) wouldn't get close to the 20 tonners and to be honest we use the manitou as its quicker its only a nice to have.

 

Will have to do some more research.

 

I have a very good friend who had a lot of the same issues, I'll look around for the video of his solution to it all.

 

 

Eddie.

[LGP Eddie]

This is a video of a good friend of mine who used to have load over height issues until after much trying to explain ended up borrowing my 5 tonner Kubota a couple of times with Engcon system and the penny finally dropped.

 

He ended up going on this job for the council to put a demo on against a traditional JCB 3cx the gang would utilise.

To say the odds were stacked when the gang had the same machine operator for years and the tipper was from the same company also.

However he stuck to his guns and ended up literally blowing the 3cx away on this type of work, and as you can see is able to load the tipper easily utilising the ability of the Engcon.

He went on to do literally months on the project.

 

With the Engcon you can load over easily if you know how.

 

[ame]

[/ame]

 

 

 

Eddie.

[Matthew Storrs]

watching that video makes me quite green with envy, what sort of money are we talking about for an engcon for a 3 tonner. I have no idea 2k, 5 k?

[LGP Eddie]

watching that video makes me quite green with envy, what sort of money are we talking about for an engcon for a 3 tonner. I have no idea 2k, 5 k?

 

It's extremely difficult to just throw in a price for the Engcon or any manufacture of Tiltrotator for that matter, due to the various configurations that are available.

Control systems, joysticks, grippers, top and bottom quick hitches, etc etc can all vary quotes so much it is vital to get a full understanding and ensure you are comparing exactly like for like.

You simply can't do enough homework and ask as many users as possible, I speak to loads of guys up and down the country about them and generally know someone with a similar sort of setup I can pass them onto for a real world review.

 

All that said the setup here on Shaun's machine which includes a control system, new joysticks, top and bottom hydraulic quick hitches and an Engcon Ec02 would be in the region of 10k all in.

Some will fall off the chair at that, but I can assure you a few minutes call to Shaun may give a different take on it?

 

 

 

Eddie.

[Matthew Storrs]

Thanks for that, yes I realise there are many factors at play determining the price but interesting to know never the less, I can't help feeling if i was going to fork out 10k for it I'd want it on a bit bigger machine than a 3 tonner- simply so that it can handle a wider range of attachments to get maximum benefit out of it,. All depends on your type of work though i guess.

 

I recently had a holiday to Sweden, didn't see a machine without it and spent quite some time (much to my wifes disgust) watching rubber ducks with them on large scale construction site. Another thing i noticed in Sweden they always seemed to over spec machine size for the job, for example using a 5 tonner to pull out shrubs growing around street trees! A 1.5t would have been ample.

[donnk]

thanks Eddie,

 

That is VERY interesting. I was looking at a tilt bucket anyway. 10k although a lot of cash in my industry would be rapidly paid back in efficiency when its used a lot.

 

more investigation now ....