Saw a Zaxis 200 with a blade...

[spitzair]

Happy new year everybody! In my travels the other day I saw a Hitachi Zaxis 200 with a blade. I've never seen a machine that size other than a Bladerunner with a blade... Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of it, it was on a lowbed heading the other direction. I've operated smaller machines with blades on them and think that a 200 size machine with a blade would be the cat's meow! What do you guys think? What would be involved to put a blade on a bigger machine? I guess you'd need another circuit through the center swivel at least and an extra hydraulic valve, but are the stock track motors up to the job? Just curious. If I see the machine again I'll do my best to get some pictures!

 

[komatsuman1]

spitzair i agree i have a komatsu 200 and would love to have a blade have no info to share, where exactly did you see the zaxis all the best to you and all the HEO outthere

 

[spitzair]

spitzair i agree i have a komatsu 200 and would love to have a blade have no info to share, where exactly did you see the zaxis all the best to you and all the HEO outthere

Komatsuman,
I saw it in Cache Creek (BC) it was heading North on Highway 97...

 

[Vantage_TeS]

Well the big advantage is you'd be able to put it in the rear (extra counterweight!) and use it to level your bench off as you back up while loading trucks. You wouldn't be able to do all sorts of heavy dozing with it but it would work to smooth off piles/end of piles/as something to pin things up against while trying to get them in the bucket.

 

[special tool]

Well the big advantage is you'd be able to put it in the rear (extra counterweight!) and use it to level your bench off as you back up while loading trucks. You wouldn't be able to do all sorts of heavy dozing with it but it would work to smooth off piles/end of piles/as something to pin things up against while trying to get them in the bucket.

That's exactlty right.
Can't say how many times I've seen local turkeys trying to push 100 yards with a Hyundai 100, or some piece of crap like that - the machine is not a dozer.

 

[Deeretime]

I demoed a deere 135 recently and i was told that it had stock track motors and it worked realy well for its sise.
I have thought about doing this before and i dont think that it would be to difficult to attempt. I have heard that in the 90's deere was offering a blade kit for the 690Elc but the only ones they knew of around were in the us millitary.

 

[JTL]

We have a 200 Deere with a home made dozer blade on it. The bosses had it built for all the stinking pipe we had to put in on a job 2 years ago. Worked great for cleaning up the road before a blade could get there.

 

[9420pullpan]

Xaxis 225 with a blade and variable angle boom

 

[EGS]

I think a blade would come in handy loading out asphalt and concrete.

JTL what did that blade come off of?

 

[komatsuman1]

JTL
Thats a good looking install. Any issues with it.

 

[TimHay]

JTL
that looks really good
Did they run it off its own hydraulics or ty into the thumb with a electric solinod?
Tim

 

[CM1995]

Not quite a 20 tonner but I thought it was interesting- (from Machinery Trader)

 

[Iron Horse]

That PAT blade on the CAT looks like it's off a D3 . That would be awesome . Ive been wanting to put one on mine , would I need a different slew joint as mine has no spare ports , only the track motor ports . Or is it possible to fit two in there somehow ? I got a heap of new spares with my machine including a spare slew/swivel joint .

 

[JTL]

Tim, EGS, komatsuman,
I'll try to answer all your questions at once!
The blade was plumbed with its own hydraulic circuit. We put a Sure Grip two button control on the left joystick. The right Sure Grip runs the Felco bucket, the thumb, or the newly installed swivel bucket. If you noticed there is a cable holding the thumb up so it doesn't bleed off while the lines are going to the plate bucket or swivel.

The blade came off of an old #12 Cat blade that had been sitting in our bone yard for YEARS. Our wonderful fabricators did an awesome job of building the push arm assemblies and blade lift trunnions.

The only problems I saw with it, was I was the first one to operate it after it was installed. They only put one lift cylinder dead center at first. After the first day of smoothing up some stump holes on a big clearing job we did, was substantial flex either side of the push arms. A talk with the main fabricator, and the owner of the company, it had cylinders mounted over each push arm before it left that job to go the one I took the pics of it seen here.

I haven't been around this machine for over a year now, but I'm sure its holding up quite well. Haven't heard any horror stories!

 

[blueman]

spitzair i agree i have a komatsu 200 and would love to have a blade have no info to share, where exactly did you see the zaxis all the best to you and all the HEO outthere

As far as I know the Volvo EC160 is the largest "conventional" excavator in the market to offer a factory backfill blade, most stop at the 12t class. It might be available on special application machines elsewhere - if Hitachi now offers it on a ZX200 that's something.
You can get a blade on many shortswing machines and Bladerunners of course. All Volvo shortswings have a blade option - ECR145CL, ECR235CL, and even ECR305CL. The latter is about a 75,000lb machine and may be the biggest model of any sort to offer a factory blade.

 

[spitzair]

That's a slick looking setup you got there JTL! Did they have an extra circuit in the circle? Or did they have to install a different one? Just curious. Thanks for the pictures everybody!

 

[hitachinut]

i kinda have an emergency can anyone help i just bought a hitachi zaxis 200 lc and i am draining all the fluids and doing general maintenance i am having trouble draining the fuel out of it and i think the fuel in it has water in it can someone tell me how to do this

 

[gasfield315c]

i like that pic of the 315 with a 6 way blade on it, man i wish i could get ahold of something like that in my line of work, that would be the only way to go punching in roads and stuff like that

 

[special tool]

i like that pic of the 315 with a 6 way blade on it, man i wish i could get ahold of something like that in my line of work, that would be the only way to go punching in roads and stuff like that

Yeah, but you gotta watch.
I have a blade on a 130 size machine.
They just are not a dozer.
The finals will open the reliefs if you try to push too much.
Seems like an excavator with a blade will push about the same amount as a dozer of half it's weight.
They're nice to level the machine on a hill and kick around the top 6 inches, but if you own the machine, I can tell you that you won't be trying to push too much.
Then you always have to watch the hoe up there hitting phone lines or branches - just no substitute for a dozer.

 

[gasfield315c]

well i know you cant cut a road outta fresh ground with the blade, but i have used minis to build roads, and roughed it in with the bucket and just go back over it and grade it with the blade, thats what i was talking about doing with it, just on a bigger scale