My home built grab truck

[AusDave]

I saw on a UK forum and a few youtube videos some grab trucks, and like any rational male I felt that I wanted and needed this capability if I could do it on the cheap.
I already had a Mitsubishi truck with a 2.5 ton capacity HIAB crane, but it just had a hook on the end. I needed a grab bucket to dangle on the end and voila!, a grab truck I'd have. However looking at the cost of a new hydraulic grab, it wasn't going to happen... unless I found a clamshell grab for a ridiculously low price.

What does a man do when he dreams of unattainable bits of machinery? He goes to ebay and searches in hope but not with much expectation. Then after a few weeks and not really looking, doing a search under excavators, a grab appeared! It was new, had been sitting in a yard for some time and was going cheap, $2000. So I watched it to see the bids come in over time. None did, so within a few minutes of the end of bidding I threw my hat into the ring and put my bid in and watched the seconds count down... No one else put in a bid and the grab was mine

A trip of a few hours with the trailer and I had the grab home. It was New Zealand made and had a single ram for closing the grab, a swedish manufactured hydraulic rotator and long hoses with quick connects. It was 700mm, (about 30"), wide and bigger than it looked on ebay. Fully open the grab jaw width was over 6 feet
Although the $2000 had broke the bank I still had to power the device while dangling it from my HIAB crane. Checking prices for solenoid controlled hydraulic diverter valves along with the associated hosing, connectors etc was looking expensive. Then I saw some inexpensive 24v hydraulic power packs... on ebay again

I figured that mounting the portable power pack on the HIAB dipper arm would do the job so I ordered one from the other side of Australia, made a swivelling bracket so it stayed horizontal, mounted it, bought a few fittings and quick connector, some cheap high amperage jumper cables and Anderson connectors, connected it all up and it worked

Evidence is in the photos below










AusDave

[AusDave]

And here's the last photo of the truck with the grab in the back ready to transport.


Needless to say I'm pretty stoked with the outcome and it all works better than I thought it would. I hope to use it to pick up concrete brick and similar building waste for recycling. Instead of loading the truck with my skid steer, unloading it onsite to scoop up the load, take the load away to dump it, return and load the skid, I just turn up, take a few grabs and I'm away!

I also hope to use it for green waste removal and other materials as well. Even though the 24v power pack is only rated at 6 litres per minute, it rotates the grab really quickly and the time it takes to close the grab is quite acceptable and packs plenty of squeeze when it hits the relief. Currently I'm using the supplied pendant controller but I have a wireless remote controller to fit so I can control the grab functions remotely.

I can reach approx. 5 metres, (15 feet), from the truck and there's plenty of weight in the grab to dig down into reasonable loose soil/gravel etc. There are removable teeth on the jaws so I can get a smooth surface grab if required. I just wanna get out and grab stuff now!!
If some sod parks across my driveway or just pees me off, watch out for the grab
I reckon I could grab and lift a small car and drop it in the back of my truck, so don't mess with a man with a home made grab truck!

AusDave

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . good one Dave, that looks a real handy unit, Roadtec have them here for patching bitumen with cold-mix on the goat track . . . how's that crusher going?

Cheers.

[AusDave]

Hi Scrub Puller.

One of the uses of the grab truck is to pick up small loads of concrete & brick waste for crushing. Have had a few crushing jobs recently but it's been slower than normal due to the wet weather we've had over the last 2 years. As soon as the ground dries out enough to get machinery on, another 100mm, (4"), of rain falls and you start waiting for it to dry out all over again.
I now have a permanent site where I can do more of the crushing & recycling but I haven't been able to turn a sod there due to the rain. There have been quite a few layoffs and big delays in the construction sector down here due to the weather hold ups. I'll be glad to see the end of the La Nina weather pattern.
The small load of concrete I picked up with the grab is still in the truck until the ground dries out on the dump site!

Grabbing every opportunity, AusDave

[AusDave]

Some video of my grab truck moving and loading some bricks and building waste http://youtu.be/h6Re-QH_l4o

AusDave

[JDOFMEMI]

Dave

That is a great little set up you made. I like it, and it seems to do what you need. It gets me to thinking.

What is the capacity of your Hiab?

[AusDave]

Dave

That is a great little set up you made. I like it, and it seems to do what you need. It gets me to thinking.

What is the capacity of your Hiab?

Hi Jerry

The HIAB has a capacity of approx. 2.5 tons close in. The grab is quite heavy but can still take a good load at near full reach without putting the HIAB over relief.

AusDave

[spitzair]

I like it! I remember our old Hiab 650 had 2 extra unused spools on it, would have been perfect for such a setup! Keep up the good work!

[AusDave]

Here's some youtube video grabbing some green waste with my grab truck http://youtu.be/o25jwA-rUS8

AusDave

[kent_323is]

Nice work! In the US we call a Hiab a knuckleboom, I heard the term Hiab when I was in New Zealand recently.

[classictruckman]

Hiab is the brand of the kboom