BC Placer gold
Senior Member
Some good examples of what a 120 size machine is capable of…
The irony is I could not burn it. I had to hide it in a corner.Those are some good sized stumps, nice clean pile. Some piles around here are burned with about a 50 percent dirt content lol! Then they smoulder for a month…
This is trend I have been hearing, if you don't need to move it get a 200 or larger. Around here you can get a really nice 200plus sized machine, with maybe a few buckets for around $15-20k less than a 120-160 sized machine. I have seen lots of them for sale locally.Sounds like you won’t have to move the machine often; that would skew me towards the 200 size. The extra reach is substantial, as well as increased bucket capacity/digging power in hard ground. When clearing trees bigger is generally SAFER/faster….that said we have done a lot of clearing/road building with the 120’s. Digging test trenches/pits to maximum depth a blade would be a hindrance in our situation.
Production (especially when stripping overburden or moving tailings) with the 210 is more than doubled compared to the 120….increased reach and bucket size. The extra width (10’2” versus 8’ 6”) gives a fair bit of extra stability.
Stripping loose silt/gravel overburden (easy digging on our site) the 210 runs a 2 yard cleanup bucket versus a 1 yard bucket on the 120. In our situation that means more hours/day running the wash plant.
Regarding stability; the 135 (reduced tail) we ran was just as stable as the 120 (I actually thought it was a bit better)….but the 135 also had wide pads. All other specs on these machines are identical.
We are only allowed a 3m width on mining exploration trails so the 135 was really nice when road building on steep slopes with high cut banks.
Very good points! Thank you very much for the pictures and times for digging the stumps! Very helpful for size comparison to what I have already. I could have (and have) dug out those size stumps with my 12,000lb machine. Extremely hard on it and not exactly friendly on your body either and you'd be there a very long time! Excavators are impressive this way. However, Based on what I am hearing this far, probably going to be leaning towards a bigger machine.Here is some stumping I did with the 120 last spring.
This is the biggest stump and I messed with this big fir for a half our before it broke in two and gave up. That chunk was 3K by the butt dynamometer.
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A 200 would have split that right off.
For a lot of stumping and road building, a 400 is the right size but the 120 is not so much fun. Did I get it done? Sure.
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Don't let having an ass overhang hold you back.
I sneaked in there and back out without bending up that tarp garage.
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I have a mini also, but I used the 120 here. There was no place to put the dirt to the side and the 120 reach made it possible. It all needed tracked out of there one way or another.
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Haha! That thing must be a beast! Thats a very good price as well! Did you have to break it down to move it?Or you could go really big for farm use, my buddy bought this beast for $25,000!, 11k less than we paid for a Deere 50 mini.
Even has a thumb. A bit of work to move though lol!
This is trend I have been hearing, if you don't need to move it get a 200 or larger. Around here you can get a really nice 200plus sized machine, with maybe a few buckets for around $15-20k less than a 120-160 sized machine. I have seen lots of them for sale locally.
Haha! That thing must be a beast! Thats a very good price as well! Did you have to break it down to move it?
Well yeah the stick is off in that picture, and the counterweight.
There are no grey market Deere's period. There are no grey market Hitachi in that size in the US that I have seen.
Cat uses the last 2 numbers in a model to indicate metric tons. 320 = 20 metric tons.
It is different in the US. You can get a grey market machine in, but it is more a matter of how likely.That has me wondering now, I seem to recall Japanese writing on some decals etc. but possibly weren’t grey market. Would explain the ease of parts. Will have to look through some old photos.
Haha! Couldn't load the picture to full size... yep it is broken down. dumb question.Well yeah the stick is off in that picture, and the counterweight.
There are no grey market Deere's period. There are no grey market Hitachi in that size in the US that I have seen.
Cat uses the last 2 numbers in a model to indicate metric tons. 320 = 20 metric tons.
Good to know. Have seen deere machines running around with orange cylinders so I figured that you could.Yes, he had to break it down. It was for quarry use (large dimension stone)
We were able to buy parts at either Deere or Hitachi. The Zx135 and Zx120 were both grey market, but seemed to be no problem (and was never mentioned when at a parts counter) but proceed with caution….due diligence etc,etc.
Second number in Cat is weight, ie. 320 is a 20t.
Nice! Now do these older machines (1990's early 2000's) have computers on them? If so, are there any year ranges to stay away from? I feel like I remember someone telling me that there was a certain year and model of cat that had issues for a short time.....When I rebuilt the boom on the 120 those were hitachi surplus bushings.