Mini/Micro digger cheap chinese okay

[Smallfry]

Here is one to avoid. Look at the drive motors. And other things.

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[Smallfry]

The carriage, reduction hubs etc look fairly decent on the R319 pictured. Is that a slab of cast iron at the back end ? I am thinking counterweight. If it has a "little" single cylinder engine, will it be enough when arm is at full stretch with an overfull ditching bucket sideways ? Something I am doing most of the time.

 

[Dapph2]

These little excavators aren't meant to be over strained it's not what they are about.

Recently I hired a mini digger that had tracks that could be moved inwards so it would fit though a 700mm ( ?) standard door way . It handled 2 inch concrete but couldn't touch anything thicker , so I also hired a wheeled Stihl disc cutter and turned 138 sq mtrs of supposedly three inch thick concrete into 6 inch square chocolate blocks .
I discovered much to my annoyance that 15 yrs ago the landscapers had simply poured concrete into the shuttering form work when we were away rather than use a cheap levelling blinder to make it so it was only 3 inches thick . That excavator cost me £130 per day plus VAT for three days .

I had originally thought of getting one of the Chinese mini excavators with a 3 inch dia. pecker & buckets but decided a quick hire would work out better ..how wrong I was .

I had to hire in a bigger excavator plus three buckets that had a four inch dia pecker point , at a cost of £250 per day as the hire company would only let it out if I used their experienced operator . Three days later it was done with . Had I purchased a digger with pecker & buckets I'd have still had it for other landscaping work at my leisure , could do a few jobs for local friends and still sell it for what I paid for it if I kept it clean and well looked after.

Such mini's are great for deep digging and heavily manuring of a reasonable sized garden as well as putting in 200 mtrs of perforated drainage pipes 1to 1.4m deep on a pea grit bed under 300 mm of 40 mm clean stone & weed control cloth as a filter screen .

 

[anto44]

It'd be worth joining this group on Facebook, there's a lot of info on the problems to look out for.

 

[Trevorleach]

It'd be worth joining this group on Facebook, there's a lot of info on the problems to look out for.
View attachment 510662

They are mad as are all the mini excavator pages!
They are all the same they buy a toy then add huge counterweights to try and get it to do the work of a larger machine, fit cooling fans with no shrouds, complain when the a/c is not man enough, they are all convinced the factory fit engine and hydraulic is actually cooking oil, I kid you not!
The bit I like best is they are all hardcore americans yet buy chinese diggers.

 

[Trevorleach]

Here is one to avoid. Look at the drive motors. And other things.

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Mine is much the same as that as are most of the cheapies, mine has been through and over many piles of bricks/hardcore been stuck a few times slightly more than I would like to admit! plenty of under carriage paint scraped off, but no damage to anything, plus of course the motors are on the rear of the machine so the wise operator will try and avoid anything that could cause damage.

 

[Trevorleach]

Thought I would post some pics of the works.
How it started

Getting there

Pretty much done the retaining wall and back garden, wall 26 metres end to end.

 

[Trevorleach]

This the one and only time I thought uh oh I have done it now, got wedged against wall and the track came off right hard up to the wall.
So drove 30mm breaker bit into the concrete pad and use a come along to winch the machine sideways enough for me to get the track back on and free the machine from the wall.
Of course I forgot to take a pic of it stuck as I was thinking overtime! This is it winched out held on the bucket and blade to refit the track.

 

[addjunkie]

Did you fit the finger fixings or buy it like that.

 

[Trevorleach]

Did you fit the finger fixings or buy it like that.

Thats as it came.

 

[mtt.tr]

Are they grease tensioners or bolt on the track?

 

[Pete.]

Those smaller machines are often jack bolt.

 

[Onoff]

Getting annoying now! Still waiting for HSBC to come back to me ref whether the bank account details on the quote are legit.

 

[Trevorleach]

Are they grease tensioners or bolt on the track?

Bolt type, bit fiddly through the access hole.

 

[skotl]

Getting annoying now! Still waiting for HSBC to come back to me ref whether the bank account details on the quote are legit.

View attachment 510785

That does seem incredibly pushy from a company that allegedly builds hundreds of these a week

 

[Onoff]

That does seem incredibly pushy from a company that allegedly builds hundreds of these a week

I genuinely think that's just their way. I've had similar with other Chinese companies I've successfully dealt with.

 

[Kayos]

I genuinely think that's just their way. I've had similar with other Chinese companies I've successfully dealt with.

I bought some container sized batteries direct from China, given the speed of delivery I think they started building them before we had signed the contract, they were not stock items either

As soon as we agreed they became very very pushy for the payment, aggressive almost, despite the fact there wasn't even a delay

 

[Robotstar5]

I bought some container sized batteries direct from China, given the speed of delivery I think they started building them before we had signed the contract, they were not stock items either

As soon as we agreed they became very very pushy for the payment, aggressive almost, despite the fact there wasn't even a delay

Sounds like my old boss, I was commissioning one installation with strict instructions that as soon as it was working I should ask for a cheque then pay it into the nearest xxxxx bank branch

 

[henry Kadzielski]

My two cents worth. I got a XCMG XE55U about two years ago and have only about 30hrs on it. Had a problem second time I used it as running on three cylinders. Reported the problem and the code, XCMG mechanic came the next day and fixed it. It was apparently in the multi pin plug to the ecu. The glue holding the pins / sockets into the plug had come through into the connections. Subsequently no connection. Machine is quite comfortable with A/C and quite with the doors closed. Kubota engine and I think Danfoss hydraulics and fun to play with!

 

[Trevorleach]

My two cents worth. I got a XCMG XE55U about two years ago and have only about 30hrs on it. Had a problem second time I used it as running on three cylinders. Reported the problem and the code, XCMG mechanic came the next day and fixed it. It was apparently in the multi pin plug to the ecu. The glue holding the pins / sockets into the plug had come through into the connections. Subsequently no connection. Machine is quite comfortable with A/C and quite with the doors closed. Kubota engine and I think Danfoss hydraulics and fun to play with!

At nearly 6 ton that is slightly out of the mini excavator category, plus has 3 cylinders more than most micros