Hello everyone. I am going to be buying an excavator this year to do all sorts of work on my farm. The work is such that it can be done with all sorts of sizes of machines, ranging from 20 to 85 tonnes. However, my workshop is only tall enough to fit a 45 tonner, and the concrete floor might even crack under that (I'm not sure about the stength; the floor is 8"-12" thick). My question is that is it okay to store an excavator outdoors in 3 to 6 feet of Canadian snow, or must it be stored indoors? Would putting a heavy tarp over the body help if stored outdoors? This would help me decide my size limits. Also, is it doable to transport a 65 or 85 tonner to a farm [that requires going on about 2km (~1.2 miles) of gravel road to access] in one piece or would it need to be separated (stick/bucket/counterweight)? If it needs to be taken apart, how would it be loaded, unloaded, and reassembled? How much would the shipping (and reassembly if necessary) cost? (say shipping distance would be about 60km) Thanks
Holy Crap! I don't know what you plan to do, but something in the 65-85 tonne range is damned big for a farm. Makes it a huge pita to move. What you gunna do if the neighbour 2 concessions over wants you to move a few trees, or a fencerow. my two cents...
If it was a cat 365 or 385 and weight wise it was ok as I'm not sure of the weights allowed on road...then my best guess is they would remove the bucket on the float and secure into place, curl the stick in and place the stick down on the float and support with wood blocks to prevent the lines from getting damaged, disconnect hoses that connect boom to stick, strap onto float, they would lower the counterweight onto the float using the chain system attached to the back of the machine and place it on the float and chain down. next i would drive rest of machine onto second float...arrive on site, unload machine, drive up to counterweight and reattach to machine. drive around and line up with the stick...connect the main pin and boom hoses....lift stick up in the air off the float and either try and pin the stick cylinder on the float if can get it to line up....or if a shorter stick lift stick up all the way in air and place on ground and walk stick outward and pin the stick then... swing around to float again and install bucket. if your really not needing the 65 or 85ton machine i would go for a cat 345 most times as long as its not a long reach set up you can load machine as a whole onto the float and offload and away you go... That must be quite the job you have going on! Where in Ont are you?
The only time I would consider a monster like that is that you can sometimes get a good deal because nobody likes the awkwardly large size. For example, in the last local ritchie auction I went to, there was a Hitachi EX700 that was in reasonable condition that went for just $25k. It's engine started reasonably without heating at -3 Celcius, and it had new pumps so it was super fast and strong. 30 tonners in comparable condition there went for $35 - 50k (but that auction seemed to have gone a bit high price wise). A 30 tonner would be the ideal size for the work I think (it's not just a few trees and stones, it involves lots of digging (i.e. the total volume to be moved around will be almost 100000 cubic yards) and I can't be digging all day or taking too long. I've got other work to do too. I'm hoping for a cat 325BL or a 330BL [or equivalent]but they are a bit too expensive. A 325L or 330L would do too if they're in reasonable condition and don't have too many hours (I'm setting a limit of 15,000 hrs before I even think about the machine).
I figured that is what you had in mind. Where in Ontario are you? Good luck Ken
I'm in East Garafraxa, in between Orangeville and Fergus. The area's in the usual snow belt, but we didn't get that much this year (just 2-3 feet). Last year was a real snowy year; we had a 15 foot deep snow drift by the barn that nearly made it disappear.
East Garafraxa?? If you don't want to tell us that's fine, you don't have to make stuff up! East Garafraxa sounds like sounds like some place in a kids story. Orangeville and Fergus i know. I saw pictures from last years snow up there. It was a lot, i'll give you that.
East Garafraxa's real. I'm near Orton. East Gary is the township north of Erin. I'm on 9th line, just south of Dufferin 3. Happy Or Google can be your friend...
Here's to East Garafraxa :drinkup It even has its own Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Garafraxa,_Ontario Regarding leaving an excavator outside for the winter, I would not worry about the snow. It would not hurt - and might help - to throw a tarp over the body area behind and beside the cab. From my experience with leaving machines outside in winter, metal and seals contract with extreme cold and can cause leakage of fluids. A thorough check in the spring is in order to refill fluids.
Thanks for the advice. I guess I should clean out the snow before running the machine though. Where in in canada are you from, swampdog?
dealerships leave machines outside all year round and don't cover them up so I wouldn't worry to much about it. I agree with the above on throwing a tarp over the top to prevent snow from filling the compartments...just makes things easier in the spring!
Yes, either clean out snow that packs in around the base of the boom, etc. or wait for it to melt. I prefer the latter solution. Where we live in northern Saskatchewan, we don't usually get much snow. But we do get serious cold snaps. This winter has been unusually mild, with warm temps and little snow.
How far do you have to move the dirt?
Not too far. 70% of it will just be swinging it around to the other side of the machine. The remaining 30% will go loading a truck that will take the dirt an average of 300m (1000') away. Its a mix of landscaping, pond digging, and truck loading for the improvement of the passages around the farm (i.e. making them passable by truck and tractor).
Im looking to buyan ex700 myself, if any of you guys know of a clean one with fresh pumps either new or recon ,im in the market, cheers, as for storage in winter in canada, antifreeze fluid and cover the engine and pump compartments, let it fully tha,melt before you fire her up, and good luck with yourbuy I hope it works out for you!