Hi there, I run a small landscaping business here in Victoria, Aus, and im looking to up grade our old yanmar vio20 to something a bit bigger and newer. It needs to be small enough to work in backyards but we do quite a lot of excavation where a bigger machine would speed up work. The new machine will need to be able run an auger and a hydraulic thumb, and id like something with less than 2000 hours, although with a budget of $40000 im aware that might not be viable. Ive read a lot of good things about the newer vio35's and the takeuchi tb138fr although most seem to be out of my budget. Theres some reasonably priced cat 303c's and kubotas and E32 bobcats.. If anyone has any first hand experience with any of these or similar size machines and can pass on some advice that would be great! Cheers, Chris.
I have a Takeuchi tb138. I have no complaints never ran an auger but it does Have a hydraulic thumb which works fine. I have had good luck with Takeuchi I love the boom swing on it nobody else has that. Let me know if you have any questions Matt
Yeah i like the takeuchi's, i've heard great things about them but to get a 138 in our price range they're usually looking at 3000+ hours which is a bummer. The boom swing intrigues me, whats it like to use? Id imagine it would only add to the versitillity!
Going to have a look at a couple of hitachi zx30u and a cat 303c all with about 1500 hours tomorrow. Itll be good to test drive a couple and see how they feel Chris
Yeah the swing boom is nice. Most of the time I leave it all the way to the right so I have a full view of sight while working. Compared to typical ones that pivot in the middle of the machine. I can't believe you can't find one in aus for to amount you want to spend. I had to look up aus to usa dollars. It's definitely enough over here. Good luck with those other machines. They r a little smaller then the tb138fr. Matt
Yeah youd be surprised, there is a couple but of course they're all well over 1000kms so it makes going to look at them pretty hard. Yeah slightly smaller but that is probably an advantage for me anyway. Does your tak have a cab? A couple of the hitachis in looking at tomorrow have cabs and one doesn't and neither does the cat, and I'm wondering how much they restrict your vision? Since we do a lot of fairly confined work im unsure how limiting the cab will feel? I guess ill get a bit of a feel for it when i drive them but itll be hard to tell just running it round in the yard..
I personally won't buy any machine without a cab. I like to keep the elements out. Both my machines have cabs. Tb138fr and tl130. I run both with the doors open. No loss of vision. The tb138fr has the front window roll up. Don't know if all brands do this. Also got to have a radio. Good luck in your search.
Nobody else has boom swing ? Really....can you tell me what boom swing is exactly and how it works ? Thanks
Boom swing that maintains inline with the seat.... or just about
Here is a link. Nobody else that I am aware of has a boom swing like Takeuchi fr series. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HojtI-9cRO8
I understand the cab if your in the machine all day everyday but id rarely spend a whole day in it so its not that big an issue.. i was feeling concious enough about the much bigger machine (i actually feel pretty silly about how surprised i was at how big it was haha) After looking at the few second handies we ended up looking at a few new ones. Does anyone have any experience with case or jcb? Had a play with a cx27 and an 8030 and quite liked both of them.. the jcb seems to be quite lighter built but it was nice to operate.. So the plot thickens.. gonna have to hit the books and talk to the bank again i think haha
I never ran either of those brands. When I was looking for excavator I glimpsed at jcb but there is no dealer support close to me. Plus it seems like you can't even give those things away on resale but I'm in NY. Not aus. Good luck hunting. I know if I was buying new it would be Takeuchi,kubota or cat. Not necessarily in that order.
I have a TB138FR and run an Auger Torque 3500 max. It's a great machine and I have no problems digging with it. It is 1750mm wide so getting into back yards might be a problem if they don't have a driveway. Takeuchi do make a TB128FR which may be worth a look. Adam.
I have a TB135 that I like. It's a tough b*****d. IIRC it's just under 8,000lbs.
I had never seen that boom swing feature before, that's an incredible idea!
The hunt continues.. Dealer support seems to be fairly sketchy for the jcb, and although it specs better than a lot of other machines around, they dont seem to be very well backed.. the fact that ive never seen one on site is ringing alarm bells.. The bobcat E26 is looking interesting.. although there seems to be quite a few machines for sale with very low hours and reasonably priced.. not sure if thats just a coincidence or not..
I have a '06 JCB 804 Super and I love it. I bought it used with 100 hours on it and it now has just over 1100 I think. My main machine is a Cat 312 but I do work the JCB often digging well lines up for a local water company as well as installing 3' sonotubes for a solar company. I have had no issues with the JCB at all, and would not hesitate to buy another one. It is a work horse.
Same sort of work I'm in. I'd realllllly look into the yanmar vio 35-5. Reason being is they're only 5'1" to outside of tracks and zero tail swing. Most 3.5 ton minies are 5'6" and up. I've landed many of jobs because of the extra few inches less in width. I bought one just for that reason. Won't be able to lift as much as let's say at TK 135, but I'd never buy a non zero tail swing machine that size. Especially if you may have other crew members running it for you.............
How are you going with the hunt? Adam.