we are going to rent a JD200C LC long reach excavator (50ft) for a few miles of ditch to clean - we have cleaned our share of drainage ditches with our regular 200 size machine - but have no real experience with a long reach - I would appreciate any advice anyone would have in operating advice to be safe - productive - and take care of the machine (ie swinging speed - etc)
You don't want a probie running it. Expect considerably less production per day than you were getting with your normal hoe, not only because of bucket size, but also cycle times. Other than those things, everything else should be about the same.
Do not push the bucket into the ground enough to pick up the front of the machine. They are good for cleaning vegetation out of ditches and maybe soft materials in settling ponds. I have some good friends with a fleet of long toms and most have plenty of repair welds and fish plates installed. Inspect the rental machine for cracks in the boom and stick before you take delivery. Good Luck!
What was said above. They are a big fishing pole in behavior, and running one will give a guy some respect for what steel goes through. If you pay close attention, the stick twists and the boom twists if you swing too fast. I had to set armor rock with one, and of course could not hammer it in like what was needed. That boom had obvious repair at the boom cylinder area. What is the plan, are you banking the material or loading it in trucks?
Good day In the East we have flatlands originally drained by the Dutch, drainage maintenance is a regular application attached a information regarding those machines that you may find of interest, it rather heavy with a lot of illustrations. Kind regards Uffex
We are going to use it for drainage ditch maintenance. Cleaning silt from dredge ditches. Wondered about twisting booms. Figured swing speed would be critical to pay attention to. Hoping to get away this afternoon or in the morning to go check machine out. Is about two hours away. Not bad
Good day td As to the best of my experience swing speed has never been an issue of course side sweeping should be avoided as with long reach you can twist and crack equipment. Frequent inspection should be adhered to as the equipment is likely to require more attention. I suggest that you avoid pin grabbers and quick hitch device's these will cost your lifting capacity & stability. Normally the bucket would be cast to the far reach only raising as it completes the cycle to the nearside, the machine operation is more like the wire rope machines of yesteryears. As John C. pointed out it is less of a digging machine and more of a cleaning device often operators find this hard to understand, the addition of a floating device will without doubt prevent boom - arm and cylinders a lot of stress with the added bonus of reducing fuel consumption. Sorry for the novel. Kind regards Uffex
Good day what a skilled operator can achieve
I operated a 210 similar sized machine, but I never seem to operate them doing conventional things like cleaning ditches. I had to tear apart three home building sites that were terraced with little 15-ft benches and one and a half to one slopes, that ended in a 25-ft high block wall. I took all of the dirt from those three back to the native stacked it on six building lots, put in drain pipe and connected that to the wall drain system. Then I mixed 200,000 pounds of fly ash into the soil by excavator and eyeball. Rebuilt the lots with The terraces and the slopes. Then the work I did up on Mount Rainier with the 270 was also completely not standard operation
May be of interest variable counterweight Preistman long reach for drainage.
Pretty amazing project skyline. Hats off to you. Looked at Deere 200C 50ft reach today. Disappointed as boom had been broken at some point and weld job not impressive in any way. Then they had the nerve to tell me the rent was 1,200 higher than what was quoted to me Friday. Walked right out the door. Looking at a CAT 320 with 60 reach in Indy tomorrow
Sky king. Not other. Stupid autocorrect
I went down the rabbit hole on those, uffex. Thank you for posting.