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Kubota U 25 S mini

007

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
280
Location
Australia
Yeh all sounds good you will get the hang of it as time goes by.
I operate mode B but what ever floats your boat.
Yes you are correct the machine will settle alot when you are digging on a slope because you only have the ends of the tracks and the blade in contact with the soil.
The grading i mentioned was not the sort you are taking about no big deal.
Don't want to get into a pissing contest with rocks but check these monsters out.
I pulled all of them out of a bank behind my place with the U25 a few months back and dragged/rolled them to where they are now.
The one with the coke can is 130cm across.
No idea what weight but not even the U35 would have been able to lift those suckers.
If you are careful so as not to abuse your machine its amazing the tasks you can tackle.
This is what you use your ripper for as it acts like a pry-bar and you just lever them out of the ground.
If you try this with your small bucket you are just going to rip the teeth off the bucket.
I used to have Hyd breaker on the U35 but now just the ripper and petrol jack hammer has to suffice.
I don't want to put hammer on my 25 as they are cruel on your machine.
Some of the new ones are low vibration but not if i can help it.
By the way if you are attacking big boulders your small bucket is the strongest as you can bend the floor of the wider buckets.

20180420_173521.jpg 20180420_173536.jpg 20180420_173624.jpg
 
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Natman

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Dec 19, 2016
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I had my first occasion to travel and work across a soft mushy area of ground, due to a seasonal spring that will soon dry up as the snow higher up melts. I DIDN'T get stuck, not even close, as this is my first tracked piece of equipment of any kind, it is pretty amazing what they can do versus wheels and tires. I also have been using the dozer blade for the first few times, and am again impressed with how well and how much it can push. I've also been playing around with various amounts of side shift (?) versus rotating the house, to get the boom where I want it, to remain as stab le as possible when working on some side slopes. My thinking has been; try and keep the counter weight mostly on the opposite side of the "weak" side, it's working out well and i continue to have a blast running the thing.

With more time on it now, I have also gotten a better sense for it's stability overall, and this is where my crane experience works against me. The "bad feeling" of being out of level while rotating, would make me stop and relevel my crane, no big deal with this thing it seems.
 

Natman

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I took a break from my trail building to off load this 500 pound HVAC commercial unit I got for free (from a day crane job I was doing, it was a working unit just too small) that I installed for my shop a couple years ago. But, I quickly realized the shop air and AC was a bad combo, (using the inside shop air for it's intake) I was going through filters like crazy. So I am replacing it with a large swamp cooler, which will blow in a constant supply of fresh outside air, much better.

I passed on using my Kubota tractor for the job, the forks wouldn't go high enough, and besides the mini is more fun to operate. I gently and carefully tugged it off the platform, almost to it's tipping point, and then before it fell clear, shock loading and no doubt swinging into the boom, I unhooked, moved the mini clear, and climbed up and tipped it off by hand. This is a funny way to do it for a crane guy, but my 30 ton stays in town in the valley, not on the mountain side where I live, and it's going to the recycler anyway. I am realizing more and more how handy a mini X is, between it and the tractor I can do a lot.IMG_20180428_134733787_HDR.jpg IMG_20180428_134733787_HDR.jpg
 

Natman

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Not my idea, I think I read about it here in an earlier post, but I made a grading bucket out of my 12". My unit came with a 9" (highly desired by me for trenching conduit and water lines) a 12", and the 16". I figured the 12" would get little use, and though I don't know what it was worth on the used market, I'm sure it wasn't enough to offset the cost of a new grading bucket. Plus I needed it it NOW, this took all of half an hour. I had the angle, and didn't even have to cut it to length, it's 32". I won't use it for digging at all, just for moving around fluffed up dirt, so far so good, just welded to the teeth so I IMG_20180426_133921167_HDR.jpg guess I didn't destroy the bucket

I have a bank behind an outbuilding, and over the last few years I have been carving into the back whenever I need some dirt (NO rocks), eventually I will probably extend the outbuilding into the area, so a win/win. I needed some clean fill for my trail making, and the mini quickly carved out enough for my purposes. But of course the bucket teeth left it roughed up, the home made grading bucket buffed it out nicely. It will also be good for cleaning out a footing excavation, cleaning out the fluff, though I can't scoop it up I can at least sweep it all to end and then change buckets.

In doing this I made my first bucket quick change, and didn't of course read how to do it. Easy enough,, and the second time even easier, a good enough system speed wise for my purposes.
 
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Natman

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Dec 19, 2016
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Tag teaming with both Kubota rigs, though I'm liking the excavator more then the tractor these days. It seems more like a real piece of equipment and less like a hobby tractor. Heavier built overall, though the tractor does all that i ask of it so no real complaints with it either.IMG_20180426_142208658_HDR.jpg
 

Natman

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Got 'er hangared! Sooner or later with me, it always comes around to airplanes...... I realized I had room for it, and when the 12' dump bed trailer is in there, on the left, the bucket will rest in the bed. I really like how compact these things are, my backhoe attachment for my old Kubota tractor took up about the same amount of floor space.

I'm not sure if it's permited here to link to another site? But this video deserves a look.
IMG_20180501_102718843~2.jpg
 

Kiwi-truckwit

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Nov 20, 2016
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315
Location
New Zealand
Just lifted a 3.5 class machine, and took a pic to show you. Lifted with a 4 leg chain bridle (4th chain was hooked out of the way back to the ring) with the leg on the boom shortened with a clutch by about 6ft. IMG_20180504_122333265_HDR.jpg
 

Natman

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That looks good, nice and level, real pretty. I have not had a chance yet to get the 30 ton National and the U25 together yet. I keep the U25 at home so far and the crane stays down in the valley in my crane yard there. It's not a casual thing to drive it up here, plus the trailer I had hoped to use to haul the 25 (12'dump bed) is not optimum for the purpose I've decided. So I am trying to make up my mind as to buy or build a trailer, or I just may decide the dumper is optimum enough and just use it. But sooner or later I'll get the two together and whether I need to or not, it's going flying! If for no other reason then to get some pictures for my new business card "BEATS A SHOVEL EXCAVATION", an off shoot of my crane service. For when you can't get anything in where the digging needs to be, and a shovel is looking like the only way. A niche market, and nothing I expect to make a living off of, but another way to get a job or two for the crane now and then.
 

Natman

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I had an idea the other day, to use the mini to off load my 1200 lb. (I think) two part jib off my National 1300 series boom truck. With 110' of main boom, I rarely, as in maybe once a year, need it. It only gives me more height, not more radius, so short of radio tower work and grain elevators, I don't need it on all the time. It's about 11' off the ground, that can't help the rigs cornering and center of gravity going down the highway, not to mention pulling the hills and mountains I drive all the time. Plus I am barely legal on my rear tandems, 33,380 lbs., (and only if I offload 500 lbs of normally carried dunnage/pads) 34,000 is the limit before it costs me a lot more in over weight fees.

I am planning to built up a raised off loading dock, using pre fabricated concrete traffic barriers and dirt from my home property (free, plus it needs to move anyway), so the mini is not reaching so high, more eyeball to eyeball with the jib. More thinking is involved before I do anything, plus I need to make some time.
 

Natman

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Got it airborne with the 30 ton National, which I had at home for an oil change, good for putting it about 45 to 50'IMG_20180513_142157302~3.jpg from the center of rotation, and over 100' high. For other U25s owners who want to fly it......, 2 12' slings for the blade, and a custom made (inexpensive though) 85" long wire rope for the boom makes it fly about perfect. The rigging shown is just what I had handy.
 

Natman

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Dec 19, 2016
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I got my little add on project, to an existing pole barn outbuilding, finished up right before the first snow hit. I've been having fun with that whole zero swing thing as this picture shows. I gained some more level parking space on my mountain site, with all the dirt I had to take out of the hillside for the add on. I had to move it all about 80' away, so I used my 12' dump bed trailer, towed with the Kubtoa tractor, to shuttle it to the dump site. You'd think after running my boom truck all day the last thing I'd want to do is run more equipment on my off time, wrong, I really enjoy running the mini!
 

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