I would like to check one out, but I never will as long as the same local dealer is the one selling/ supporting them here.
I would like to check one out, but I never will as long as the same local dealer is the one selling/ supporting them here.
Originally Posted by DGODGR
Some CAT dealers suck as do some CASE dealers. Too bad, but that is reality. I get great service from CASE as is the reason everything except my mini ex is CASE. The TK did come from the CASE dealer. The 153 will lift an incredible amount of weight. Way more than a similiar sized conv. swing boom machine. I am aware that a ZTS machine weighs more but in this case it is due to the side to side boom configuration more than the added weight. I doubt I will convince you of how strong the machine is, but if you find yourself in SE Idaho your welcome to give mine a run. Its an impressive machine, its not perfect but its very strong.
I'll be in Stanley at the end of August (dirt bike riding). We come up the 15, so I don't think I'll be very close. Your right. It's not really possible to TELL me about it. I'll just have to try one myself some day (but not from Century Ept.!).
I go riding in Challis (just down the road from Stanley) its about 2.5 hours away. Great time out there. If you stayed on 15 northbound toward West Yellowstone you would be about 15 miles away. If you get bored in Stanley PM me and I can give some other areas to check out as well.
Asking for some good advice on purching a Thumb (non-hyd) for my CAT 304 CR.
I use a 18" bucket W/four teeth.
USA attachments is where i got my thumb for my K121-3. I think i went to big on it but you can always cut it down you cant add to it.
Go with a hyd. thumb would be my suggestion. I use a Werk Brau thumb and coupler and have had three of them now and like them a lot. But I would not waste the money on a rigid thumb on a mini. The aux. hyd. are all ready plumbed to the stick on most mini ex's. I think for my thumb and coupler was around 2500.
Total agreement with KSSS- mechanical thumbs have their uses but once you've tried tearing up a few trees or moving slash or rocks or whatever with a hydraulic thumb you'll wonder how you ever got along without one. They're indispensable IMHO.
I completly disagree the takuechi has tons of power but is a little slow and since we use it to lift that is nice. It is very reliable too
Pel Job EB406 or Takeuchi TB1140...
The Cat minis are made in Japan by Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi and are basically the Mitsubishi mini. Cat have now taken over the whole of the construction side of SCM and all units coming out are marketed as Cat. I have had a Yanmar Vio27-5 (purchased new in late 2006) and did 2500hrs on it. It was a great unit that 'punched well above its weight'. The weakest point is the final drive unit. If your doing a lot of tracking change the oil in final drives when you change the engine oil(we changed every 200hrs) not when Yanmar say at 500hrs. We did both final drives and a fan belt in 2500hrs. I've traded it in on a new Hitachi ZX35U Dec12 2010 and we currently have 297hr on it. Hitachi advise changing final drive oil at 1000hrs and engine oil at 500hrs. We do both at 250hrs. Out unit has a/c CAB, extra counterweight, 12/18/30" digging buckets, 4' tilting batter bucket, 4' skelton bucket, hydraulic thumb grab and a ripper tyne. Unfotunately Hitachi do not come with factory quick hitch as the Yanmar do and ours if fitted with Aussi manufactured quickhitch which is a 'load of rubbish". The Hitachi is more than equal to a CAT in performance but nothing comes close to CAT for service and parts but we try to turn ours over at around 2500hrs so parts shouldn't be an issue other than pins and bushes. The Yanmar was cheaper and I only went for Hitachi because it has better over the side performance than Yanmar in this range of diggers. When we upgrade and go up a size I believe we'll go back to Yanmar for the simple reasons of it has more slew power and a really good OEM quickhitch. Very similar to operate and have the same motor, both have as good a little cab as you can get on these small units.
My thoughts only and I'm the one putting up the dollars in our operation.
Firetrack
Bobcat's made alot of nice improvements to their new m-series machine (E42,E45,E50)... I have ran the E50 and it's a nice machine. Quicker, more lift, better cab than the previous 337/341. Second on my list would be the Kubota.. like the KX121/ 161. I haven't ran one yet, but the new u55 and kx57 look like pretty nice machines as well.
Both Bobcat and Kubota, at least in my area, retain their value extremely well.
Good luck.
look into kobelco or komatsu. theyre cheaper than cat and they run nice, i have a kobelco 35 and havent had any issues with it for just over 4000 hours
We have a FR 138 and FR 180 had a FR 153, excellent machines. Takeuchi I'd say
TK is finally stepping up on the 153 with a pump set up like the 180. Pretty hard to beat the productivity of these FR excavators. I am hope they have these updated machines at ConExpo.
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