new to mini-x's, Have a few questions for you professional's

So i'm looking to buy a mini ex to moonlight with. I'm been looking at all brands, i'm picky about what it is. A couple i've looked at have the boom that can move to dig at weird angles, Any pro's or con's to them? What are these grey market models i keep reading about?

Well, I'm not a pro on excavators, but I can give you a base to start with. The digging at weird angles deal, ( I assume that you are talking about the boom moving off to one side or the other), Very handy for digging up close to a foundation for installing drainage, nice feature to have. As far as brands go: If you can not fix the machine yourself, then stick with a brand that you know where to find a dealer. For example, I have a Takeuchi TB25 (Hasn't been made in years) and there isn't a dealer with in 100 miles (sorry, I don't know what the metric conversion is... B-) And as a second issue, I bought an older machine, and some of the parts are no longer available. So even if you buy a machine in good working order, you still might need parts eventually, so figure that, and transport in. Grey market in the USA probably means something different than it does in Canada. But in the USA, as soon as a Kubota dealer gets wind that the machine you have was purchased and imported illegally, they won't even sell you parts. The work around is to find the closest non grey market model in your region, and order parts based on that.

This is the type of boom and stick i'm talking about, not sure how to explain it so i'll let the picture do the talking.

HMmmm not what I was thinking about at all.
I've seen them, but I'm not sure what use they
Are, as when you lower the boom it would change
The angle of the bucket the deeper you dug.

I'm not an expert either. (sorry about your luck)chuckle.
That is an odd boom set-up, in a number of ways.
The piviot/swing boom is a very valuable option. Thumb too.
If I had it to do again I'd have a cab with dependable heat and A/C. and thumb.
Do you have a target for moonlighting, my point is thats a considerable capitol investment to umm..
"hope that work comes about"
I too own a excavator and it is almost part of the lawn furniture now.

Dig around the older pages and you will find a wealth of information.

i haven't talked to many people that like the scissor boom ,lots of pins to get a wee bit of movement in and get floppy,and top heavy too.most brands have gone to the boom pivot at the bottom of the boom now.

This is my machine with the lower pivot like nzpatch is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNsESosxf1I
The bucket leading edge remains parallel with the machine at all times, so you get a flat bottomed trench at all times.
The setup on the unit you have in the picture looks like you would have a hard time doing that. Unless it has a twisting wrist
on it or something. And I think I'd be worried about the extra movement as well, especially if you buy an older machine.
I bought mine for use around the farm, (if I want to work for hire I need a hoisting license.) So you might want to check the rules in Canada to see what your requirements might be. Some states in the USA require it, some just toss you in the seat, and hope for the best. (I'm a hope for the best kind of guy, that happens to live in the wrong state..B-)

stay away from those articulating booms like that kommie has in the pic. They will get sloppy, and when your done with it, no one else will want it. 2.5 years ago I was in the same boat you are in. I shopped around for months, rented different machines, talked to everyone that had one.... Then I found a dealer that had been setting on a new machine for a couple of years and he needed to sell it bad, 30% off bad. So I bought it. Then I realized that it was too big for my truck, so I had to get a bigger one of those.

Whatever you get, plan on being able to move it yourself. Don't push a pickup past an 8k pound machine. I'd highly suggest a medium duty single axle dump gvw 25k-33k, you will thank me later.

thank you for your input guys

That boom setup in the picture is known here in the UK as a knuckle boom - as previously mentioned they can get a lot of play in them after a few years of use (abuse??!!) plus You tend to pay more for them as they cost a lot more to buy in the first place so if you don't need one then look for a conventional machine which should be cheaper to buy and have less potential issues in the future

articulating boom

that boom in the picture is called a sigma boom on my yanmar. i like it alot.3400 hrs and the pins are still tight

Jlillie2 said:

This is my machine with the lower pivot like nzpatch is talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNsESosxf1I
The bucket leading edge remains parallel with the machine at all times, so you get a flat bottomed trench at all times.
The setup on the unit you have in the picture looks like you would have a hard time doing that. Unless it has a twisting wrist
on it or something. And I think I'd be worried about the extra movement as well, especially if you buy an older machine.
I bought mine for use around the farm, (if I want to work for hire I need a hoisting license.) So you might want to check the rules in Canada to see what your requirements might be. Some states in the USA require it, some just toss you in the seat, and hope for the best. (I'm a hope for the best kind of guy, that happens to live in the wrong state..B-)

Click to expand...

Yeah you don't need a hoisting ticket in Western Canada.