Buying an excavator soon would love your insight.

[Welder Dave]

Knew a guy that had 6 P&H hoes with 6V-53's in them running 2650 RPM's digging pipeline with hand and foot controls. Be happy with anything from the newer generation. Not a coincidence he wore a hearing aid.

 

[Don.S]

I guess i am a spoiled brat. Sure wouldn't catch me in that for more then 15 minutes. Also wouldn't catch me in a machine for 6 years with no radio.

 

[OTG AuGres]

If you wouldn’t mind sharing what did the E50 run price wise setup like yours?

Mine was about $77k, ordered with with all the options plus a 36” class 4 digging bucket. I got the large touchscreen, Bluetooth radio, heated seat, climate control, extra hydraulics, quick attach. They gave me a good trade in on my e42. I kept all my buckets and attachments.

 

[Don.S]

How do you like the heated seat? Im curious if it would help with the sore back issues. I wanted the heated seat in my snow tractor for that exact reason but the extra cost was out of the question.

 

[Welder Dave]

Depending on what you're doing a radio can be a distraction and/or not allow you hear when something goes wrong or breaks. General work a radio is OK.

 

[suladas]

I guess i am a spoiled brat. Sure wouldn't catch me in that for more then 15 minutes. Also wouldn't catch me in a machine for 6 years with no radio.

You have a phone right? That's what I use for music if i'm in it for a long time and bored. Do you have a radio if you're working outside? I'm not sure what the big deal is.

 

[suladas]

Depending on what you're doing a radio can be a distraction and/or not allow you hear when something goes wrong or breaks. General work a radio is OK.

Yep. Many times when i'm digging looking for a pipe I open the window and turn off radio so I can hear if bucket touches something. Maybe i'm overly paranoid but no matter what equipment it is until it's warm in the morning especially in the winter radio is off to make sure everything sounds good, and throughout the day here and there I briefly turn it off to make sure no odd sounds.

My dump truck doesn't have a radio either.....

 

[OTG AuGres]

How do you like the heated seat? Im curious if it would help with the sore back issues. I wanted the heated seat in my snow tractor for that exact reason but the extra cost was out of the question.

Really don’t use it much. My machine sits idle a lot in cold weather. It wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me.

 

[NepeanGC]

I specifically buy machines without radios. All the small equipment is too damn loud as it is. We give all of our guys a set 3M worktunes. Syncs to the phone if I need to talk to them, and otherwise acts as both hearing protection and headphones. All the guys love them, and we all have Spotify or Audible.

As for heated seat, I always forget it's there. After greasing the machine, topping up fuel, checking fluids, and general running around to get the job started, I'm warmed up enough.

 

[Welder Dave]

Work Tunes are OK but still difficult to hear unusual sounds over the music. I was using some when I ripped the top swing mount of my backhoe. Would have been nice to hear something prior to seeing the boom hanging funny. Break was partly due to a bad design from the factory.

 

[Just-Joshin-ya]

Well thanks to COVID exposure I’m quarantined for a while any other brands I should compare specs on while I wait?

 

[Tinkerer]

How do you like the heated seat? Im curious if it would help with the sore back issues. I wanted the heated seat in my snow tractor for that exact reason but the extra cost was out of the question.

There a lot of online vendors selling conversions for heated seats.

 

[Simon C]

Get them to bring them for you to try. Its part of the game. If they want your money make them work for it. Companies spend hours of time making quotes for jobs and dont get the job its the same thing when you demo a machine. Its the name of the game.

Parts availability is very important. The company I worked for 10 years ago bought a brand new komatsu excavator 200 size. Operator accidentally broke a pipe on boom a couple weeks later. 1st pipe came 3 weeks later, but wrong pipe. 2nd pipe came a couple weeks after that, wrong pipe. 3rd pipe was the right one. Imagine being without machine for 2 months and still paying for it. If your the sole operator you can get lucky. If someone makes a dumb mistake some good operating machines with less parts availability can put you under. Simon

 

[NepeanGC]

Parts availability is very important. The company I worked for 10 years ago bought a brand new komatsu excavator 200 size. Operator accidentally broke a pipe on boom a couple weeks later. 1st pipe came 3 weeks later, but wrong pipe. 2nd pipe came a couple weeks after that, wrong pipe. 3rd pipe was the right one. Imagine being without machine for 2 months and still paying for it. If your the sole operator you can get lucky. If someone makes a dumb mistake some good operating machines with less parts availability can put you under. Simon

I agree on parts availability, and dealer support, to a certain extent, but that sounds fishy. All the dealers I've ever dealt with will overnight/express ship parts if you're willing to pay for it.

If a machine was down for 2 months because of some broken plumbing on the boom, it's because the company didn't care it was down. I would have just got a temp line made up and put it back to work.

 

[imjustdave]

Yea that's really impressive. I know my 6 ton unless the boom is most of the way up, it won't even pick up 3000lbs, not a chance it would pickup 4700lbs 120" out and not from tipping just doesn't have the power. If you had something perfect in the bucket you could lift easier as I find the biggest limitation is running out of height with the stick tucked in, but still no way would it do that weight. Funny I looked at the specs for my machine and at 6.6' out is says it will pickup 5700lbs, at 120" out ground level it's 3400lbs which I would say is exactly right. So clearly the ratings are way out of wack.

Wonder if you relief is hitting too soon on your stick or boom
Be interesting to see how your lift changes if you lengthen the chain if your specs are really like that.

 

[skyking1]

Today i was setting ~1000 pound type 30 catch basins inside a building. The 35G with standard arm and counterweight was pretty much at tipping with the bucket rolled out and holding it out flat. I had to do that to get in the door and set them under a 9' ceiling. I had some custom rigging to keep it short, 2' cable chokers to the pins and a 2' with swivel hook. That rolled out perfect, the swivel hook was *just* below the teeth to allow for swiveling.

 

[JLarson]

Yeah lifting capacity is a huge consideration for anyone that does utility work. Boxes, manholes, pipe, fittings, valves, tools...