Admirable tight-space work, excavators towing trailers, and Mecalacs

houska · Aug 11, 2023

I was browsing/daydreaming about Mecalacs and came across this video:

1. Anyone here pull a trailer with their mini-ex (whatever type/brand)? Hardly useful for buildsite or fenceline work, but gives me ideas for maintaining and extending my forest road. Trundle along carrying a load of gravel. Or just carrying my own buckets and implements without having to stack them in the bucket and put them down before doing Real Work. Or pretend I'm running a logging forwarder rather than mini-ex

2. Just a shout-out of admiration to the operator here for great tight-space work, especially for how he turns the tight corner and lifts his trailer to come along...

3. What do folks here think of Mecalacs? They have interesting features (3-part boom, hybrid loader-excavator capabilities, high travel speed) and look sci-fi, but is it useful? Or too much of a Swiss-army-knife sorta-do everything but nothing well kind of thing? I've seen a couple in use in Europe, but think they're pretty new and rare in North America.

laurencen · Aug 14, 2023

have one of those swivel bucket and its been great, took some time to figure how to best use it and when you say that I get a funny look but there is a art to using one, only issue its a heavy unit but works great

Omega Woods · Aug 22, 2023

Thanks for sharing this. Incredibly versatile machine and creative use of its capacities. I think Mecalacs are a well-designed, natural evolution of a machine that hasn't evolved much in the past fifty to sixty years (except for the tilt/rotator).

houska · Aug 26, 2023

Omega Woods said:
Thanks for sharing this. Incredibly versatile machine and creative use of its capacities. I think Mecalacs are a well-designed, natural evolution of a machine that hasn't evolved much in the past fifty to sixty years (except for the tilt/rotator).

Yeah. I've never seen one live (just on video) but they seem like great, inventive machines. Overkill for my landowner application (I have a KX-040 and like the <72" width, and I suspect Mecalac's pricing would likely be out of my range anyway...) but one can always dream...

Omega Woods · Aug 26, 2023

houska said:
Yeah. I've never seen one live (just on video) but they seem like great, inventive machines. Overkill for my landowner application (I have a KX-040 and like the <72" width, and I suspect Mecalac's pricing would likely be out of my range anyway...) but one can always dream...

I agree it’s overkill for most landowners. Mrs. Woods and I have a small excavation company. Having a Mec would keep us from having to haul the skid loader to most jobs.

4570Man · Aug 26, 2023

I think the mecalac is way too expensive to be practical. There’s no need to pretend to be a skid steer and a mini excavator when you could buy a skid steer and excavator for the same or less money. It could be said that the mecalac saves time transporting 2 machines but getting a CDL and hauling the skid steer and the mini together on one truck fixes that problem as well. A big percentage of skid steer and mini x owners are hauling them over the CDL threshold without a CDL anyway. Once you get them on the job a skid steer and mini excavator can work far more efficiently than one machine can do. The excavator can dig trenches while the skid steer can transport bedding material. If you were digging a foundation the excavator can dig while the skid steer cleans up the spoils. If the skid steer or excavator breaks down at least you can still do something with the other machine.

houska · Aug 28, 2023

4570Man said:
I think the mecalac is way too expensive to be practical. There’s no need to pretend to be a skid steer and a mini excavator when you could buy a skid steer and excavator for the same or less money. It could be said that the mecalac saves time transporting 2 machines but getting a CDL and hauling the skid steer and the mini together on one truck fixes that problem as well. [...] Once you get them on the job a skid steer and mini excavator can work far more efficiently than one machine can do. The excavator can dig trenches while the skid steer can transport bedding material. If you were digging a foundation the excavator can dig while the skid steer cleans up the spoils. If the skid steer or excavator breaks down at least you can still do something with the other machine.

I think you're right, for the typical American small excavation company job. Neither space or manpower is usually an issue, so it's more flexible (and good point about breakdowns too) to bring two machines to the job, whether you have both running simultaneously or even if you're a one man show jumping between them.

Different story in Europe, with tighter quarters. I'm in Canada but visited relatives in Europe earlier this summer, just as their neighbour was having a foundation for an addition dug up. I don't think you'd have space to park a skid steer nearby, and good luck fitting both onto the buildsite itself. Like in the video I posted. And I don't think that kind of situation is as unique there as it is there.

For my part, I'm just a landowner. I doubt a Mec will ever be cost effective for me, it's just overkill. But as I maintain and extend my now ~4 miles of forest roads, the idea of a combo machine definitely has appeal. I don't even warrant a skid steer for now, but hiking 1/2 mile+ from mini-ex to tractor and vice versa as I work my way up my road, gets old after a while. That's probably while the jack-of-all-trades Mec pulling its own trailer appeals to me so much, even though I don't feel like paying for it