Komatsu question

[Scrub Puller]

Yair...there are various conventional (I'm guessing) twenty to twenty five ton excavators working out on the highway and then up rocks this Komatsu 228 us which looks to have completely different geometry. With its short counterweight it gives the impression it would be unstable.

Not so...I have just watched it pulling down a deco. batter and it obviously can mix it with the rest.

What are the pros. and cons. with this short tail-swing design...it must lose out in some area of operation?

Cheers

 

[John C.]

They sit on the long undercarriage which pretty much stables them up.

They are he?? to work on. If you have an engine issue, pull the counterweight. Need to do a tune up on the hydraulics, spend an hour and a half just pulling sheet metal. Someone dumps dirt in the fuel tank, pull the cab and floor plate to get at that piece of plastic. Wiring problems will drive crazy.

Take care of them and you don't have many problems. When you do, it will cost you.

 

[Dozerboy]

They are generally used in confined work areas where ZeroTail Swing machine is needed. They are just as if not more powerful and stable then a 200. Cab are tight no room for a man size lunchbox

 

[handtpipeline]

The pros:
They will do what a 200lc will do.

The cons:
Cab is SMALL. Probably ok for somebody that's 5'6" or so and 170 pounds. No leg room for 6' tall, 240 pound person.
Boom is offset to the right a little bit. Not much, but enough that it screws you up if you're used to keeping the middle of your ditch in the middle of the machine.
Looks to be a maintenance nightmare as previously stated.

 

[RDG]

Real good in confined spaces, some of the smaller excavators with zero swing also are able to off set the boom so u can dig along side buildings/walls etc and be digging hard up against it and still be able to slew as the counter weight is no wider than the track width when slewed around. Cheers RDG.

 

[buckfever]

We have a volvo 235 which is close to a volvo 210. It is very stable but compared to a 210 it is much heavier. I guess it's because they have to make the counter weight heavier to compensate for not hanging out like a normal ex. I also found that once you run a zero tailswing machine going back to a normal machine is a real PITA.

 

[Drc]

We rented a Kobelco, minimal or zero swing, 235 I think, really good lifting capacity for its weight.