I have been doing some preliminary research on machines. I have noticed some have swing booms and some have fixed booms like large excavators. Is the swing boom worth the cost? We currently have a 307SSR with the offset boom and it does come in handy every once in a while but its 4 more pins to grease and another cylinder to worry about. What are your thoughts?
My personal thought is that the key to machines this size is versatility. The swing boom helps with that. If the use for the machine is fixed and you don't need that versatility then the conv. boom would work, but if you do a variety of projects with the machine having the swing boom is worth the few extra zerks and a little more money.
Swing boom
Swing. Sometimes I wish my 210 had a swing boom.
As mentioned previously, it depends on the work you do. Offset booms are not only handy but necessary for those who do work that require them. But if your work really doesn't, it's a heck of a lot more cost in maintenance/repairs to have an offset boom "just in case I ever need it".
Swing boom if you do any or plan on doing any tight quarters work. This would be like exposing foundations for footer drains, residential utility work, additions, etc. Fixed boom for when the focus is on production and performance. Loading trucks all day, main line utility work, etc.
Plan on rebushing the pivot around 2-3000 hrs. Definitely the swing if you get into tight stuff.
What about a FR series Takeuchi?
Unless you find one that is unsold somewhere, they are not making these any more. Tier 4F and the FR series apparently are not that compatible. Hopefully they will bring it back, but for now they don't make them at least in the 38 and 53 size.
That is a bummer about the FR and tier 4. I love my 53FR so much I found a 180FR to go with it, almost like the 53 on steroids really does not feel that much bigger unless you are in a really tight spot. Hope they work out the tier 4 issue would be nice to replace my 53 someday when it has 10k hours.
Takeuchi as updated the 180fr to the 280fr, so I would assume they are working on a update of the 138 and 153. I've got a 138 and I can see we're making it tier 4 complaint would be a tight pain in the butt. Only complaint I can say on machine is engine compartment is tight and even hard to check oil.
For that size machine I'd go fixed unless you'll be doing tight quarters work a lot. The pivot wears out/gets clunky. It's a bit of a pain and make your machine feel like you have a whole lot more slop than it actually does (in the swing gear/boom)
I hope that they do update the 38 and 53 but as of now, that is not happening. The machine doesnt sell in the numbers that would make this a necessity unfortunately. I am big supporter of these machines and so are many others but apparently it is a dollars and sense thing and right now they don't add up.
The FR machine is interesting but that's even more pins to worry about. I think we will probably go with a swing boom. Any machine we get would be used with 1500-2000 hrs on it.
I have an fr machine as well. 53 model to be exact. I love it. I too am extremely disappointed that they discontinued them. Mine has a tad over 1000 hrs., no noticeable wear to the pivot... And Yes, I'd buy another!