Any Gradall operators here

Taylortractornu · Dec 7, 2003

Has any one here run a Gradall or other squirt boom excavavator? Ive never operated one but my neighbor has on on a 6 wheel drive chassis hes about to sell. They used it o load logs with . It got good tires and is pretty tight. Hes asking 3000 for it. Would this be an ok machine to have I do alot ditch cleaning and debris removal at the moment. Its a good sizes machine and comes with a few boom extensions A ripper and a ditchtin and excavator bucket. I may go operate it a few hours monday and see how I like it. Its also got the remote drive controls.

motrack · Dec 7, 2003

what model is it? Gradall has really stoped supplying parts for many machines.

anything older than a G3WD and parts availability is a crap shoot.

as far as I am concerned Gradalls are for state and county goverments to clean ditches and such. They have never had much appeal to a contractor and I dont think ever will. Gradall does make a track mounted machine and has pushed this to contractors but once you run one and try to do a basement or anykind of diging in a hole you will see why I think they suck.

being a carrier mounted unit it is going to be VERY unstable while diging as tire and spring flex will allow it to rock, a lot.......

one the upside..............for $3000 you could get a lot of use from it and get by until you are ready to buy a REAL excavator.

Dont tell my boss I said this as we are the Gradall dealer for all of Indiana.

Taylortractornu · Dec 7, 2003

Rob its a mid seventies model Its got a chassis lock that he built to lock it to its axles while you dig. Hes got 2 other low our machines that go with it for parts. I want a tracked model for a slope mainteneance contract I want. I saw a gradall dig straight down on a tower base before it kinda amazed me. He tried to get me to buy a Leihberr 921 wheel hoe he has but the first excavator I ever operated was a Leihberr tracked excavator when I was 10 and went to work with dad. No swing brake just a holding/travel brake.
Another reason I wanted it is theres a few pond clean outs that need to be done and a long reach hoe ore dragline is hard to find. But if it doesnt suit me ill find a new home for it lol.
I really want a midsized compact excavator but at the moment Ill have to do a few bigger jobs to pay for it.

cat320 · Dec 8, 2003

well a local contractor here where i am had them and he did everything with it .All he had to build and develope streets and house lots were a gradall ,loader and dump.

motrack · Dec 8, 2003

I would really have to take pity on anyone who depended on a Gradall for their livelyhood.................

digger242j · Dec 8, 2003

My dad was, at various times, either first or second person in charge of Pittsburgh's Water Department, (having worked his way up through the Distribution Division), and he *loved* Gradalls. He was never an operator, but I remember him telling me how good their operator was with the machine. I imagine most of what they used them for would have been the relatively tight holes you'd want to dig to repair a water main break too...

motrack · Dec 8, 2003

I have seen some very skilled opertators do some very nice work with a Gradall.

I dont mean to sound like I am Gradall bashing, but IMHO they are a specialty machine and dont have much appeal to a excavating contractor but for the fact that you can buy them cheap in the used market.

If you need a machine with a squirt boom and 360 bucket rotation then a Gradall is the machine to have. Other wise I find a regular excavator to be more capable in many jobs.

Gradall only builds about 1 new machine a day. They have a very small piece of the excavtor market.

Taylortractornu · Dec 9, 2003

Th fellas that have the Gadalls Im looking at has a blade they built to go on the bucket quick tach. They use to park in the streets and grade the yards of some of the houses in town that had short lawns and no room to put a dozer in. They also used it on county roads one person would steer the truck and they would let the hoe operator control the speed from the rear. it worked real good because of the pich could be changed by tilting the bucket in or out then it also had the rotating arm so it coud change the tilt. One of the main reasons Id like to have the Gradall Im looking at is to load sandy clay and loose gravel. that way I could leave my hoe in one spt to spread and use the Gradall to load and dress the pit I use. Its aggravating to take the hoe to a spot load several loads then haul it to the site then spread then load it back up and load with it again then repeat.

mdigger · Mar 10, 2009

do u want tires or tracks?

Taylortractornu · Mar 10, 2009

I want one on tires or a truck mount but the way my business fell off around here I couldnt even afford insurrance on one right now lol. My neighbor s son scrapped the one I bought had a big stink over itthe last few months. I paid the owner 1000 dollars for a good running one I mentioned abouve and 6 buckets and a thumb. I t was pretty old but a low hour machine and I wanted it for light use at work so as not to tie up my other machines. Well abright after I bought it the man sold some old crawler frames around it and his son cashed in my machine I got my money back but i was still mad.

Pete1468 · Mar 10, 2009

I'm lucly enough

I'm the lucky guy that gets to run a XL4100 with 2 cummins engines. It's a 1994 model I believe. I work for the county that I live in and am the main operator of it. I just got the news today that I'll be getting a new one within a month or so. It deffinately has it's place, it won't lift near as much as a regular excavator but you can work under power lines and around poles very easy. I have a thumb attachment for it and it works great for clearing trees and brush. I can sit on the road grab a good sized tree and direct it almost any direction it needs to go, most times a ditch tree is leaning the wrong way to let it drop. The boom rotate is a real nice feature for just about everything.
The 2 main problems that I have with the machine are the upper motor gets hot if you work it hard on a hot day and the ac in the upper cab barely works. I usually don't run the machine any higher than 2000 rpm and I don't have near as many hose ruptures as the previous operator.

john1066 · Mar 10, 2009

We are a excavating contractor and have a XL5100. It is not as good as a regular excavator for some applications but has a place. we use it alot for clean up loaming islands patching and paving grading sidewalks. It has its place we also have 2 cummings. It seems every large site contractor around here has 1 or 2 of them. Ours is a 2000 and youd be surprised how much you can pick of do without the maching bouncing around too much.

ddigger · Mar 11, 2009

I have run both track and truck mounted gradalls over the yrs as well as the now gone badgers which was also a truck mounted machine. I also ran many of the old truck mounted excavators when you needed an oiler to move the bottem rig while you worked from the cab. They all had thier place. Although I must say I dont missem.

Buckethead · Mar 11, 2009

I have worked around a few of them. It's not meant to replace a regular excavator. But they are GREAT for grading slopes, or small areas where a dozer would have a hard time getting in to. They also excel at cleaning ditches and wetland mitigations. Long reach excavators have taken much of that work away from them in recent times. But unless the long reach has a tilt bucket I feel it's not as useful as a Gradall with boom extensions. Just my opinion.

td25c · Mar 11, 2009

The big advantage a gradall has over an excavator is its low profile.when cleaning road ditches you are always working under power,and telephone lines.

Buckethead · Mar 11, 2009

25c said:
The big advantage a gradall has over an excavator is its low profile.when cleaning road ditches you are always working under power,and telephone lines.

I forgot about that but you're right 25c! A gradall doesn't need as much clearance overhead. Excellent for working in a refinery or chemical plant with pipe racks going every which way overhead.

telescooper · Mar 11, 2009

I used to operate a G3WD. I thought it was a good machine, small, maneuverable, good off road characteristics. Now we have a XL3100 series3, my opinion is still being formed on the new one.. I always preferred the smaller machines to the larger ones. I like the constant force of a telescoping boom excavator, however they don't have the breakout force, or lifting capability of a trackhoe. Sometimes I long for a Gradall when operating a trackhoe, especially in low clearance areas.
Telescoper

guysrus · Jan 9, 2010

To Telescooper, sorry to hear about your luck having to run a 3100, Ive got around 15000 hours running G3WDs and a couple hundred on a 3100, running it only when my G3WD is in for service. the 3100 is Junk , very high in maintaince , is always broke down, they say it is faster, but you dont have the fine control you have with the G3WD , I would go up against the best operator on a 3100 on general ditch work and could get 1/3 more production out of the G3WD , I just found a G3WD used with only 1000 hours for 30,000 and am now trying to get my boss to consider buying a used one as we usually get new, but I want another G3WD, the first one I ran we got rid of it with 12000 hrs on it and it still ran great and the one I run now is nearing 10000 hrs, if we get the used G3WD , that should take me to retirement and I wont have to worry about being stuck with a 3100, Guysrus

DEE · Apr 18, 2010

HEY GANG,,,I HAVE ABOUT 6 HRS ON A GADALL,,ITS KIKIN MY BUTT ,,,HOPEFULLY ILL GET IT.THE SWING ON THEM IS WEAK WICH MAKES IT HARD DITCHING AT LEAST FOR ME..ANY IDEAS WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM,,,THANKS,,,Dee

telescooper · Apr 20, 2010

Hi Dee

When ditching with a Gradall you really should not be swinging. The movement should be boom and bucket. When doing round bottom ditches do them off the side. Place the digger cab as close to 90 degrees from the carrier as you can, this will help you keep the ditch will be straighter, don't be afraid to paint a line to follow. For "V" ditches try to do them off the back. You will find one can be very creative with these machines. I think Gradalls are excellent highway maintenance machines. I do enjoy operating them, however roading them can be rough. Always wear your seat belt the carrier cabs don't have a lot of head clearance in them. Just my 2 cents

Telescooper

Any Gradall operators here

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