Chinese 1-ton mini questions

[D'oh]

90 hours on my 1.2 Ton JF12. 85 of those hours dealing with a Clay Soup Hole and Draining it.

When I say Soup Hole, I mean you can Hand Bury a 12' Pipe Pole into it, so Floatation is a Concern. I Cordaroy a trail with 8' 2x6's, 4 under the tracks will hold the machine up in all but the soupest areas.

An 8' Railroad Tie can be picked up at full reach and swung 360 degrees without tipping. However, walking on uneven terrain can throw you off the seat quickly. Even a 3" drop, at the worst time.

Heat is the biggest concern. Worse when using the Walking Motors. Running without the back cover on helps, wrapping the muffler with Exhaust Tape, etc.

Walking Speed is really slow, think before you move.

They are Much More than a Helper with a Shovel, Shudda had one when I helped in digging a Basement out by Shovel! They are not a CAT or JD, but then again the Bank Account is also still there.

 

[sansbury]

Well, as of right now I have a quote for a UME18 from UHI in my hands.

UHI Machinery UME18 Mini Excavator 4,330lbs. Kubota Engine

* Kubota D902 15.8HP Engine * Swing boom; high/low travel speed; Expandable track * Hydraulic quick hitch for easy changing attachments Package price $23,600 including 8” Trenching bucket, 16” Digging bucket, 39” Grading bucket, Ripper, Hydraulic quick hitch, Hydraulic thumb and 3 year...

uhimachinery.com

I spent some time this past weekend out in my jungle with the 1025R and it kind of made my decision for me. A lot of the areas I want to operate in are somewhat uneven, and I realized how the TLB setup is a much more stable platform with a very large effective counterweight and the stabilizers. I felt like I could probably pull it off with a 1-ton but I'd probably end up spending a lot more time inching my way around and digging to level the ground before doing the actual project.

Also, while the 260B hoe is strong enough, I realized I spent about 20+ minutes digging a few feet of trench 36" deep, where I might be digging a couple hundred feet like that, among other things. So I may have been underestimating the value of a little more power.

While I'm happy with my 1025R, in hindsight if I was doing it over I would have bought the 2025 (or comparable). It's enough machine, but a little more would have been a lot better, and this is kind of the same situation I think.

As for UHI, their pluses are that their US HQ is sort of local to me (~2 hour drive), the machine has a good feature set and components, and it's on the heavier side of its peer set (~4200#).

I will say I liked the smaller 12P a lot, and could see it being a great machine for a lot of folks.

 

[paulsharvey]

That looks like a good choice to me.

 

[sansbury]

Just a quick update - machine was delivered last week and I've put about 4 hours on it. This is my first experience with an excavator so YMMV. Overall, a good experience so far. Thoughts:

- Attachments were larger than expected, especially the auger. I'd seen the smaller sized ones for the 1-ton machine but not these. This thing looks like it could drill for oil.

- The machine feels stable and well-planted moving around my very not flat site. To move it from my driveway to the "outback" I had to traverse some pretty steep slopes (think >20°) and had no trouble doing so going very slow using the bucket as a stabilizer. Didn't even mark the wet grass very much so long as I kept turns very gradual.

- The track pedals are not ideally shaped or positioned. They are fine going forwards, but going backwards I have to push the pedal down fairly far to get it to move and it's slightly awkward as my foot just doesn't twist back that far that easily. Maybe it would be easier if I was wearing heels lol. I could see trying to mod this a little.

- On the whole, the controls feel slightly smoother than the ones on my Deere 1025R/260B backhoe. That thing is twitchy as heck and will jerk you around badly if you're not concentrating on controlling it. I spent some time pulling brush with the rake and just practicing skimming the ground like you would to pull a grade and getting the motion started slowly on both cylinders feels like when I started learning to drive a MT. There is a good amount of motion in the sticks before the valves start to open and I'm guessing (but don't know!) this might be one of the things that are nicer when you spend 2x as much on a Japanese-built machine.

- The thumb is a lot harder to use than I expected as it only has maybe 110° or so of movement from folded completely back against the dipper. This gives a fairly narrow window of bucket/thumb placement where you can actually get a good grip on something. I don't know if this is a design limitation or if this is how all/most minis are. I know you're supposed to avoid curling against the thumb so maybe this is deliberate to make that less likely?

- Tearing out some invasive rose bushes really got me taking a hard look at all the long hoses, especially the one that runs out to the quick-change coupler. That looks about 10' long and flaps around a bit in the breeze at the end where I feel like it could easily get caught and yanked badly in the woods. Has me wondering if it would make sense to get a hard line made for the boom run, or maybe just have a coupler added a few feet back from the end so that if it does get shredded I don't have to pull the whole hose. That said, I think it would be fine when digging.

- The powered attachments were delivered with basic hoses without quick-change couplers and one of them had different size fittings than the machine. The delivery guys talked me through getting fittings from a local shop which should be easy enough, but I'd have happily paid the dealer a few bucks more to have them do it. Another case of "you get what you pay for."

- Last, the single most serious flaw I've discovered so far, that tells you the manufacturer does not understand the needs of the US market AT ALL:

It doesn't come with a cupholder!

 

[D'oh]

Awesome review! Glad you are Happy so far.

My Cup Holder sticks down in the Engine Compartment, Good for Coffee, not good for Cold Beverages!

I spiral Sliced some old Garden Hose and guarded my Stick Hoses with that. Where they loop from the Boom. They seem to be the most exposed on my machine.

101 hrs now

 

[sansbury]

I spiral Sliced some old Garden Hose and guarded my Stick Hoses with that. Where they loop from the Boom. They seem to be the most exposed on my machine.

Interesting idea - I'll keep that one filed away.

I think my biggest concern is snagging a line on something and ripping it off, but I suppose every bit helps, and I have plenty of scrap hose around from that time I accidentally drove over some with a brush hog

 

[1hp]

just got some of this for my thumb hoses.

2x 5/8 Hydraulic Hose Spiral Wrap 10f Wire Protector Cover Guard Cable Organizer | eBay

Though primarily designed for use with hydraulic hoses, our spiral wrap can be used for any application where cables, wires, and other similar lines need protection or organization. The rigid tapered design allows for strength and pliability for ease of installation and removal.

www.ebay.com