Importing and modifying a new mini excavator from China

[bindian]

This is a very light mini that could use more ballast, IMO.

I hope your realize more ballast equals more wear on the turn table bearings.
hugs, Brandi

 

[dfkrug]

I hope your realize more ballast equals more wear on the turn table bearings.

Not much space for more ballast anyway.

As for the ballast I do have...

The yellow machine has 3 ballast plates, bolted to the 1/2" steel base of the house, for a total of 75#. Not much. The photo shows the rear body panel removed for an in-the-field engine oil change.

The black machines have a newly-designed external cast steel ballast that is bolted on outside the body panel. It weighs in at about 96#, and hangs out aft a bit more, so has more leverage. Unfortunately, it was not tested, and it interferes with the dozer blade when it is fully up. Fixing that required a bunch of effort with the plasma cutter. I removed about 4 pounds off the lower lip, which you can not see unless you look underneath.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, Moss, I just welded one of those Titan mechanical thumbs onto one of the minis yesterday. 18" long with 25mm pins. Very hefty unit.

More updates coming soon.

Nice and thanks!

The reason I asked was there's a current discussion regarding purchasing a backhoe attachment for a compact tractor VS renting an excavator when needed. The backhoe attachment costs more than this excavator. If the reach, forces, hydraulic flows/pressures etc... numbers are similar or better for this excavator, and I was dead set on buying a backhoe attachment, I'd give serious consideration to going with this excavator purchase over a backhoe attachment. Just makes sense.

I did not see the specs for this machine while perusing the thread. Is there a spec sheet anywhere? Thanks again.

 

[dfkrug]

If the reach, forces, hydraulic flows/pressures etc... numbers are similar or better for this excavator, and I was dead set on buying a backhoe attachment, I'd give serious consideration to going with this excavator purchase over a backhoe attachment.

Somewhere above, I think I put the key specs: 2450psi/5GPM hydraulics, 3-feet wide, 2000# weight, 6-6.5" dig depth. As for price, I will barely break even to sell my black modified evaluation unit for $8500, which includes all "extra" costs (taxes, tariff, shipping, customs, etc.).

I am looking for a photo of someone transporting one of these in the bed of a pickup to post here. Not really the most practical way (tailgate issues), but it would really speak to the portability. I have no problem towing it with my V6 small Tacoma and trailer.

Why more productive? It can turn around on its own footprint, and swing 360 degrees. My backhoe can dig more forcefully due to it having nearly 3x the weight, but it is clumsy in moving and turning around. The tracks do tear up the ground, but I can get to places totally impossible with R4 wheels/tires.

I find the productivity of this unit, vs. my backhoe to be much better than expected. The limiting factors of the mini are that it only drives at at slow walking pace. And low weight means the hydraulics can really toss it around if you are not careful. I should have bought one years ago.

 

[dfkrug]

duplicate post removed per request

 

[dfkrug]

Don't know why I got the double-post above. Can you delete that, MOSS?

Here are some pix of the body panels on one of the new black minis.

I love the thick formed panels (0.075" thick), but the fit-and-finish of the new units are inferior to my older yellow machine. In fitting the newly-designed ballast casting, Oking adjusted panel interference with a big hammer, it seems. Even on the topside, panel fit was a much as 1/2" off. Rubber bolt hole covers were completely missing. This in no way affects any function, but care in manufacture left a lot of room for improvement. The black paintjob was also poor.

 

[dfkrug]

One of the 6 minis that came in the shipment from Oking does not have the bizarre design error I posted earlier (post #76).

The 2 missing welds on one of the bucket kidney links are on all of the machines except one. It is interesting that this obvious error has propagated factory-to-factory. And still, someone corrected one of them, perhaps accidentally.

 

[eXistenZ]

I am looking into buying an SANY SY16C, but I find alibaba a tad confusing.
Like there are 2 identical companies, selling the same excavator, but they differ in how old the companies are, does anyone know how that can be?
And @ dfkrug, how do you decide if the company is reliable?

My prior experience with China is only low-cost products where reliability isn't a major factor.

 

[dfkrug]

I am looking into buying an SANY SY16C, but I find alibaba a tad confusing.
Like there are 2 identical companies, selling the same excavator, but they differ in how old the companies are, does anyone know how that can be?
And @ dfkrug, how do you decide if the company is reliable?

My prior experience with China is only low-cost products where reliability isn't a major factor.

SANY may be the biggest and most successful of the Chinese excavator companies. They have importers in
many parts of the world, with actual localized support. I don't have any experience with their products but know they
have at least 2 importers on the West coast of the US. Never personally saw a Sany machine, however.

Are you in Denmark?

You do not need to use Alibaba if you can make a deal with Sany in Europe. They are based in Germany. If you DO use Alibaba, companies who use it as a storefront have ratings and reputation scores as one indication of quality. It would not surprise me if several companies in China act as dealers for Sany. You do need to do a little research to determine if you are dealing with a factory, or a dealer/distributor.

For products from China, getting good quality is all about quality control and rejection of product that fails QA. If someone does that, you can get very high quality products; if not, then caveat emptor.

 

[eXistenZ]

Yes I'm from Denmark.

I did choose Sany because they seemed to be one of the biggest in local China, and I thought that at least couldn't hurt.
And I saw a video on youtube with the SY16C, where it did have nice smooth movements, something that in my opinion, the smaller 1ton mini excavators do not have, they seem to have - not sure if I say it right, non fluidic movements
But you can comment on that one concerning the XN08?

My reason for attempting to buy directly from a dealer in China, is that I have seen Chinese machines, sold locally in Denmark to what roughly is 3 times the price that I see on alibaba, hence I would expect there is at least some money to spare.

But as you say, quality control is something you should be aware of.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Our purchasing dept at work has issued a memorandum about no more ordering from Alibaba or Aliexpress. They said their credit card gets scammed every time they order. No more.

 

[Agvg]

Yes I'm from Denmark.

I did choose Sany because they seemed to be one of the biggest in local China, and I thought that at least couldn't hurt.
And I saw a video on youtube with the SY16C, where it did have nice smooth movements, something that in my opinion, the smaller 1ton mini excavators do not have, they seem to have - not sure if I say it right, non fluidic movements
But you can comment on that one concerning the XN08?

My reason for attempting to buy directly from a dealer in China, is that I have seen Chinese machines, sold locally in Denmark to what roughly is 3 times the price that I see on alibaba, hence I would expect there is at least some money to spare.

But as you say, quality control is something you should be aware of.

But the problem buying from a unknown seller is that you have no idea what you get, and it's no limit on how bad a Chinese lookalike can be, you must be prepared to write of the whole machine on a very few hours if you are not lucky.

 

[dfkrug]

And I saw a video on youtube with the SY16C, where it did have nice smooth movements, something that in my opinion, the smaller 1ton mini excavators do not have, they seem to have - not sure if I say it right, non fluidic movements
But you can comment on that one concerning the XN08?

Yes, indeed, the movements of the boom and dipper on the 1-ton units can be pretty jerky or non-fluid. The reasons for that are the extremely light weight, and the directly controlled spool valves. The spool valves also have no shock-relief valves, aka work-port RVs.

In contrast, bigger excavators usually employ servo-controlled valves and shock-RVs, which both help smooth out the movements.

On the one-ton minis, one pump does all the work, so simultaneous movements require a steady hand to feather the joysticks. This takes more practice, but one does improve.

Those familiar with backhoe attachments on compact tractors usually suffer these same limitations, except for the much greater weight.

 

[dfkrug]

My reason for attempting to buy directly from a dealer in China, is that I have seen Chinese machines, sold locally in Denmark to what roughly is 3 times the price that I see on alibaba, hence I would expect there is at least some money to spare.

I hear you. The Sany prices I see in the US are indeed less than Cat, Kubota, Deere, Tak, etc, but not a lot less. I do not know what your repair and maintenance choices will be if you buy direct from China. Based on my experience, I would buy a larger mini from Xiniu (Shandong Landworld) if I were looking for one. Consider the XN12 or XN16, both of which use the Yanmar 3-cylinder diesel engine. Of course, you are looking at 50-100% more in cost.

 

[dfkrug]

I bought the yellow mini with a mechanical thumb (post#21), but I went with a hydraulic unit that I fabbed up. (Once you've gone hydro, ya can't go back.)

Well, the black mini, which I have just sold, needed some kinda thumb, so I modified (fixed) the yellow one and installed that one.

The yellow one included a main pivot plus 6 pin tabs welded to the dipper. Problem was you have to remove the brace entirely in order to fold the thumb into the storage position against the dipper. Furthermore, the thumb itself would not survive anything but the gentlest service. It was a 2-piece design with no bracing between the sides.

So I welded different pivots onto the dipper, including 2 tabs to hold the brace in rest position. I also welded a face and braces to the sides.

 

[fried1765]

I bought the yellow mini with a mechanical thumb (post#21), but I went with a hydraulic unit that I fabbed up. (Once you've gone hydro, ya can't go back.)

Well, the black mini, which I have just sold, needed some kinda thumb, so I modified (fixed) the yellow one and installed that one.

The yellow one included a main pivot plus 6 pin tabs welded to the dipper. Problem was you have to remove the brace entirely in order to fold the thumb into the storage position against the dipper. Furthermore, the thumb itself would not survive anything but the gentlest service. It was a 2-piece design with no bracing between the sides.

So I welded different pivots onto the dipper, including 2 tabs to hold the brace in rest position. I also welded a face and braces to the sides.

Have you considered using carriage bolts on that bucket?
Carriage bolt heads would leave a much smoother surface, so that excavated material would not be as likely to stick in the bucket.

 

[dfkrug]

Have you considered using carriage bolts on that bucket? Carriage bolt heads would leave a much smoother surface, so that excavated material would not be as likely to stick in the bucket.

I have eliminated bolted teeth in both of my buckets, the one for my backhoe, and the one for the yellow mini. See above.

It is not only to reduce the problem of dirt hanging up on tooth bolts, it is so I can use better teeth. The teeth you see here are cast steel, but not as soft as other bolt-on teeth I have owned in the past.

 

[3Ts]

Have you considered using carriage bolts on that bucket?
Carriage bolt heads would leave a much smoother surface, so that excavated material would not be as likely to stick in the bucket.

And Plow Bolts would eliminate the protrusion of the head entirely making for a smooth surface.

 

[jjfmetal123]

Well, still no rain here, so I have not had the chance to extensively use my new machine. I have
done some work on one of my trails, by dampening the ground with water siphoned from the creek,
100 feet away. This trail is about 40% grade (5/12 pitch) and 4' wide. The bottom of the photo
has a 3-foot level to indicate slope. The photos do not do justice.

I have used the time to go leaf-peeping in New England, and nearly complete a hydraulic thumb
for this machine. I hope to test it in the next few days. I will post a new thread on that, or put it
here.

Hey dfkrug Thanks for all the Info, been following this Thread for quite some time. I actually imported a HT10 and it is very similar to yours with alot of the improvements you made already done by the manufacturer. I will post some pics later, I have a question did I read somewhere that your extended the tube that fills the hydraulics fluid? reason I ask is when I was digging on a steep slope like you mentioned above i had some hydraulic fluid coming out the fill tube. Have you had this problem, what does your set up look like? I will post a pick of mine later as well.
Thanks!

 

[dfkrug]

I actually imported a HT10 and it is very similar to yours with alot of the improvements you made already done by the manufacturer. I will post some pics later, I have a question did I read somewhere that your extended the tube that fills the hydraulics fluid?

Yes, please post some pix!

You have a "HighTop", and I have been in contact with them as well. I tried several times to meet up with a guy who imported several of the HTs in wine country, but I have not been successful. This company has made serious efforts to meet requirements for US export, incl CARB/EPA gas engine.

I have overflowed the hyd fill tube only when adding fluid, so yours must be quite different.

Pls post your location and tell us more.