I know the question has been asked. Could someone make due with one of these blade runners and due away with their komatsu d38-e? We don't do a lot of heavy excavation. But I do use the old d38 for clearing, finish work. These blade runners are very tempting though! I'd love to here from someone who has one and what you do with it, and what you aren't able to do with it. Thanks guys!
i'd say no way. The final drives on the ex are no where near as heavy as on a dozer. neither is the undercarriage. Even if the machine could do what the dozer will do, maint/repair costs will be much higher/frequent. Those blades are meant for cleanup (lite cleanup) and to be used as an outrigger for digging. If you do serious blading with your excavator, and itll be junk in no time.
The blade on the blade runner is made just as heavy as any 6 way blade also the final drives and tracks have been made bigger to withstand the blade we have a lot of them out and no problems with undercarrige, finals or blades and a couple of them are at customers that are known for taking care of equipment
My unit EX60 with blade will not do what a dozer does by any means, but it a smaller machine , granted.
Here's another thread I found with a quick search of the Excavator section:
I don't think I've ever heard that durability was a problem in Blade Runners. There were quite a few around here in the last few years. Times being what they are I don't see many of them anymore. Not a lot of work to justify them going down the highway.
I haven't even seen a bladerunner in the flesh but my take is that you would want 4 drive motors to give the machine some serious pushing power. It's one thing to push around loose material but going into natural soil may be another thing altogether. I really can't see the BR replacing a bulldozer, particularly as the tracks are smooth and may well slip in tough conditions, however it should do the work of a K0matsu D38, seeing the BR is twice as heavy.
Blade runner The blade runner sure seems like a great idea! I didn't think about the final drives being an issue. I guess it really depends on what you end up doing with the thing. I was hoping to here from someone who has one, and what they use it for, specifically.
Well I don't know if the drives are an issue, however they are hydraulically driven and would have relief valves, unlike a proper bull dozer. However the blade is not as big as a comparable sized dozer and you can loosen the material to be pushed up with the bucket, sort of like rippers on a dozer. The beauty I can see of the concept is that the BR can be used as a part time dozer, grader and excavator. None of which it would do as well as a dedicated machine but then you have to figure out the cost of buying, maintaining and staffing a dozer, excavator and grader. Obviously on a big job you would want lots of machines to do the various jobs all at once but on small to medium sized jobs a BR might be the way to go, particularly looking at transport and running costs. I really think it is a niche market machine but there are a few used ones on the market, this doesn't look too bad http://www.machinerytrader.com/list...u=KOBELCO&Mdltxt=ED190+BLADERUNNER&mdlx=exact bit rough but has lowish hours. Another thing to look at is to rent one for a job and see how it goes. If you are serious about a BR I would try and find some operators in your area who use them and ask them about it.
I used one once to cut and grade a pad on a lot. It was a bit of a learning curve for me anyway. the blade would dig in really fast and want to start to washboard. I did really like the machine and it would be really handy in certain situations once use to it. One neat feature I liked about it was the beveled tracks made for a real clean pad walked in.
I would love to try one.from what a salesman told me it has the drives and u/c of a 210 and the upper structure of a 135. (ed150) i spoke to a guy last summer who has one and he loves it I asked about the blade being on the way and he said he puts it behind him.he said he was concerned about digging over the drives but the dealer told him it's fine that's what everyone does that owns one.
the blade on the ED150 is 10'8" wide with the wings out and 8'1" with them folded it about equal to a D6 and weight is around 32,800 lb as far as the hydraulic driven travel so are about 80-90% of the dozers that size now
The final drives on the ED 195 are not only two sizes up, but the motor displacement is reduced for more torque and durability. The chains are SALT like a dozer. That is NOT a back fill blade if you look at it,,,, MUCH heavier. At over 43,000# I have personally pushed a 180HP class dozer backwards with one. The main drawback on a large job is speed. A dozer is faster at travel speeds on a large job. Most modern dozers are now hydraulic drive anyway.
I was sold on the idea back in '03. I demoed both an ED 190 & an ED 150. I was very optimistic about the 190 as it is reported to weigh 50k# or so. I was not very impressed with it's performance. The undercarriage of an excavator is much wider than that of a dozer. Therefore the blade must be wider to keep from driving over the windrows when the blade is angled. The 190 blade is about 11' wide. Despite the weight the machine has a hard time driving straight while windrowing. I am sure this can be compensated for with skill and time in the seat but I felt as though the blade should have been able to carry more before it started to steer the machine. Maybe single grousers would have helped. I also felt as though the blade was in the way if not in use. I know that they say to dig over the planetaries and that will work but you will have to spin the bottoms around more than normal, and the blade is in the way when using the hoe to assist when steering. It has to be very far in front of the machine because the blade is so wide. The ED 150 worked better for dozing than the 190 (IMO). It still did not work as I had hoped but it did fair much better than the 190. It still has the other drawbacks that I had mentioned about the 190. I felt that the geometry of the hoe was fine on the 190 but something was off on the 150. Maybe the boom was too short and the stick too long (or vice versa), I don't recall which, but it felt auckward to me. I really had high hopes for the ED machines, and maybe over time they can figure things out so that they can improve in the areas that I fell need improvement. I went with a contemporary excavator instead and have not really looked back.