Mini Excavator Choice

[Tom K]

I wonder how that thing would do in hard, dry red clay.  I have a job coming up in a 1798 basement with 6'6" of head room.   I thought the 010 that you guys had shown in the skid steer thread would be the ticket, but this smaller one would be even better if it can break out the dry red clay.

If you have the access to get something that size into the basement call some rental places and see if they have an electric mini available, most around here do. We have one at work and it gets used a lot more then you would think. It's small enough it sits on a skid that you can fit in the back of a truck and can track trough a 3-0 door. Plugs in to a 220v outlet. It's our go to inside office buildings were we can't have any fumes, break it loose with the electric mini and suck out the spoils with a vac truck.

[Walnut Beast]

Like the skid there are many

 

 attachments for the mini 

[Tom King]

Thanks.  I didn't know about electric ones either.  Electric would be ideal.  A Bobcat e10e is 7'3" tall, but I won't mind taking the rollbar off under there.  No rental places anywhere near me, but I have leased stuff from the Bobcat dealer before, and like dealing with them.

The plan is to dig low footings for posts to transfer the weight of the house onto, and then dig continuous footings over those for a replacement stone foundation.

[Walnut Beast]

YH talked to my Kubota guy and he said that 57 excavator is a good one. The 22 is going to be the 5 with the digital screen and adjustable controls. 

[Tom K]

Thanks.  I didn't know about electric ones either.  Electric would be ideal.  A Bobcat e10e is 7'3" tall, but I won't mind taking the rollbar off under there.  No rental places anywhere near me, but I have leased stuff from the Bobcat dealer before, and like dealing with them.

Ours at work has a folding ROPS bar, I'm not sure what brand it is. Your bigger rental places like Sunbelt will have access to them for sure. My mini is an old Yanmar that I got from work, it has had the ROPS taken off several times to fit under things.
YH - To answer your earlier question, a larger excavator with a thumb is never going to do as clean of a job as a mulching/mowing head. You'll always have piles of slash to burn, or for the wildlife. I'm sure you have a good relationship with your Kubota dealer, I get that. If it's an option you might want to look at Yanmar also. A couple locals are real happy with their SV100's. A couple of site guys are all Deere on the larger end, but run SV100's as their small machines. Pretty much all of the local rental fleets are Yanmar in the 3-6 ton range. 

[Walnut Beast]

The Yanmar SV 100 I have heard nothing but good things about it. Actually all the sizes the guys are happy with. When I was real close to getting a CAT 309 until they ticked me off. The Yanmar 100 was my next choice. Now if I get one it's the first choice. It would be pretty close in running a mulcher as the 309. For thousands less. Just was checking on that unit yesterday. Good luck getting one. Dealer in Texas said they have been waiting two years on the 100 of two that they have on order. Said they were 108-110 then but he couldn't guess what the price is until they get the invoice on them. Same thing from a Florida dealer,

[Walnut Beast]

Flail mower on 6 ton Yanmar
https://youtu.be/p4Mag9JVTZM

[bigblockyeti]

^ That seems way slower than a skid steer with a disc mulcher?

My parents had 1/2 acre of privet cleared by a guy with a CAT ~100hp something and a 60" disc mulcher with the bigger trees of ~4 dozen over Ø4" left behind.  It only took him 25 minutes with working around (and not damaging) the trees that were left.  In the thinner stuff, he held the back edge about a foot off the ground with the leading edge a little over a foot higher allowing him to advance between 2-3mph steadily for the first pass.  Lowered for the second pass was just a little quicker.

[Tom K]

While they are similar tools they excel at different jobs. The guy in the video could have done that project quicker and more efficiently with a track loader instead of the mini. A track loader with mulching head will excel at ground level work, a mini with mulching head will excel at upper level trimming and reaching over slopes inaccessible with a track loader. Most guys would not use a mini for the work shown, unless that's all they had.

WB - I don't disagree with you at all. Now is not the time I would want to be buying any equipment unless I had too. I think it's going to take another 2-4 years for prices and availability to get back even close to normal. But if you need something to make money with, or have the cash and the use getting what's available (new or used) make sense some times regardless of cost.

[Walnut Beast]

I agree Tom! Some of these guys are doing stuff on ground you could get a skid on but maybe it was for the cameras. Just giving YH a idea of the flail mower on a smaller unit

[YellowHammer]

That's good point, don't forget I have a pretty decent cutter mulcher for my track loader.  From the videos I've watched, an excavator mulcher or mower is much slower than my skid steer, which also has a 12" tree capacity vs 4" capacity on an excavator mulcher. However, the excavator with mower is better at bank and steep slope mowing, slopes steep enough for my track loader not to me able to climb and will not destroy my turf as bad.   

So I'm trying to balance the capabilities of the two machines.

A new twist happened today, I talked to my dealer about the used KX80 and he was not a happy camper.  The guy who was going to sell it backed out of the deal, so now I won't be able to buy it.   I'm not a happy camper either.  Par for the course.  

[Hilltop366]

I don't know what the ground is like around your pond bank and other places you want to mow but if your looking to have some sort of finished lawn I don't think a heavy machine like a excavator is going to be the right tool, it's going to tear up anything soft at all unless you can go in and out a straight line. Some operators are pretty good at not messing things up but just the width of one track turning makes it hard not to.

[customsawyer]

FYI I got mine in today and it is pretty awesome. Still some learning to do before I get good at it but we are starting to mesh. In my flat mostly sandy land I feel like I can clear a place faster than I can with the bush hog type mower on the CTL. Keep in mind that I haven't run that mower more than about 15 hours as I don't like the wear it seems to put on the loader.

[customsawyer]

I've had different backhoes over the years so it seems natural to just set this machine up with backhoe controls. It's a easy flick of a switch to change from one to the other. Wondering if there is any disadvantages in doing this?
I learned last night that I can break/cut hardwoods in half easier than our SYP. I wasn't expecting that and found it interesting.

[Tom K]

Pattern selectors are there to be used, use whichever patter your comfortable with. 

I prefer Deere controls myself. If I jump in something that has CAT controls I'm lost and its dangerous to be around me, that's why the selectors are there. You don't want an operator re-learning control patterns on a job site next to guys in a trench. 

Pattern selectors are pretty much standard on all mini & full size excavators now. On all of the mini's I've ran it's been a selector valve under the seat. I ran a new Deere 50G for a bit last year, I didn't notice if that was a lever under the seat or a button since it was already set to Deere controls.

[customsawyer]

That's the way I look at it but have a friend that says it has stronger digging ability with the cat/excavator controls. I don't see how but that's the rumor.

[YellowHammer]

As I'm looking at excavator mulchers to purchase, I have a 20 gpm flow rate on the mini.

I'm calling these companies and investigating these models but are there any I'm missing?

Prinoth M450e
FAE
Baumalight
Torrent EX28
Indeco IMH15
Rockhound
Solaris

[Dave Shepard]

I'm calling bs on more digging power. It's just a different route for the hoses for the pilot controls. 

[bigblockyeti]

As I'm looking at excavator mulchers to purchase, I have a 20 gpm flow rate on the mini.

I'm calling these companies and investigating these models but are there any I'm missing?

Prinoth M450e
FAE
Baumalight
Torrent EX28
Indeco IMH15
Rockhound
Solaris

See post #24 on the lumber dropping thread if you're really interested in the Prinoth M450e

[Walnut Beast]

Big block that's not a good deal on that Prinoth with that many hours. You can buy a new one for 21,500. 

[Walnut Beast]

Yellowhammer the Prinoth doesn't require a case drain on the excavator one.  That's the same make of the head I'm getting. German made! 

[bigblockyeti]

Big block that's not a good deal on that Prinoth with that many hours. You can buy a new one for 21,500.

I wasn't sure, I only know that it's available right now and for too many things, that's rare.

[Walnut Beast]

As I'm looking at excavator mulchers to purchase, I have a 20 gpm flow rate on the mini.

I'm calling these companies and investigating these models but are there any I'm missing?

Prinoth M450e
FAE
Baumalight
Torrent EX28
Indeco IMH15
Rockhound
Solaris

The first two would be on my list. Prinoth and FAE along with Shearex, Denis Cimaf. Actually those are the only ones I would get and that goes for the skid and bigger carrier heads. Those four heads are the best out there....  

You could throw Fecon in the mix also

[Walnut Beast]

Yellowhammer these guys are good guys. They would be able to take care of you or get your dealer to get one from them. Family business that used to be loggers. They might have a demo unit. Ask for Ryan.

 

[barbender]

The only way the digging power would be different was if hoses were switched around to circuits that had a lower relief setting. On an electronic control pattern changer I don't see how the digging power could be different.