I was taught that the cable machines were a basic shovel until you added a front, then they became what the front was.Tri-State closed up some years ago now. The liquidated all the assets as I recall in a Ritchie auction.
My memory keeps getting darker all the time. It was a 1266 and I had to appraise it twice. There was a 1466 on that Queen City Farms job that was brought in from out of state. This is the first time I've heard a price on that machine. They were upset when only $10K was offered on a trade.
The shovel on the machine in my avatar was removed and a sixty foot crane boom was installed. Does that mean it is no longer a shovel? At that time it used a clamshell bucket. Years later when I came across it again, it had a dragline bucket installed. Is it still no longer a shovel? All the "excavators" made in Japan have an extra hydraulic circuit installed so that a shovel front can be installed and a clam style shovel bucket used. It seems the job that they accomplish is how something is named. So why is a backhoe that digs the same way as an excavator not called an excavator? By the inverse reasoning why isn't an excavator just called a backhoe?
A crane ,a clamshell, a dragline, a backhoe, a shovel or a log shovel.
I guess the hydraulic machines are excavators if they have a backhoe front on them, and a shovel when they have a shovel front or a log shovel front on them.
Tri state was an interesting outfit to be nice .
That 1266 may have sold for 6500 but7500 sticks in my mind and it still ran.
if I go out to the shop in the morning and get distracted I have to feel the truck motor to see if its warm. if it is I just got home ,if it's cold I haven't left yet.
Bob