Mini Excavator Brands, pros and cons?? Hours?

[kthompson]

mike69440, in my use of excavator have never needed a second excavator to rescue mine. Then I probably have not had mine in places you have. But one tractor I found needs another nearby! More than once.

Have learned to keep the rubber tracks tight and avoid real tight turns.

 

[4570Man]

mike69440, in my use of excavator have never needed a second excavator to rescue mine. Then I probably have not had mine in places you have. But one tractor I found needs another nearby! More than once.

Have learned to keep the rubber tracks tight and avoid real tight turns.

My buddy’s 80 excavator makes a hobby of throwing tracks. I’ve never thrown a track on my tracked equipment. He’s pretty good at getting the track to go back on by himself but I’ve never done it when I didn’t already have another machine and a second machine definitely helps. If your undercarriage isn’t completely shot tracks aren’t bad to come off. He finally put new chains on the excavator and I don’t think it’s thrown a track since then.

 

[hornett22]

Yanmars are excellent machines. That's probably what I would buy if I was in the market for one. I like them more than the Kubota and they are nice as well.

I wouldn't even consider a used one unless it had low hours, maintenance records and was thoroughly inspected by a reputable shop or dealer.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Gehl and Whacker minis both feature cab tilting which is useful for working on inclines. Both are the same machine.

Deere and Hitachi are also the same machines as are Volvo/JCB.

Kubota minis have a good reputation.

Whatever you get these things are useless without a thumb, so either weld on a thumb or get a hydraulic thumb. Also don't fret over a cab unless it gets hot and you want AC because you cannot dig in the winter in frozen ground without heating blankets.

 

[deezler]

I'm struggling to picture why you'd ever need a second machine to help put a track back on.... because you can lift the entire mini-ex off the ground all by itself just by using the front blade and the bucket/arm on the other side. At the very least you can have the bucket/arm/boom off to one side and easily lift an entire track well off the ground. I had to help do this once on a rental Bobcat E35. I threw the track off by grinding turns over bumpy ground with lots of sticks and tree branches laying everywhere, machine had 2200 hours or so. We didn't need a second machine at all - BUT, a second person was very handy to use the big prybar to wedge the track back on as the other person drove that side's motor back and forth a bit (in the air still).

As I awaited the rental yard's repair guy, I spoke with the owner a bit. He said for his fleet of rental E35s, once they get ~2500 hours on them, he sells them for about $25,000, usually in quite decent shape. They definitely fix issues promptly and always grease religiously after every rental, BUT! people do beat the crap out of them too. I know for myself, I occasionally used the machine rotation to whack the boom sideways into saplings, bending them over enough that I could use the hydraulic thumb to then get a solid grab, and quickly rip the tree right out of the ground, no digging required. Worked for trees up to about 4-5" diameter. Probably awful on the machine though (I stopped doing it after some further contemplation). Some people rent them to demo houses and sheds/garages, etc. Very rough work.

 

[Code54]

You can definitely put a track on without another machine on a mini. Buddy had a rental and popped the track off. I went down and put it back on in about 15 minutes - having a 2nd person makes the job about 25x easier. If your undercarriage is in good shape, you really should not be detracking machines. I never had any tracks come off on my Kubota, but the undercarriage is in great shape.
As for hours - it really depends. Seen some 2000 hr machines that were trash and some 5000hr machines that were in excellent condition. Some of the Kubota machines seem to run to about 6000hrs without any significant issues IF they are maintained.

 

[hayden]

After using my backhoe for 20 years I switched to a mini excavator. The maneuverability and flexibility of the mini excavator far exceeds that of the backhoe.

Ditto. A TLB or BH on tractor is great, but an Excavator is WAY better. Now that I have an excavator, it's the most used equipment that I have.

 

[mike69440]

I'm struggling to picture why you'd ever need a second machine to help put a track back on.... because you can lift the entire mini-ex off the ground all by itself just by using the front blade and the bucket/arm on the other side. At the very least you can have the bucket/arm/boom off to one side and easily lift an entire track well off the ground. I had to help do this once on a rental Bobcat E35. I threw the track off by grinding turns over bumpy ground with lots of sticks and tree branches laying everywhere, machine had 2200 hours or so. We didn't need a second machine at all - BUT, a second person was very handy to use the big prybar to wedge the track back on as the other person drove that side's motor back and forth a bit (in the air still).

As I awaited the rental yard's repair guy, I spoke with the owner a bit. He said for his fleet of rental E35s, once they get ~2500 hours on them, he sells them for about $25,000, usually in quite decent shape. They definitely fix issues promptly and always grease religiously after every rental, BUT! people do beat the crap out of them too. I know for myself, I occasionally used the machine rotation to whack the boom sideways into saplings, bending them over enough that I could use the hydraulic thumb to then get a solid grab, and quickly rip the tree right out of the ground, no digging required. Worked for trees up to about 4-5" diameter. Probably awful on the machine though (I stopped doing it after some further contemplation). Some people rent them to demo houses and sheds/garages, etc. Very rough work.

Mostly frozen track adjusters due to rust. they don't move easy. In any case the BH helps pick the steel track up. I bought a 20 ton hydraulic jack also.

 

[deezler]

Ah. Yeah even the rubber tracks are pretty heavy on smaller minis, but I didn't think about steel track weight. Is there a machine size level at which steel tracks become more prevalent?

 

[mike69440]

Ah. Yeah even the rubber tracks are pretty heavy on smaller minis, but I didn't think about steel track weight. Is there a machine size level at which steel tracks become more prevalent?

Steel tracks usually starts at 8 Metric tonnes, which is about as small of machine as I would want.