I have two things I'm currently trying to decide on. I have a KX121-3ST with the qc and thumb and am wondering how well it can manage a 36" bucket. USA Attachments has a 36" bucket with a .15/.22 cu yard capacity. My current job is loading out trucks with dirt cut from a house pad. I haven't decided which would be better, the TL250 track loader or the ex for loading the trucks from the stockpile. The ex could load off a bench. I'm guessing we have 1-1.5k yards to haul out, although that might grow. Loading into tandems... I'm nearly positive the TL250 would have to load from both sides due to the reach. A high dump bucket would be another choice, but that's more than I want to spend for this job. Any helpful theories/opinions?
Ex. would in my opinion be better. Less site disturbance then the track loader. Depending on the type of material you could maybe have some plate welded to the sides of the bucket to get a bit more in it as long as you can lift a full,modified bucket over the side. Good luck and let us know how it went. Cheers Lowbed Driver
Ok, here is how it breaks down... a .22 yd capacity bucket will take 6,800 buckets to move that amount of material with the 121. It will take aprox 3,000 buckets with the t250... So if you get a 50 minute work hr. it will take about 68 hrs to do that with the 121, on a 30 sec cycle. Idk what your ctl cycle times should be, but it will not be fast lifting that high and dumping from both sides, if your lucky a cycle a minute, probably 1 every 1.5 minutes, which then takes 90 hrs with the minute and a half cycle. My recommendation... go rent the largest hoe that you can get delivered without oversize load. Something like a 315 or a 160. They should move 1.5 - 2 yrds a minute that has you done in 15 hrs, you will make your rental fees back in truck time savings 70hrs @ 70 an hr is 4,900 vs 16 hrs @ 70 is 1,120.
I agree with stumpjumper
Me too. Good advice. LB
Just a suggestion. Get a 922 or 944 Cat. Minimal site disturbance. High payload (1+ yd. bucket). Sell off when done.
Thanks for the replies so far! I like the idea of add ons to the existing bucket to increase capacity. The bucket on the TL250 is rated for a yard and my fill factor is usually over 100%. The cycle times on the ex should be ~12 seconds, The track loader should be well under a minute, although I haven't done any tests on that. Hopefully a lot of it can be used around the house pad, which will depend on what the owner decides. Another point is the dirt is being hauled about half a mile to a lot with poor drainage and has to be spread (can't slam it out). Hopefully no trucks get stuck. Also, this is an hourly job, not a bid. However if I need something all I have to do is ask.
Hell you changed the game a lot there in the last post.... I'd put a larger rental hoe on the pile loading and the tl250 to spreading and maintaining the dump site. Just my opinion though.... John
Are you sure of a 12 second average cycle time? I'd have to watch some body put 5 buckets a minute in a truck to believe it. What size truck are you going to be using? No need of a 350 Cat to load an F350, and that little equipment would be awful slow loading one of my 30 yd trailers.
My momma said if you can't say something nice, then don't say nothing at all...
I think ya'll are talking about different "cycle times". :cool2
Last week I was loading out material with my Takeuchi TB153 (13K machine) and using a 48" clean out bucket. I don't know how much it holds but it was made for an 18K machine its quite a big bucket. Sitting on a bench loading 4 axle trucks took about 9 min. per truck. The material was already exed once and was soft.
Cycle time to me is start position, load, dump, and back to start position. Yesterday I had a helper time 10 passes with a 24" bucket digging a couple feet below and rotating 150 degrees dumping at full reach a foot or two higher. Average cycle was 9.8 seconds so I don't think 12 seconds is very far off with a bigger bucket. Truck wise we'll likely use tandems for any haul off. I figured I could turn a truck out in 12-15 minutes. This pile has grown since this picture, and there are a few smaller piles in other areas
Wow, that's fast. I knew the little stuff was quick, but I didn't know they were that quick.
That looks like good sandy topsoil. Screened and delivered here would be $400 a load.
I hate to admit it but I cant run my 121 wide open, it is a fast little machine. Mine pulls a 36" bucket with ease, I day dream about a 42"! I refer to mine as a QC because it only has one pin to pull maybe yours is hydraulic? If the machine can sit high on the stock pile it will load heaped buckets with ease. This is rare for me as I have two loaders so I never timed my cycles but I would guess 15 seconds.
36"
A 121 will pull a 36" bucket into loose soil without even working up a sweat. Just this last Friday, I helped a friend out on one of his jobs. I was on his U25-3 which has a 48" ditching/clean up bucket. It's a shallow bucket, but the little machine had no problems heaping the bucket. If you have a qc, a wide clean up bucket is one of the best investments that you can make. It's one of those things where after you start using it, you'll wonder how you got the job done without it. Get one that's slightly over sized for your machine. Just be careful about not over reaching with a full bucket.
Mine has the single pin qc also. I want a cleanup bucket, the only problem is I want a tilting cleanup bucket which would reduce capacities. I'll have to ponder on that. At the moment I don't want to spend that much without having work to justify it. I have also thought about adding counterweight to offset the added weight (qc and thumb at least). I'm thinking adding some large wings to the bucket would be the most cost efficient method of gaining capacity with minimal downsides. So it seems like the ex and track loader are similarly matched in this application. In that case I'll use the ex as it's all around cheaper to operate.
Bought the 36" bucket, the KX121 handles it nicely. The bucket isn't super heavy built, but it will do fine for handling bulk material as well as digging where conditions allow.
I run a 36" tilt bucket on my 121, no problem at all.
Just noticed the laser receiver on your boom, what model, how do you like it, and if you don't mind, how much was it?
When I bought my -121, they told me that the 30" bucket was the widest available except for a 36" smooth ditching bucket. I would expect the 36 to do well for you.
Nice! How long is it taking to load the truck(s) off the stockpile?
That'll start tomorrow or next week. Today I'm converting my dump trailer to a gas powered pump to lower the cycle times (it was electric over hydraulic). I'll update with how long it takes to load the trailer... probably will end up shooting a video as well.
I like that idea. I would save on batteries. How are you doing it? Would you mind starting a thread on it?
Sure, lemme get it plumbed up in the morning and we can go from there.
The load that just went out took 35 passes to load in 6:16 minutes; 10.75 seconds per pass. The load was roughly 9 yards. The trailer was a bit far out, I had to boom out a good bit.
Just loaded ~9 yards in 7 passes in 3:45 with the ctl. That's a clear advantage to the ctl by 66%!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBQDdnOXsjs Video from the truck's perspective hauling 4 loads. One at normal speed (just under 10 minutes), then the last 3 at 20x. Yesterday we hauled and spread 22 loads in 6.5 hours.