Mini diggers; which to get?

[penfold]

I've a fairly hefty drainage job to do and I want to use it as a flimsy excuse to buy another toy rather than do the sensible thing and hire a man to do it, but there's a bewildering array of makes out there and not a lot of compelling info on't t'internet; Pel Job, Takeuchi, Kubota, JCB, Volvo, the list goes on. An added complication is that I'm not sufficiently rich to buy new so I'm limited to what's for sale. Anyone got any pearls of wisdom they can share?

No doubt once bought it will find other tasks directed its way, like surrogate engine crane, log splitter, etc.

 

[awemawson]

My little 3/4 ton Kubota has proved very reliable. I bought it ex-hire so already pretty heavily used and probably 3 years old or so. I've had it now for probably 5 years and the only thing to go was a bearing on the track rollers which was easily and cheaply changed. It's stored in an open barn, only used occasionally, the rats have eaten all the noise reduction foam from inside the engine bay, but it still starts every time and runs all day on a 5 litre fill up of red diesel.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I was riding a takeuchi the other day contracting for a mate. digging up tough horrible clay ridden soil to put a massive pond in. felt like it had a decent amount of power, didn't struggle with much apart from when I snagged an old tree root but soon got it and the stump out of the way.

not sure of the weight for the takeuchi but it wasn't a heavy one

 

[cianh91]

Komatsu would be my choice use and maintain one for a lad who's very rough on machines but it always starts and works only problems have been owners lack of care but still a brilliant machine

 

[printcom]

I am assuming you are looking for a sub 3 ton digger. For an older machine I would stick to JCB, just because of spare parts availability and costs. For the newer machines I have to express a preference for the Hitachi or Kubota diggers as I have never used one that felt under powered, I cant say the same for the Takeuchi stuff.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

If you already have a mid to large sized tractor I would recommend a Foster backactor, mine has an integral pump and tank, a 4m reach and has been ripping out the stone from my groundworks with ease.
Cost me the princely sum of £500 complete with 2 buckets and has shifted close to a 100 m3 of shillety soil and stone without putting a foot wrong.
It takes me about 15 minutes to hook it up to the tractor and 10 minutes to unhitch.

 

[Justme]

Will you want to move it off site via a trailer?

If you do then make sure you keep under 2500kg. By the time you have a few buckets & the weight of the trailer you will at or over the 3500kg max towing limit with a Cat B car.

If your not going to take it off site diggers over this size but under roughly 5 tonnes tend to be batter value for money.

 

[Paul99]

When we were looking for one a few years ago I did as much reading as I could and there seemed to be a bit of a split between Kubota / Volvo / Komatsu and Takeuchi in terms of which would be better value for money. I never come to a consensus. I was keeping an eye out on Ebay for 6 months or more but only ever seemed to be worn out rubbish available locally. I also visited a few plant dealers - they of course wanted to sell you whatever they had and couldn't get rid of. By luck I called at one place and the boss was out but the plant fitter / mechanic was there - he obviously wanted a break and put the tools down and chatted for nearly an hour. In short his words - "whatever you do don't go for JCB" - long list of problems shortened he reckoned they were made cheaply, unreliable and were a PITA to work on. His recommendation - if I were you look for a Kubota (no they didn't have any).

I got exactly the same suggestion from two civil engineering / landscaping friends - one ran 6 or 7 machines from 1.5T to 22T the other one 1.5T Kubota (though used many others in the past). I happened to mention to one I was looking for a mini digger he told me that they had recently replaced an aging 1.5T Kubota with a brand new 1.5T JCB but they were that annoyed and disappointed with it they got rid of it after just 1 week - I thought he was exaggerating but no - his Son told us the same thing a few days later.

In the end we were getting a bit short of time and we would probably have gone for the first half decent machine that popped up whatever it was and after the one big job we really needed it for it could have been sold on but as it happens the first one to crop up was a low hours 2005 Kubota KX36-3 in very good condition. We don't do a huge amount of groundwork but each time it's used it saves rental costs and your not in a huge rush (and so fewer mistakes made) trying to get everything done before having to return it. We couldn't be happier with it - it's invaluable when it's needed and there's no rental costs to worry about. Apart from filters / oil etc and fuel we've not had to spend a penny on it

 

[Gareth J]

How hefty a drainage job? What sort of depth in what sort of ground? Every time I consider getting one I always come to the conclusion that it will be too small for half the jobs I'll want to do and just hire in a man+ wheeled digger or track machine

 

[500e]

/our /Hitachi's are trouble free both the small one 4000hrs & the 17 toner 16khrs 3 pipes and dipper seal kit

 

[penfold]

How hefty a drainage job? What sort of depth in what sort of ground? Every time I consider getting one I always come to the conclusion that it will be too small for half the jobs I'll want to do and just hire in a man+ wheeled digger or track machine

I'm not sure how long a pro would take to do 300m of land drain and a soakaway, but my uneducated guess was that it would take me about a week to do including teaching myself to drive it.

 

[mike os]

Takeuchi , terex or kubota

 

[brewdexta]

We installed about 80m of 10" land drain on a steep hillside with this Kubota, worked a treat. That's my pa driving it about 8 years ago. it was my next door neighbours machine and he doesn't do much maintenance, it was a testament to its design that it went on and worked on loads of projects in the neighbourhood before lack of maintenance and old age killed it.

 

[kier]

what ever you buy make sure it has good tracks/pins and bushes

 

[penfold]

That would be my next question; what to look for when kicking tyres(or tracks), what kills them and what is just a haggling point?