A few months ago I finally decided that I'm getting too old for the hassle of climbing in & out of my NH L220 SSL. So, I looked seriously at changing to an 860 Avant compact wheel loader, or a Volvo L20 compact wheel loader. Then, I discovered that my local Anderson Equipment dealer had taken on Mecalac, & they had 2 machnes in stock to look at, a 6 MCR & a 8 MCR (that's Mecalac Crawler Radial best I can figure). These were the combo excavator/crawler skid steer units that others have mentioned. So, I spent some hrs looking at & operating both units. Unbelievable outstanding design & build !! I did more research, & zeroed in on a 9 MWR (Mecalac Wheeled Radial). I had to travel 2.5 hrs to another Anderson Equipment location to demo one, & I was sold. I'm convinced that I can do everything in terms of dirt work & snow removal with a 9 MWR that I do now with my SSL & NH EH-80 CS excavator, & do it faster & with less mess, & with just one machine to maintain. As a one-man operation, that's a huge advantage to me. See the typical sales brochure photo below. The only down side is price...!!! But selling my SSL & excavator will help (see Selling my SSL & Excavator ). I'm currently awaiting delivery of my own 9 MCR with the following features/options: wide flotation tires, one set of tire chains, block heater, auto-central lube system, Mecalac 90" skid steer bucket, Werk-Brau 24" Powergrip trench bucket w/ side cutters & Esco UltraLok P20P teeth, & Werk-Brau ripper. The unit comes std with the Mecalac CONNECT hydraulic quick coupler (which allows reverse bucket mounting!), & a 2nd aux hydraulic circuit to operate the Powergrip bucket. Some other notable std features are: lock valves on ALL hydraulic circuits (5 boom/stick/bucket cylinders, blade cylinder, 2 rear stabilizer cylinders) that allow for unit to be lift/crane safe, side camera (in addition to opt. rear camera), switch that reverses steering for reverse travel, switch that reverses excavator controls for reverse bucket mounting, color coded screen for camera view & all control systems, & on & on.... So, stay tuned as I become the guinea-pig for Mecalac in my area...
funkaliscious!!
Saw 1 of these just the other day on a truck all rigged up for railway work .
How does this replace a skid loader for pushing snow? Are you pushing for other properties, or just your place? Will it road fast enough and spin around and turn tight enough, when clearing like a skid does? The only places I've seen wheeled excavators used much, is the county road dept's, for going around and cleaning out ditches. But I'm interested to see how it works for you. What is your current business that uses the excavator and skid steer that you are replacing? Or were these machines just hobby use on your own property? I could see if you were doing landscape work in tight areas (residential) the advantages of a single machine for everything. Can you get forks for it also?
Did Anderson have a selection of attachments or did you have to order them? Post up some pics of your setup when it arrives.
The specs and video are pretty slick.Travel speeds to 20 Kmh. The 9 ton he is getting will lift 6000 plus all over. It will out-do the 12 ton 120 I operate in many cases.
To answer your questions, I don't do a lot of work for hire....mainly a lot for myself & for my son. Re snow plowing, it has a 90" wide skid steer bucket, so you slew a little to mimic an angled plow, adjust the bucket just above the ground, & drive. The bucket can be tilted up, & the bucket can be mounted in reverse-skid steer mode (with the back, flat bottom facing forward). No, it's not a perfect plow, but close enough. Also, with the ability to slew 360 degrees, & the machines std 4-wheel drive & 3 steering modes (2-wheel, 4-wheel, & crab), I don't see a problem with maneuverability. Even plowing with my SSL, in order to clean in front of garages, I have to back blade the snow far enough away so that I can turn around & get behind it to continue pushing away. That will actually be easier with the Mecalac. No, it can't spin turn like a SSL, but the inside turn radius is a surprising small 6 feet. The one feature it doesn't have that might have been useful for plowing is a float function on the boom. But on unpaved driveways (like mine), I use that less & less as the winters get warmer & the ground doesn't freeze as much. Otherwise, I make a god-awful mess & have to rake half my driveway out of my yard in the Spring. So, I probably won't miss it. I might experiment with mounting wheels on the skid bucket to help with keeping it clear of unfrozen ground. Also, speed is no problem. The unit is designed for road travel, & will go up to 24 mph. Try that with a SSL!! Finally, Anderson did not have any attachments for it to look at, so I ordered the std 90" skid bucket from Mecalac. In order to replace the hydraulic thumb function on my existing excavator (which I just sold), I opted for a Powergrip bucket from Werk-Brau. Mecalac did offer a thumb, but the Powergrip bucket will be more useful: it hydraulically opens & clamps like a thumb, when open it has a BOCE like a grading bucket, weighs only 200 pounds more than a std non-opening trenching bucket (which is less than a thumb), & doesn't get in the way when I don't need a thumb (which is most of the time). The other similar bucket on the market is the Jawbone from AMI. But the AMI Jawbone is almost $17k vs the W-B Powergrip at about $14k. The price difference is mainly due to the material used...T-1 steel for W-B vs Hardox alloy for AMI. I've been very happy with my W-B attachments for my existing excavator, so I stuck with them & saved some $$. But here is a question: Originally I intended to keep my existing W-B ripper & 4-ft ditching-grading bucket, cut the Klac attach plate off them, & weld on new Mecalac CONNECT attachment ears. Turns out I'm selling the ripper & grading bucket with my existing excavator. I will hold off on replacing the grading bucket, since I may not need it given the new Mecalac's skid bucket, but I will definitely need to replace the ripper for stump removal. The only minor complaint I've had with my W-B ripper for such work is that the about 2"-wide shank is just square cut & not sharpened to any edge or not serrated to aid in root cutting. Does anyone have any recommendations on better, sharper rippers for stump removal?? This is my last chance to do it right!!
So did the base price of the MWR not include any attachments? When I've looked at new MCRs the price included a digging bucket and a loader bucket. Was your grading bucket tilt style? While I find the skid/loader bucket to be very handy, tilt is a feature I really need for a lot of work that I do, so I will be looking for a tilt grading bucket for mine. My MCR (used) came with a ripper, but also no serrations. I may try cutting some out of plate steel and welding them onto the shank. The previous owner of my machine used it with a snowblower. The reach and maneuverability must have been impressive compared to a normal skid steer.
No, the base price of the 9 MRW includes no attachments. No, my grading bucket did not tilt. The Mecalac has a 4-piece boom, with the adjustable boom also being able to rotate about 15 degrees or so left or right. So, with this setup you can create a boom geometry that actually tilts the bucket to mimic a tilting bucket, just not as much. That's much better than no tilt, & I'm looking forward to trying it. Before you even ask, the ultimate tilting bucket is a tilt-roter setup. Even if I could afford/justify one for my Mecalac, I don't like the current Mecalac implementation. They parterned with Rototilt, but they mount the unit by removing the hydraulic Mecalac CONNECT, then pin-on the Rototilt, then re-mount the CONNECT below the Rototilt. Fine, you say, but I think this is monumentally stupid on 2 counts: one, it encourages some idiot from trying to mount the 90" skid bucket below the tiltroter because he can, which will destroy the tiltroter, & two, it makes quickly removing the tiltroter to mount, say a ripper, a lengthy & messy process, instead of easy. They should leave the CONNECT where it is, use it to quickly mount the tiltroter, then provide a std S-style mounting for the tiltroter attachments.
Almost forgot...Re pallet forks. I have a great set of Bradco signature pallet forks that I've used on my tractor & SSL. And I designed & had made a SS quick attach for my existing excavator ( SS quick attach on excavator ). So, I'm going to cut the Klac attach plate off my SS quick attach setup, & weld on a pair of Mecalac CONNECT ears. Then I can use my pallet forks on my Mecalac. Mecalac does make a SS quick attach setup, but it is expensive & I have my own.
Congrats on the purchase! Ever since I saw the demo at Conex a few shows ago I was intrigued. Love to have one for backfilling curbs and final grading in a perfect world. Our jobs are to far apart to road it and it’s a CDL load to haul it. So it doesn’t make sense for us. It would be handier than a shirt pocket with a jib and set of forks.
Interesting machine!! Seems like it could be more efficient though if they put a push blade on both ends rather than the stabilizer. I've been in situations with the mini excavator where that would be handy. The hydraulics and mechanism are already there. Please keep us posted once you start working with it. I'm interested to see how versatile it is!
Seems a little ridiculous to sell a machine with no attachments! It would be like selling you a pickup truck with no tires. I haven't had much luck getting any significant tilting action from the boom articulation. What little it does provide doesn't stay consistent as you move the boom through the motions (basically as the articulated section moves in relation to the turret, the bucket tilt changes also). So if you're just setting the angle and traveling it would probably work fine, but to sit in one place and try to grade, it isn't going to be practical. You're actually not quite correct about the Mecalac tiltrotator. The Connect on the machine stays in place, and is used to pick up the tiltrotator just like any other attachment. The tiltrotator has another Connect which then can pick up attachments and provide tilt and rotation. Anytime you don't want the tiltrotator, it can simply be dropped and an attachment used normally with the machine's Connect. This article shows it in a some detail, but not in much depth: https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/the-digger-blog/view/mecalac-adds-tiltrotators What's even more cool is the Connect Energy Link that integrates hydraulics and control circuits into the coupler. So theoretically the tiltrotator and/or any attachments with or without hydraulics could be connected and disconnected as needed all without the operator leaving the cab. Doesn't get any easier than that. Don't ask what the price tag is though! Connect Energy Link | MECALAC The versatility of MECALAC machines combines technology with ease of use. www.mecalac.com
MatherTheGreater....I stand corrected on the tiltrotator...I found that same link/video this am. Leaving the CONNECT in place & adding another one below the tiltrotator makes much more sense. What I learned originally came from talking with Mecalac folks, & was even confirmed by the northeast regional sales rep!! They & he were clearly wrong...makes me wonder about lack of communication or understanding in the sales team at Mecalac. But that's certainly not unique to Mecalac....I find that confusion is all sales teams. If you can reach them, talk to the engineers or the service people if you really want to find out the facts. And I share your excitement about the CONNECT Energy Link...I bet that whole setup is north of $40k!!!
I would be surprised if there have been any of the Mecalac tiltrotators shipped to North America. The dealer near me doesn't use them, instead they use Steelwrist rotators. I haven't seen one installed so I can't say anything about them.
Flying down the road, all steering & brakes controlled by a swizel stick, thru a rotary coupling on the slewing ring.....Yup !
max speed is 12mph. Which would be awful slow if you were trying to push snow commercially. And we road around a crane that's 80,000lbs, controlled through a swivel. It does make you wonder about your options when the shifter doesn't work right. My plan has always been to put the outriggers down if it starts to run away, but you have to have a pretty cool head when things go wrong.
Digger....max speed is about 25 mph, not 12. And my plan should she go out of control is to put the boom down...what could go wrong!!!
Correction again...I talked with the Mecalac Regional Sales Manager today, who further clarified some things with the tilt rotator: - The Energy Link is NOT available, & the web content should have been deleted. It was something they were trying to perfect about 5 years ago. They gave up after deciding that they could not adequately keep dirt from fouling it up!! I'm not surprised!! Also, the tilt rotator having a CONNECT above it & one below it only is available with Mecalac tilt rotator, where they have partnered with Rototilt. If you want any other tilt rotator (Engcon, Steelwrist, Lehnhoff, etc.), then the tilt rotator has to be pinned on the stick, unless you add Mecalac attachment ears or an attachment plate to the tilt rotator.
I look forward to hearing your guy's thoughts on these machines as you start using them.
I did a culvert replacement with mine yesterday. Did all the work from one lane of the road. I was pleased with how much better it worked out than using my Bobcat would have been. It is very convenient to be able to pull the boom back in tight for swinging in close quarters. Travel speed is also awesome. It also has some other nice features that my 15 year old Bobcat doesn't have (but other newer machines probably do): auto idle down when you lift the safety lever, idle down/up button on left joystick. Rubber tracks are nice for street work, we'll see how I like them for other things. I really need to get a tilting ditching bucket for it.
If you could drill a couple holes in the ripper shank you could make a bolt on serrated edge for roots. Welding could work too but might be in the way for other ripping jobs.
Yeah, I'll probably try that sometime.....
This thing sure saves a lot of time
Just waiting for Anderson to install the block heater in my Mecalac 9MWR, & then it gets delivered...!!! I've seen it & touched it, so I'm gettin' pretty excited!!
I've had my Mecalac 9MWR for about 3 wks now & I've put 20+ hrs on it. My son & I have done some work with it that we simply could NOT have done with my previous conventional tracked excavator...not the least of which is some trench & pier digging with the bucket inverted in some rock-hard clay!! Our initial impression was "there are a lot of switches!!" But at this point we've used & understand all of them, & thank God for most of them!! For me, the biggest change was travelling & stability. A tracked ex is much more stable, both fore & aft & to the side, without doing anything special, other than putting the blade down. In this machine, there is a blade, & rear outriggers, & an oscillating front axle that should be locked for all work, especially to the side. Locking oscillation is easy (via a joystick button or by locking the foot brake), but you have to remember to do it!! Then there is the left-right invert switch, which corrects for left & right when driving backwards. And of course a steering wheel instead of levers for left & right, & a button on the joystick which selects the motion of forward or back (like on a loader). But when you're used to just 2 levers, that's a lot of motions!! The hydraulics are extremely smooth & precise compared to my previous conventional excavator, & that was in excellent shape & considered very tight. But now I realize that was sloppy compared to this machine. Two features we have not used yet are the offset boom, & the Mecalac boom mode. The offset boom is easy to understand, & is operated by a proportional control on the left joystick. The boom mode is controlled by a switch. In excavator boom mode (which we have used exclusively), the adjustable boom cylinder & the dipperstick cylinder are linked via some algorithm that lets them operate together but at different rates depending on the instantaneous boom geometry to be effective. They operate via the crowd joystick. In Mecalac boom mode, the 2 cylinders are unlinked & are operated separately. One via the crowd joystick, the other via foot peddle. There is a button on the left joystick which selects which cylinder is operated by the foot peddle, The other one reverts to the joystick. I believe there is a colored indication on the control screen of the cylinder operated by foot peddle. You can appreciate that such control allows some weird...& maybe some effective boom geometry, but we need to try it and practice it....a lot!! I got my Mecalac with a Werk-Brau 24-in wide PowerGrip bucket, to help make up for not having a thumb. I've found that you can't pick up as much with the bucket as you can with a thumb (no surprise there), but you can be fairly precise. We reduced the aux flow rate to the bucket (selectable thru the Mecalac on-screen tool menu) to slow the opening & closing of the bucket. We've found the bucket is very useful in opening to provide a smooth edge for ditch cleanout. It's also handy for controlled backfilling by opening the bucket. When you invert the bucket (& we have) the aux hydraulic lines hook to the opposite side supply (so the hoses are not crossed), but the flow is reversed to match via a setting in the Mecalac on-screen tool menu when you activate the invert bucket switch. The only problem we've had is residual pressure in the bucket hydraulics makes connecting the hydraulic lines hard. Releasing the pressure in the Mecalac aux hydraulics is easy, & the other trick was to open the bucket just a bit before unhooking the lines. But it can still be tough to connect them. So, we've resorted to assembling a slide-clamp connector tool like the one advertised on the XBOOM website. The only other issue with the PowerGrip bucket is that it is heavy....about 800 pounds, or at least 200 pounds more than a normal bucket. But probably still less than a thumb, & I'm not sorry I got it. I'm trying to post some photos of the work, but they all fail!!! What's going on?? Whoops...just got it to work.
When they updated the security of the site, I couldn't upload pictures that I had taken with my phone camera. Now I have to "edit" them (I don't actually change anything, just use the edit function of the photos app to resave the pictures) before it will allow me to upload.
Congrats on the new machine by the way! Sounds like you are enjoying the additional capabilities. Does it have loader mode? I've only been in a MWR once and it was 5 years ago so I don't remember. I really like having the loader bucket option. Really saves a lot of time for me.
No, no loader mode, just Parking Mode, Working Mode, & Road Mode. Use Working Mode almost all the time...just connect the 90" wide skid bucket, normal or inverted, & use it. It is not designed to contact the blade, & doesn't have the blade bumpers on the back like your MCR, but it pushes & loads by either driving forward or just use the boom functions. I don't know why no blade bumpers, but I think it's because the wheeled MWR doesn't have the tractive force that your MCR has. But that wide bucket works great for backfilling & cleanup.
I just tried your suggestion, of opening each photo, then saving it with a slightly different name, & they all uploaded fine!! But it makes NO sense!! I hope Steve or someone can fix this anomaly soon....
Wally, does your MWR have cushioned cylinders? My MCR doesn't and it's taking me a while to get familiar with where the end of each stroke is...
I never thought about it...I don't think so....stupid question, what do cushioned cylinders feel like??...as opposed to not?? I don't notice a pronounced thud at the end of stroke. I will say that the hydraulics are very precise.
They slow down drastically at the end of the stroke and you can hear a sort of "hissing" sound as the oil passes through the tiny channel before coming to the end of the stroke. Basically it just gives you a little warning so you can slow down before coming to an abrupt stop at the end of the stroke.
My machine is at my son's place for a while. Next time I'm there, I will try to pay attention to what happens at the end of a stroke. He feels that the cylinders do slow as they approach the end. What equipment, typically, has cushioned cylinders??....or what have you run that has such cylinders??
A lot of backhoes have cushion on the swing cylinders.
My Bobcat excavator has some cushioned cylinders. The bucket cylinder is not, but the arm cylinder is cushioned on both ends of the stroke, and the boom cylinder is at the extended end of the stroke. I'm not sure, but I always assumed that most modern excavators have them, at least for the boom and arm.
Some updates on my 9MWR... On June 18, 2024, my new Mecalac 9MWR was delivered with 6 hours on the clock, to my son's house to begin a major project for him. On September 20, 2024, with 66 hours on the clock, Anderson Equipment completed warranty repairs to the main boom cylinder. Evidently, the o-ring gasket around the rod had never been installed quite right, the-ring wore & the rod had started leaking oil. Anderson had to remove & rebuild the cylinder. On November 25. 2024, with 101.3 hours on the clock, Anderson Equipment completed warranty repairs to the left, rear final drive assembly. Evidently. all but 2 of the wheel lug nuts were loose, the 2 smaller bolts holding the final drive "hat" to its back had broken, allowing all the oil in the final drive to leak out, & the holes in the final drive "hat" had become wallowed out a bit. Anderson replaced the final drive o-ring, the 2 broken bolts, the entire final drive "hat", all the oil, & tightened all bolts. Luckily, both of these events occurred during a lull in our required Mecalac use. The bonus was that I became very close to my Anderson repair team & was happy with their service. The downside is that other than covering the repairs under warranty, I lost some faith in Mecalac's QC. Neither event should have occurred....the rod leak was a simple mistake that didn't get caught....but the final drive "hat" becoming loose due to lug bolts having never been torqued was a real failure!! We joke that the assemblers were eating too many croissants that day - probably a Monday or a Friday - but it's a damn wonder that I didn't lose the whole wheel!! So, now my Mecalac is "all fixed", & I hope that I don't discover any other QC failures. We love the machine & are thankful that we have Andersen to deal with. I'm not thrilled with my DLL financing (mandatory insurance for full replacement value, no allowance for partial repayment, and repayment penalty % if I do full early repayment), but that's a separate problem that I may be able to remedy in the future. For my previous excavator, I had purchased a SSL quick hitch from Thor Attachments, & then designed & had built my own frame, & welded on the attachment ears for my then excavator. Just about 3 weeks ago I picked up my modified SSL adapter from my fabricator. We cut off the old mounting ears, cut the frame down a little, then welded the new mounting plate that I got from Mecalac. After painting, the finished SSL adapter looks like what is show in photos 18 & 20 (with pallet forks) attached. The Mecalac mounting plate was expensive & a pain to get from Mecalac. For the future, I checked with Thor Attachments & discovered that they now offer Mecalac mounting for their attachments!! They make their own mounting ears completely from AR400. They (John Gustafson) is infinitely easier to contact & deal with than Mecalac, & I would urge anyone with Mecalac mounting needs to contact him.
Considering the type of terrain Mecalac's are designed for be glad you weren't in a precarious position if you did lose a wheel. Don't know how they ship from the factory but maybe the problem was the PDI from the dealer was lacking? Loose lug nuts seem a little bizarre. It must have been used a little if it had 6 hours but maybe just for moving it from place to place.
Wheels, when new have a way of loosening up at times. My tire shop tells you to bring the pickup back when you buy new wheels so they can be retightened after a couple hundred miles. Maybe the Mecalac situation is similar? The cylinder getting rebuilt, in my view should have just been a new cylinder, not a rebuild. I agree it will be interesting to see how things progress on the QC front. There is a lot going on with those machines, you sure have to hope that they were paying attention during assembly. If there are other issues, maybe you can convince them to extend your warranty. Those things are cool, I hope it works out.
It's not high speed like a hwy. vehicle so not sure what would cause the wheels to come loose if they were properly torqued. Would think checking would be part of the PDI. The shop I got new tires from (Kal Tire) said the new way to torque wheels is to tighten them to spec. and then brake hard a couple times in forward and reverse and then check the torque again. They said there's no longer the need to drive for a short period and bring the vehicle back for torquing. How many people check the torque on a new vehicle after a couple days? I think in StumpWally's case they were missed. I know with motorcycles there's only a very select few that can buy a bike in the crate without the dealer doing a PDI because of the liability. The riders that can get them in a crate are usually sponsored riders who go over the complete bike anyway to make sure the steering stem and suspension linkage is properly greased and all the bolts are torqued to spec. The factory generally skimps on the grease they apply.
I’d be willing to bet the paint or powder coat under the lugs is why the wheels came loose just compressed over time
Not sure the hubs would be painted or if they ship with the wheels installed. Would think there would be a similar procedure to bolting track pads on where you make sure the mating surfaces are completely clean. Good thing there wasn't any serious damage or personal injury and they fixed it properly on warranty.
Where are your britches man? lol. No really that machine looks interesting. Seems like it could be useful for tree work, not sure about grabbing 5K lb logs and swinging them around with just one arm. Does it have enough flotation with tires? Do you have any pictures of it scooping up dirt to say load in a truck. I know you said you thought it could replace having a skid steer do you still think that. Looking at it, it seems you would need a skid or loader to move dirt or dig out say a hill and level an area. What are your thoughts about it
So far the tires have worked out fine. They are big, flotation tires, but I do suspect that if I went into real soft or muddy ground, I'd be stuck & I'd have to dig myself out. Otherwise the tires allow a lot of mobility with little ground damage. The machine has 3 steering modes...regular 2 week, 4 wheel, & 4-wheel crab. Like almost everything else on the machine the modes are instantly selectable, but don't take effect until the wheels cross into the neutral (straight) position. I stay in 4-wheel mostly. Of course as you know we've had a very dry late summer & fall, so there hasn't been a lot of mud!! We've had it in the woods doing some tree work The single boom is not a problem, but a 5K log would be. Most of ours were 3.5k-4k & we pulled them on the ground, then stacked them with the jaw (poor-man's grapple) on the Werk-Brau PowerGrip bucket. We've never loaded any dirt into trucks, but I can't imagine it would be a problem using the 90" skid bucket. That bucket does a great job of grading both forward & reverse, & both in its forward & reverse mounting. At this point I see no need at all of having skid steer to supplement the 9MVR. You can dig a hillside loose with the trenching bucket & then scoop it up with the skid bucket to load & move it. If you are in the least bit hung up on CTL's because of their pushing power, then you should consider a Mecalac 6, or 8 or 10 MCL. They are an excavator like mine, but with a crawler skid-steer chasis. Very slick machine in it's own right.
Great review thanks
@StumpyWally how did your machine work out for you over the winter?
Haven't been back to this site for quite a while, so here are some updates... Snow plowing my dwy with the almost 8-ft wide skid bucket works OK. Not as good as a real angle plow, but good enough. And it can scrape both ways, forward & back, & inverted or forward. No problem cold starting once I put a solar charger on it to keep the battery fresh. It has glow plugs, but there is no explicit way to turn them on - or even to know if they are on!! They seem to come on automatically based on temperature. But they clearly work, as long as your battery is fresh. More later...supper is ready!!
Glad you're back! I was getting worried about you.
It is nice to know somebody is worried about me, thank you, Continuing where I left off... One more thing about snow plowing...worked OK in snow, but as soon as ice hit, I had to put the "irons on". I put chains on only the rear wheels & that solved the problem. Thing is a beast with chains...all 4 wheels chained would be a go-anywhere beast. I was digging out some stumps this fall when I discovered a problem. I drove over one of the very small root balls, & the end of one of the roots hit a wire under the lower chassis. Broke one wire & disconnected the plug on another one where it plugged into a hydraulic block. We were able to repair the broken wire, & plugged the other one back in, but that combination of disconnect created some kind of fault in the gearbox, & all lower chassis functions (normal travel, normal steering, blade, out riggers) stopped working. I was able to limp it back to my dwy & called Andersen for service. What followed was a couple of weeks of diagnostics, during which Mecalac appeared stumped!! Finally, they decided to replace the commutator on the swivel (accessed thru a small panel under the seat), & do 2 firmware upgrades to the latest version, all under warranty, thank God!! And that fixed the problem!! They said they had made some changes (improvements?) to the commutator. I've come to understand that the commutator is critical for passing electrical signals to the lower chassis hydraulic block & gearbox. But the real problem is that the underside of the chassis is completely unprotected, & it's full of electrical wires & hydraulic lines. When I first looked under the chassis when things stopped working I was shocked. I just assumed that the underside was protected by a belly pan, All the tracked units are, but I've discovered that most (all?) wheeled machines, like excavators & loaders, are not. In my view this is a design deficiency on the part of Mecalac, particularly when some of their wheeled machines are used in the woods!! They don't even have an add-on belly pan!! The only one I found available is made by Aggeler in Switzerland, for about $8,000, plus VAT, shipping, tariffs!! And you have to drill/tap new 12mm mounting holes in the side rails besides!! So, my son & I have come up with a much simpler & better design that we can fab & install for less than about $1,000. It's all 3/8th thick steel, & uses the existing holes in the side rails that the mounting brackets for the left fuel tank & right tool box utilize. Just substitute slightly longer bolts. We plan to fab & install this belly pan this winter & spring. Wish us luck!!
It is disappointing that it didn't have a belly pan. They probably are only thinking about the wheeled machines being used for highway maintenance where there would not be much risk of that type of damage. This guy probably added a belly pan for his logging work! https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/vermont-contractor-blends-old-world-craftmanship-with-modern-tech/66960
Do you have an email address or phone # for Ben Canonica ??
Contact | Canonica Landworks, Inc. canonicalandworks.com
YI, refer to the attached photos for before installation & after installation of Belly Armor on the bottom of my 9MWR. The purpose is to protect the myriad wires & hydraulic lines underneath from any damage in the woods or on rough terrain (like happened last fall). My son designed & fabricated the armor, & we just bolted it in place, piece by piece. It's all 3/8"-thick steel, side rail hangers sandwiched between the frame & the toolbox & fuel tank brackets (using existing threaded holes but longer bolts), with 1' wide bottom plates bolted to the bottom of side rails. The front & back plates have cutouts for access to the drive shaft universal-joint zerks. Each plate weighs about 40 lbs, with the entire belly armor weighing about 380 lbs. The steel material cost about $700. Mecalac should offer such an assembly , either as standard equipment, or as an add-on. (see next 2 posts for rest of photos)
(photos 5-8)
(photos 9 & 10)
Well done! I'm guessing the intended use for the wheeled machines is road work where there is not likely to be hazards from underneath. Still, they should at least offer an option, like you suggested. My MCR has a very thin cover plate on the bottom of the undercarriage, and they use tiny little bolts to hold it in place. I don't think Mecalac puts enough effort into machine protection.
P.s. did you end up talking to Ben?