Building a custom excavator

[Coastal]

Tired of front mounted offset boom machines and their limitations, and a niche market for dh mountain bike trails, as well as sensitive forestry operations, we decided to build the ultimate mini excavator.


The undercarriage is from a cat 307ssr, the drivetrain and cab is from a John Deere 50d, final drives and 115l fuel tank are komatsu Pc78, the boom is custom built as well as the rest of it.




I'll skip the boring deconstruction cleaning up burned machines phases

Here is the main upper chassis hanging for welding

Undercarriage mostly fabricated

Oh and it's going to tilt for steep slopes

 

[hvy 1ton]

Well this looks interesting. TIme to get some popcorn.

 

[Coastal]

Then I got to start painting things

After a few weeks of making hydraulic lines, figuring out hydraulic schematics and almost going crazy I got to put the two halves together and make it do funny things

 

[Coastal]

Fast forward to this week, it's driving and we've started to do a bit of testing...

Once the tilt rotator and bucket or grapple is on, it should have about 23-24' of reach.

And some lifting tests with a 4500lb lock block, relief setting is stock John Deere so we should get some more out of it.

The valves to activate the Tilt cylinders aren't wired up yet, so there is no oil in them, but here's what the tilt looks like on flat ground.

We started this in may, and should be ready to work by mid next week for a test job, I'm getting really excited to get back in a machine and out of this shop!

 

[CM1995]

That creation is damn impressive. Keep the progress pics and commentary coming.

 

[ycs]

Good job, u should upload this beast to youtube...

 

[92U 3406]

This is the stuff I like to see! The phrase built, not bought just took on a whole new meaning with this beast.

 

[Graham1]

That is fantastic. If it works as expected you will be so far ahead of the competition in your niche work you will hopefully be overrun with orders. Can't wait to see it in action.
Graham

 

[OTG AuGres]

Very impressive!!! Lots of injenuity and talent.

 

[Coastal]

This is the stuff I like to see! The phrase built, not bought just took on a whole new meaning with this beast.

That's also part of the point, I will own this machine outright, no financing, no payments, I will have over 1000 hours into it, but it's mine at he end of the build and that's worth it to me.

 

[Coastal]

Good job, u should upload this beast to youtube...

I will once it's got a bucket on and all the hydraulics are functioning.

 

[farmerlund]

That's a very cool project. Did you start with all salvage machines? Looks like you guys have some excellent fab skills.

 

[Coastal]

That's a very cool project. Did you start with all salvage machines? Looks like you guys have some excellent fab skills.

Yes, 2 burned machines and a rolled over machine. Cheap parts!

 

[DARO]

Looks very nice

 

[Coastal]

Just wired up my electric control valves and it works!

 

[td25c]

Very impressive Coastal !

That will sure be handy working on slopes .

 

[Hobbytime]

cool, got a question, what would be the biggest angle of slope you need to climb, and will those shoes give enough bite before loosing grip on the ground? would it pay to weld ice cleats on to bite into the ground to prevent sliding on steep grades?

 

[Coastal]

cool, got a question, what would be the biggest angle of slope you need to climb, and will those shoes give enough bite before loosing grip on the ground? would it pay to weld ice cleats on to bite into the ground to prevent sliding on steep grades?

We have cleats in the plan, that's a great point, whether it will be add ons to make it like a single bar grouser or ice cleats has yet to be determined. I just went to another dirt pile to max it out, and see what it would do,and this is the result.

As you can see that is a bit more slope than it will level it, but that's pretty extreme, the bucket is full of wet clay and there is no counter weight on the machine but it's surprisingly stable.

The angle measured there is 30 degrees of tilt with the machine which translates to a 57% slope. I wouldn't want to be in anything steeper than that without winch lines.

 

[Hobbytime]

maybe its just my computer, but I dont see any images, just 2 of these

 

[farmboy555]

That is looking great, some nice fabricating clean looking job