Helac PowerGrip

It should handle it well eh Deas. My Kaiser guy told me it's to heavy and I should have went with the 24". I pointed out that there is only 80 pounds difference. To that he said it's not the weight of the bucket it's the weight of the capacity that it can hold. So I pointed out it doesn't have near the capacity my 36" digging bucket Kaiser sent me has and it handles that no prob....? He didn't have an answer and changed the subject. I don't think he was happy I went somewhere else.

I just heard today from the guys I was ordering it from (Inland Kenworth - Parker Pacific) that it will be a four to six week wait for it. Helac builds the actuators and someone else builds the bucket with it on. The guys that they have build them are swamped so tomorrow I'm going to see if I can find someone local capable of building it for me if they send the actuator and plans....should be interesting eh. It could turn out to be a good gig for whoever builds it for me as I'm sure if they do a good job mine wont be the only one they build.

That is a good price eh Day, to bad I'm not ready to buy my next machine yet. If it wasn't in an auction I would call and see if they would sell the grapple separate.

Well I checked it all out and...I'm going to wait for it. I can't get it built much faster local and it would cost way more so it's not worth it.

Long wait equals busy firms??????????????

Hi, Brian.
If that long wait is any indication, there must be a bit of work going on around your way in the engineering/manufacturing sector. That is usually a good sign with regard to the general economy.

Hi Deas,
It's coming from Washington, not sure what it's like there but I don't imagine much different then here as it is not far away. Were I am at I feel very fortunate to be here. Everywhere I look there is new construction and opportunity for anyone ambitious enough to go after it. Now that things have started rolling I'm taking off and growing fast. I already need subs but am having a hard time finding any, everyone is booked up.

Needing subs.

Hi, Brian.
Best of luck with finding subs. Trouble with that is that pretty much anyone worth hiring or having as a sub is already busy with their own work. My boss has been looking for 2 track loader operators with 4-in-1 bucket and house pad experience for about 5 months now. The job has a good pay rate and comes with company pick-up, cell phone and fuel card, 4 weeks annual leave and all public holidays paid, sick pay, superannuation and long service leave.

We are almost exclusively cutting/filling/levelling house sites prior to building to +/- 1/2"-3/4" tolerance with laser monitoring on the machines, NOT laser controlled. He has not exactly been swamped with enquiries, let alone from anybody worth considering.

I've been working with an owner-operator on a Komatsu PC138US excavator for most of the last week. I can load trucks faster and smoother in soft ground with a Cat 943 than he can with his excavator and his cutting of levels leaves a little to be desired too. Fortunately, he is not on hire to our company. Both of us are on hire to the owner of the property where we are working - or at last where he WAS working. The boss lady (property owner) told me tonight as I finished for the day that he would not be back on Monday, that I was going to be finishing the job off.

Just as a side issue to this situation, yesterday this owner-operator was loading 2 hired trucks and both truck drivers - owner-drivers - were complaining that he was over-loading them. Neither of them clued in the whole day to the fact that they DIDN'T HAVE to stay there for him to put the last bucket or two on them, that they could have pulled out from under him when THEY reckoned they had enough instead of waiting for his signal. DUH?

JCB used to offer what was called a "Clamshell" bucket for the excavator of the 3CX. Gripping power was good, like it would be for a PowerGrip. The hydraulic technology on the PowerGrip is great. The only thing to consider is the additional weight on the bucket cylinder. This will reduce capacity. When you use a thumb it does not affect the bucket cylinder, just the boom and stick. I think that a good 24" and a thumb, either rigid or hydraulic, is a better package. Just my thoughts.

Thumbs.

Hi, Goat.
I have no doubt that you have your reasons for preferring a thumb over a 4-in-1 style bucket but have you ever tried clamming up dirt with a thumb? The d****d stuff just won't seem to play ball for some reason.

I'd go along with you if clearing and handling rocks was ALL you ever wanted to with it. How-wevver, as soon as you add needing to clam up dirt - or crushed rock, or gravel or sand - to the equation, it takes on a whole new dimension and a 4-in-1 style bucket is the only way to fly, at least in my humble estimation.

Finding the subs is quite a challenge for sure, everyone is busy. I have access to almost any machine I would need but I never thought I would need the subs I do. I need a carpenter, someone to lay paving stones and sod.

The weight issue is something I put a lot of thought into before deciding on the PowerGrip. For me it is more important then most. When I'm on steep slopes as I'm sure you can imagine, the less weight I have out in front of me the better. It may put slightly more weight on the cylinder but not much. Overall weight is significantly less being there is no extra cylinder, and the bucket itself is the thumb. The only real extra weight is the actuator, not sure what it weighs but not much.

As for size it was hard to decide between 24 or 30 inch. My digging bucket is 36 inch and it handles it no problem. So I figured the 30 would be a nice balance between capacity and light weight.

looks a fantastic bit of kit:notworthy

I got it!

Well it finally got here and I have worked it for a few days now building a rock wall with large granite boulders. Wow am I ever impressed, I love it! Having this thing will really open a lot of doors for us and allow us to do a lot more work in a shorter time frame.

The jigger arrived.

Hi, Brian.
Great stuff. Thanks for the photos. I hope it lives up to all your expectations. Please keep us posted.

WIth your wrist-o-wrist, that might actually be better than a thumb cause its always square to the rest of the bucket. As well, it is a great option it you have an extenda hoe. It look like it has some strenght to its claming. The one thing I can see a thumb would have over it is that a thumb has a larger opening, I think. But as Deas said, try using a thumb to load dirt... Looks great Brian, keep us informed on how its doing.

Great result Brian :drinkup looks like it was worth the wait :Banghead.
Hope it is all you hope it too be, you definetely have the machine to get the best out of an attachment like that.
Keep us posted on how it goes and good luck going forward. :thumbsup

We just built one of these odd-ducks

Here's some pics "in the nude"

Hey guys I have a helac tilt on my 312DL and love it but in saying that its only new so give it a few thousand hours and see how it goes

BrianHay said:

I think we are going to make one our next investment a.s.a.p. The first thing almost everyone asks me is if I have a thumb. Can you guys see any disadvantages it would have compared to a thumb? I have never really used ether. I'm looking into the cost and will let you guys know what I find out.

Click to expand...

Nice attachment, but compared to a good thumb, you would not be able to grab near as much with this bucket as you could with a thumb. A thumb will definitly have a larger opening.

Not pick up as much.

Hi, MDD.
Respectfully, I don't see how you can really compare the two attachments. A thumb is made for handling OBJECTS. The Helac Power-Grip is made for working with dirt. Now you just might have a little difficulty picking up the last little crumbs of dirt with a thumb while such a task would be no trouble at all to the Power-Grip. On the other hand, the Power-Grip looks to me as if it would be well and truly capable of 'trespassing' on a thumb's turf, even if it isn't able to pick objects as large as a thumb will pick up.

Just in case you have doubts about the above, I HAVE used both a thumb and an opening bucket, although not a Power-Grip. Both have their places and both add a LOT to the versatility of an excavator. Ideally, it would be nice to have both in one's 'arsenal' of 'weapons'. However, if I had to choose one or the other, I think I'd go the same way that Brian has gone.

Just my 0.02.

Not me. If I had to choose, it would be a thumb hands down. We have quick couplers and lots of different buckets. It is nice to swich on the 24 inch bucket and use the thumb, then throw on a 60 inch bucket and still use the thumb and so on.

Dont get me wrong, I like the attachment and only compared to two because that is what he asked. I'd like to have that bucket on a mini excavator. but my guess is that bucket is prob. more than a thumb. am I right?

As far as getting that last bit of dirt goes. seems you may need a little more time behind the controls.

More time behind the controls?????????????????

Hello, MDD.
Oh? How much more would you suggest?

Hey Veeplow too bad I didn't know about you sooner, I would have had you build ours. Not that the one we have wasn't built well, it was. But it just would have been much easier to have it built in Canada. Oh well, now I know for the next machine eh :drinkup

Weight issues:
This is large for me and in part why I went with the PowerGrip. There is more weight for the bucket cylinder to handle no doubt but nothing it can't handle and over all weight is arguably less. The bucket itself is the thumb so there is no extra weight there, just the extra weight of the actuator which I can't see being any more then what the cylinder for the thumb would be....maybe even less, it's not very big.

Size of object it can pick:
The pictures I posted don't show it open all the way. As Deas pointed out earlier I have to be careful not to put my bucket teeth into the stick when open all the way. A thumb would only have a mater of inches on the the PowerGrip....I cant think of anything a thumb would pick that I can't. I have a pile of limbs on site from a yellow cedar about 2 foot at the butt I pushed over yesterday...got video of it, need to make a youtube account so I can post it. I will grab a handful of the limbs tomorrow and take a picture for you guys to show what it will grab. I should have taken video of ripping the stump apart too. In about five minutes I reduced the stump to nothing. I picked it up, shook the dirt out of it and then ripped it apart.
The power this thing has is impressive. I have it running at about 3400 psi when it's closing (can't remember exact power but it is set to speck). If anyone is interested I will scan the book. And that is a constant power throughout the full range of motion. I wasn't going to post this picture because it shows me abusing my machine which rarely happens, she is very loved. But sometimes you just gotta get er done and this was the only place I could get a really good grip on this boulder. The picture really shows off the clamping power of this attachment though. Really shows off the power of the machine too. With the boulder, PowerGrip and PowerTilt that's a solid 5000 pounds out there and she didn't even grunt. When I set it were it had to go I was at near full extension and it had no problem with that.

Clamping dirt:
Well as far as that goes until I got this I had nothing to say about that because I have never worked with an attachment capable of doing that before. I can get the last bit of dirt without being able too clamp it no prob. But with it, it is much easier and faster and time IS money so...yah it works great. And heaped capacity is .39 yards which is not bad for a dig bucket on a machine that only weighs 18,500 pounds, it will move a lot o dirt in a hurry. My other dig bucket is is .50 yards.

Hey Shantull I have no idea how many hours are on my PowerTilt but I got it used and the model I have became obsolete 6 years ago and it's still good as new so I'm sure yours will do you well for a long time.