I picked up my jack hammer from Rollins today and I was asked if I wanted to "play" with the new TB180: http://www.takeuchi-us.com/pdfs/TB180FR.pdf I kinda liked the concept of the new style swing boom and I had to give it a try. For all out hogging and trench digging, it would be real nice, but for close quarters where you need to swing the material back behind you, I wasn't too impressed, the beauty of traditional swing booms is that you can swing the boom to the left, and swing right beside a wall and only have 3 feet of boom sticking out, this Tak's set up would be a pain, no matter where you stuck the boom, there was still 12 feet sticking out, and if you were in a tight over head clearance situation, don't even bother. They do have some good technology on it to prevent the operator from wiping out the cab with the boom and bucket, it's kinda hard to explain, but it works really well. This particular machine had a thumb and a 44" bucket on it and fully loaded, it would tip over the side at the 90% of full reach, not bad, but still rather unstable, the power distribution was awesome, no excessive engine noise and vibrations. The cab floor space however, wasn't that great, it felt the same as my little Hitachi 27, cramped no matter where the seat is. Overall, Takeuchi knows how to build an excavator, but I'll keep looking for sometime, I need a huge cab like Cat's or Komatsu's.
but you didnt take any pics to share with us on HEF/LawnSite?
No, forgot the camera at home, darn it. Oh well, I have a TB123 coming my way in the spring to "play" with for a while.
You should buy my KX161-3 instead. Where do you work out of? Im in abbotsford. I prefer the komatsus to the takeuchis too, i think its because I can spell it easier. :beatsme
No way, I'm steering clear of Crap-o-bota's, Tak's and Cat's are the only good mini's out there now. I am also based in Abby as well, not too many have seen me around for a while due to a recent "color change" and almost a dead stand still in work.
what about Yanmar? I have just spent a few days playing with Kobelco, Case, and Yanmar 5 tonners. The Kobelco is a nice machine but very small cab. The Yanmar's cab is massive! Case is somewhere inbetween... actually right now I am just trying to get in my three posts so I can post my own q... heh heh.
thats me i'm trying start my own thread lol, i've searched but i can't find an answer to what i want to know.
I hope you noticed some similiarities between the CASE and Kobelco they are the same machine, and you can add NH to that list.
case and kobelco Hi and thanks for the response both her and the other thread. ITs puzzling for me with the who makes what. I could send you pics of an SK45-SR2 Kobelco and a CX50 Case that both weigh very close to the same but are nothing alike. The Case cab is bigger, the kobelco has zero tail swing, and on and on. I also understand that Sumitomo makes case for Europe. I am familiar with the CNH group, but its so spread out with the who makes what. Another example is the CNH tractors (I'm a farmer). You can buy a Case MXM series which is basically a painted New Holland and not very popular for some years due to a lousy Ford tranmission, but you can buy other Case CVX series tractors (both MXM and CVX have the same weight ranges but CVX is a little more money) which are made only for Case and are much more reliable. The only thing I can think of is that you get Kobelcos there in the US that we don't here in Europe, as the only Kobelcos we've got here are zero tail swing models up to 8 tonn. Anyone have experience with the CAT 305CRs??? :deadhorse
The Taks are very popular here in North-Carolina. The 180 is a slick looking machine.
Takeuchi has a great reliability name for itself and it is only growing. They make great machines for a great price. In my opinion they are hard to beat.