Matthew Storrs

I don't think this is entirely accurate. I believe (and google confirms it!) that JK can spread through Rhizomes, stems and the leaves. They are all capable of spreading it.

superb pictures, the one from the road shows just how tight and tidy it is- lovely. I do a certain amount of Devon style every year- but I'm not going to post pictures now:laugh1:

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.

Christ Id be scared to death using an auger in London!! must be a maze of utilities underneath. Sounds a good set up you have though for your kind or work.

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?

I can only imagine:laugh1: You can get a new protech p10 for £1500, whilst I don't think the are the best design, for just smaller scale stuff on levelish ground they would be a good tool to have in the arsenal, or get a vibrating one on a breaker....

You have the digger anyway, why not just get a small knocker for this, going to be way better than anything handheld particularly if we are talking 8ft stakes!

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.

Yes, as said its a reduced swinger, but it weighs 2.6ton anyway, Personally Id prefer to carry an extra 200kg around and get the TB125, will be alot better with your post knocker, and the arm/tracks are beefier. You can get a TB125 on a trailer and keep it under 3.5t if you get the right trailer... Post knocker will have to be a seperate trip though!

How would you compare a zero tail swing compared to standard on a 2.8 ton machine. I've never used one but was watching one on site the other day and I thought it looked a bit jumpy on the back track compared to my standard one. Isn't the track base wider on zero swingers?

you could always have a bracket made up so you accept additional counterweights on the rear of a 1.5t?, an extra 150kg of counterweights would make quite a difference on a TB016

The pictures i posted above are on a 2.8 tonner, that postdriver has a 180 kg weight and i would not want more on it! A 1.5t would barely lift the machine as it weighs 350kg all in. When i had my TB016 i had a lighter built postdriver with a 100kg hammer weight. You could work with it on pretty steep ground.

Yes a few grand gets a consierably better machine, my first TB016 I got for £8k with 1400 hours in near enough perfect condition, I put a thousand hours on it over 3 years and sold it on losing only a £2k, it cost me £2 an hour! fuel and servicing was about £1.50 an hour and it cost me nothing in repairs over 3 years, proper money earner. I think if i was buying a used 1.5tonner now i would set my budget at £10k, IMO this will get you a really decent machine. if you spend anymore than this than you'd probably be better of buying brand new with the benefits of warranty etc. I,d sooner finance a good machine than buy a banger out right.

Thats bad luck, made worse by the distance you travelled. Would you mind me asking roughly what price range you are looking at?

Yes,, I agree, i think this would be the ideal, with the telescopic leg etc. Its like anything the bigger parent machine you have the more you can add in terms of adjustments and additional hammer weight. Anything on a sub 3 ton machine needs a bit of compromise to reduce the overall weight of the knocker.

If you have it so the mast is offset from the digger arm, the post knocker weight raising arm won't bang against the diggers, Also means you can bring it in a fair bit closer. Some pics of mine, the one where the leg down is how i don't like it but show you an example

You can have side tilt, but the knocker needs to be offset from the arm by quite alot else when you tilt it sideways the mast comes into contact with the digger arm, TBH you can go along way using the blade to level the machine. I think really to be efficient with a full length mast you really want to be working as a team of two so that one person can stay in the cab and make adjustments as required and the other can give guidance to the opertaor and get the next post ready.

Having a full length post knocker mast can be a right faff on a digger, its great on a tractor because you have hydraulic adjustment in all angles to keep the post in line/plumb with the mast. However with a digger you don't have such adjustment and if you are on awkward or steep terrain it can be a fiddle or should i say unprofitable to have to faff around so much for every post, this is why IMO the best post knockers for diggers are these Model 6: Mini-Excavator Post Driver | Vector PowerDrive You can press down on the post whilst hammering which makes it more effective, steadys the digger and it doesnit matter if the mast is not quite straight as the post cap does not follow the mast but you just follow it down with the digger whilst hammering (watch the video, explains it better than me!) I converted my Protech on my 3 Tonner to work in exactly the same way and I find it easy to either work on your own or with someone else 'feeding the machine' so to speak. Another advantage is that you always get maximum drop on the hammer and its easy to reach over walls/obstacles/between trees etc. If you insist on the full length mast then if your on your own you certainly want a control for the hammer on the mast itsself, this way you can activate the chains on the postcap and hold the post whilst you lower the postcap on to it prior to hammering. It just means if the post wanders of line or hits a root or something its back to the cab to make re-adjustments. You could hang a plumb line from the mast to give you an idea that you have it vertical before getting out of the cab to start post driving.

How do you find the P10, do you use it on your own? I had one for a while but found the mid mast hitch position meant that it had to be nearly always at full reach, I think it would be lot better if it was hitched to the digger at the bottom of the mast so you can bring it in closer. I have the P18 on a 3 tonner and it is like this. I also think a control valve for the hammer next to the mast could be a usefull thing if working on your own.

sounds sensible:001_smile: I get pretty fed up with fencing myself- and would much prefer to be using my digger more for what it was designed for:laugh1:

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/53360-mini-diggers-anybody-using-them-tree-work-3.html Link to a picture of my old tb016 with its postknocker with the 85kg weight.

With an assistant we had 600 meters of intermediates as 3m centers knocked in in 4 hours, so 50 stakes an hour and using the top line wire all the stakes were in straight as a di, does depend on ground conditions though.

Yes mate, Started my buisness on the back of a takeuchi tb016 and postknocker, it had an 85kg weight and then i put a 110kg weight on it, which was about as heavy as i would have wanted to go (i work on some quite steep ground at times. Mine was one i converted from one that went on a compact tractor, I did try a Protech P10 but didn't get on with it at all. If you have an auger anyway you can always predrill all the strainer holes with a 4" bit then knock them in. Once the strainers are in I then tended to strain a line wire at waist height for the intermediate stakes, stab all the stakes in and then when i'm in the cab i just pulled the stake untill it was touching the line whilst knocking them in, did a really tidy job and could do it quicker than a full spec tractor mounted model, Strainers were quite a bit slower though unless predrilled. I'l try and find the pic i had of it.

Another follow on note from my above post, and i say this as i assume you do a fair bit of fencing too, a 2.5-2.8t will handle a post knocker with a 180kg-200kg hammer on it. A 1.5t by comparison feels on its limit with a post knocker with a 100kg hammer. big diffeance really, trouble is with the larger machine I have to transport the post knocker seperately as it becomes over weigth to have it all on the trailer. Faff for 1 day type jobs if your on your own. I usually have 2 of us one transporting the digger and the other trailer with the post knocker and materials, so no differance than standard to tractor and postknocker/truck and trailer setup really. If you don't do fencing just tell me to shutup!

That kx61 does look tidy, To the OP- I notice you offer fencing, so i assume you will run a post knocker attachment of it? Just from my experiance of using post knockers on them, you have to use the blade to level the machine and thus level the knocker mast. The takeuchi blade on the TB016 lifts the machine up nice and high so you can still get the machine level on some pretty steep ground (with the blade down hill of course). I nearly purchased a Kubota kx61 in the past but the blade (being close in) didn't lift the machine nearly as high so was harder to get the mast as upright, this put me off the machine actually as i do alot of fencing with diggers. Obviously you could get a side tilt put on the Knocker in which case the blade becomes irrelevant- but probably becomes a bit weighty for a 1.5t machine.