Matthew Storrs

A quick google says yanmar are making the new kobelcos- funny why companies do this, I know wacker made Cat minis for a while.

New kobelco minis and yanmars are exactly the same, do you know who makes who?

Probably none- cos he’s an owner op!

I have been using my dads case cx23 2.3 ton with is a rebadged Kobelco and similar age to yours. If they still made that model now- or an equivalent I’d have one in a heartbeat. Most 2.3 tonners now are either zero tail or based more on a 1.5t undercarriage- just beefed up a bit but the cx23 is more like a 3 tonner- same undercarriage, slew ring and buckets etc but just slightly scaled down- can’t find any modern equivalent like that which is a shame as it’s a great towing weight with attachments but little in the way of compromise against a 2.8 tonner

Did you pay the list price quoted on their website? Seems very expensive but guess it’s a bit of a speacialist trailer so perhaps not volume sales..

No experience of iindespension I’m afraid but that Alumax is the best looking max gross plant trailer I have seen, I had the ifor one and the ramps soon bent out as they were too lightly built and made out of folded sheet steel, yours looks far more convincing. let us know how you get on with it.

Everyone always goes on about Takeuchi having ‘cheese’ pins. I’m almost sure it’s down to lack of greasing because iv had 3 of them from used and one they been in my hands I’d say the pins haven’t deteriorated beyond reasonable expectations. I grease pins every day with a lunchtime top up on the bucket pins- not had any problems. equally the Kubota paint job is said to be the best but talking to a Kubota owner op the other day his 6 ton machine had to go back whilst still under warranty because of bubbling paint work round the bonnet. theres probably Friday afternoon machines in all brands but as the saying goes 1 unhappy customer will tell 10 and 10 happy customers will tell 1- or something along those lines!

What’s the plan now Steve- if you don’t mind me asking!? Nice reduction BTW.

Absolutely, or Anne Robinson, particularly when discussing feminism!

Good decision! I bought mine for £19500+vat from our local dealer 4 years ago. It had 1300 hours (nothing) tyres were more or less 90%, it had a quick fit loader with it too. God knows what the previous owner had been doing with it- not a lot by the looks of it- in 4 years iv only had to put a new fan belt on and oil changes. With your budget you’ll get a belter, there is the explorer models too but I’d say they were more like a stAndard Farm tractor- higher seating position- don’t feel quite as nice on slopes. good luck- il keep an eye open for you if I see any decent stuff going for sale

Ah right- I bow to your knowledge, I didn’t realise that their was a Chinese version of the Alnico blues- I looked into it a few years back as an option on the AC15 and thought it was British over Chinese Greenbacks. Looking at new AC30s sold now, the AC30c2 uses greens as standard and the AC30c2x has the blues.

Iv got to ask, if you are planning on replacing with a fence anyway, what’s the reason for reducing it- could it not just wait another year and just have it removed in one go- would save a lot of cost.

Pictures would help, otherwise people are just stabbing in the dark with pricing. There are so many factors- access, breakables under the hedge, multi stem or single stems, the list could go on. Even with pics you will spark a thread on here which will involve prices ranging from the ridiculous to the ridiculous at both ends of the price spectrum! that said, if you can take 5ft of the sides and still be left with much of a hedge I’m guessing it’s pretty wide and overgrown- with a leylandii hedge this makes it pretty labour intensive and a large volume of brash to dispose off.

Looking at the 8441 on tractor data it says it’s only 30kph, I know some models had a 40kph option- but 30 is slow- painfully slow!

I’m sure the proxima will serve those needs fine. However if you are an AGT owner I can almost guarantee that if you can find a Same Dorado you will fall in love with it- I always think if you could breed a alpine with a conventional tractor you’d end up with a Dorado- Italian engineering with mountainous/alpine terrain very much at the heart of the design. heres mine at work

I’m under the impression that alnico Blues are British made, but the new AC30s come with the Greens which are far eastern. Iv not compared the two- but tone is die for with the Blues.

Yes definitely- I use to deliver logs In Warwickshire using a 16ft ifor- great because we’d load it up with 6 dumpy bags and 2 of us could tip a bag over the side to unload it, we’d spend the morning filling the bags and go out in the afternoon delivering all of the one trailer- no way I’d attempt the same in these devon lanes and awkward to get to properties- think you’ve got it sussed with your method Beau.

Yes, certainly my model of Same dorado 86 has true 4 wheel braking and grips like a mountain goat on a hillside- they are quite quick on the roads too, however they wouldn’t make a good forest tractor- they are quite low to the ground which is great for hillsides but perhaps not so great for stumps but also the have a plastic diesel tank underneath which would need guarding. The Same that is. I had a zetor 7045 and a 9540 which was the precursor to the proxima range, supposedly the wet brakes were met to be much better but unfortunately they were forever coming out of balance and not great to begin with- but of an eye opener when I moved to the Same. like I said I wouldn’t discard the idea of a zetor again because they certainly had some good points to them, but just check very carefully the condition of the braking system and if you are planning on running hydraulic attachments make sure it has the pressure- the 7045 was pretty much non existent is this area but in fairness it was 1980 and not many tractors of this era had good hydraulics.

I assume you mean the Zetor Proxima? no experience of this model, but I have owned 2 zetors in the past and my dad has had several.My experience of them is mixed and I guess it will depend on what you are using it for. Mine had absolutely bulletproof basic engines which never gave me any trouble- zetors are heavily built tractors and have yet to use a tractor that grips like a zetor- I think with the older models the steel was perhaps of poorer quality and they used more of it- every thing was pretty ‘soviet’ on it. Parts are pretty cheap, as are the tractors as they don’t have the following that major brands do- this could stem for their reputation for being unreliable and really rather backwards, but the Polish love them. What really let mine down were the dreadfull dry brakes which the proxima will have moved on from, aux hydraulics were piss poor- again a blight that most older tractors used to have, but perhaps worst of all for me was the use of poor quality seals- this was what really let the tractors down for me and the crap brakes were too dangerous for roadwork. i would definitely look at zetors again if I was buying but only modern models as I believe they have had to come along way to keep up with the competition. I run a fairly modern 85hp Same tractor and i have found it to be ultra reliable compared to the Zetors I had and many farms and contractors round here are swapping to Same over New Holland’s, ( the two main dealers in this particular area). they (the SDF) tractors are just as good if not better IMO and many others who have made the swap(possibly slightly basic but only in a good way) without the over inflated price tag the main marques demand.

Other trouble is people think that because the gritter has been out they can still drive like maniacs. If people knew how to drive in icy conditions and took more caution there’d be far less accidents. Instead they drive at normal or excessive speeds and then rely entirely on their brakes to try and stop! which as we all know is a lethal combination if there’s ice on’t road. I was following behind a lady driving a new discovery a few weeks back- who just had absolutely not a clue how to approach a descent in the Icy conditions- she kept partially sliding off the road with her foot pretty much glued to the brake pedal- I came down the same hill without any problems despite having a 3 ton digger pushing me down too.

I think they are selling 80 pieces. If your paying £400 no doubt you’d expect them to be cut dead level, not have any sharp stubs or the like sticking out etc, not saying that it is worth £400 but at the same time I doubt anyone would do the above for a tenner either. Somewhere in between the too maybe.....

Take one step at a time- use subby labour to begin with, you will still need EL and PL insurance. approach farmers for a bit of chip/log pile ground. Allow for a decent bit of advertising untill you get a big enough client base etc.

Try Trust insurance, always found them to be helpful and they deal with arb firms

That post makes me think of Prince Phillips quote; A few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyone’s working too much. Now everybody’s got more leisure time they’re complaining they’re unemployed. People don’t seem to make up their minds what they want.”

It’d make a great chip truck that Commer!