Can anyone help me out. Never operated an excavator before. We are farmers living out in the boonies. Bought a used 2007 Hitachi 200 LC with about 8500 hours at auction. I dont know if it is normal or not but it seems to be "weaker" than I would have thought. for example there is no way i could take a scoop of dirt with the wrist of the bucket only...I need to dig the bucket in then use the arm to pull the bucket in (pulling back on the left lever). Also there is no way a the swing has enough power to push anything sideways...like knocking over a 6" tree using the swing...not possible. But most strange is the weak hydro on the tracks...it moves good straight forward but turning uses every bit of hydrop power it has to the point where it really cant turn on the spot without having both tracks moving forward a bit. see this youtube vid.. https://youtu.be/yW5zraNN2CY thanks for any help!
Sorry title is supposed to be "Hitachi 200 LC weak Hydro?"
Its hard to say from the video. First port of call would be to check the relief pressures on every circuit. ie, boom raise, arm in, arm out, swing, travel left, travel right bucket in, bucket out. Record all the readings. You should be looking for about 34.3 Mpa. Swings normal set slightly lower at around 31 Mpa. If the lack of power is on every service then its probably a weak or stuck open main relief valve.
Would the hydro pump ever wear out. Is it expected that an 8000h machine is worse than a 1000h machine performance wise?
looks like in the video you're in deep grass and maybe mud? there isn't a ton of flow to your tracks so you're not going to get a lot of power. excavator's aren't built for track power. safes wear and tear and time if you combine track rotation and use your bucket for turning and if you get stuck, just pull yourself out. easy as pie ha. same with swing power...it's virtually non existent. not good for your swing bearing banging on things from the side anyways. Excavators are made for pulling material and that they do very well with with all controls (bucket curl, stick in, boom lift) working together. If you have tough soil like clay than it`s very possible just the curl alone wouldn`t pull through
thanks casby, yes in deep grass. maybe a bit uphill. slowly we will learn. I suspect technique yields big returns compared to brute force. thanks for helping me feel a bit better...was worried I bought a lemon
Does anyone agree with this? I found it on another forum " If track motors seem weak check the seal rings in the swivel as one of the first places=very easy to pull the swivel and usually is the problem. Square white plastic seal rings inside. "
Check the pressures at low idle and high idle. That's the most basic test before stripping anything. If the pressures in spec you may be wasting time and money chasing problems that don't exist. Many things can cause weak travel power or front attachment power. You need to know there's a problem though before progressing.