I'm looking at 2 mini excavators right now. One is a kubota u25-3 with 1300 hrs and the other is a volvo ec28 with 2500 hrs. Both are clean and well maintained. The kubota comes with 2 bucket and the volvo comes with 3 plus a tilt bucket. The lifting capacity is about the same on both units with the kubota being spec'd a little higher. Both machines have clean cabs and are price about the same. What are your thoughts on either of these machines? As far as dealer support goes, both volvo and kubota are about the same distance away. I was just about ready to pull the trigger on the kubota, but then I read berry's thread about the troubles he's been having with his kubota. Anyone have anything to say about either or both of these machines?
I think generally the Kubota is a more highly regarded machine than is the Volvo. The Volvo especially in the smaller machines is an older Samsung design which were decent machines but long in the tooth in my opinion . Resale without checking for sure, should favor the Kubota. The question I have is more about this sized machine. It seems that you can step up to a 35 sized machine with few drawbacks over the 25 sized machine, the 25 and 35 are about the same size physically yet the 35 is more capable with deeper dig depth and more breakout.
Volvo mini's are/were based on the French made Pel Job machines. The bigger volvo excavators were based on the samsungs. As for the size, a 2.5 ton is the max weight that I can move without having to buy a bigger truck (there's an annoying 7 ton gvw cut off in Europe before your truck needs commercial tags, trip counter and a speed limiter). Ideally, I'd want a 5-8 ton hoe and a roll off truck, but I'm trying to stay lean and work with what I've got for now.
Kubota like stated is a much better maching in my opinion . Yanmar , Tachuchi , IHI ,Komatsu are all good machines , the big thing is some of these machines support from the factory years down the road as they get older getting parts like final drives or pump parts at times can end the usefull life of a machine early at a young age! just make sure you have a strong established dealer that can support you in the future.
You guys have some odd rules (at least to me) that you have to follow. I did not realize you were in Europe, resale may not be the same when comparing these two machines as they are here. News to me on the Volvo mini ex, I thought they were all Samsung. Personally that would even further push me to Kubota.
I grew up in CT. Trust me, I have no use for some of the laws over here. Anything over 3.5 tons requrires a CDL or a "C" permit. I can have a combined truck and trailer weight of 7 tons. If you have a trailer over 500 kgs, you need an "E" endorsement. Any trailer on a truck over 3.5 tons requires a "CE" permit. I have the CE permit, but I just don't want the added expenses involved with a bigger truck. The market isn't that great over here. I did a side by side comparison on the spec sheets for both machines. The volvo is about 10% more powerful on bucket curl, but the kubota has 20% force on the crowd....and 10% more hp, more hydraulic flow on the aux circuit, it has a longer working radius, higher dumping height and it tracks faster and has 50% more drawbar pull....and it has 1200 fewer hrs. It still has the paint on the sprocket teeth. I'm going to go check it out this week.
I guess I hemmed and hawwed too long, the kubota sold yesterday :/