My dad bought a Kobelco SS from my uncle in law, who use to have a Kobelco dealership. He told us it was a gray-market machine and was never officially offered in the USA. What is the smallest Mini ever offered in the USA? What markets were the Kobelco SS offered in? Anyone know why these were never sold in the USA? Have fun, post your pictures and lets talk about mini minis in general. :drinkup BTW: He with the biggest belly has the biggest counterweight!! :drinkup More photos:
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Wow that really is the smallest tracked excavator I have seen sure is cute. Good thing I never saw that when I was a kid my parents would of never heard the end of it.
That is one cool toy. I can just imagine the fun and trouble that could have caused when I was a kid. Anybody know about what one would cost, my son would have a blast with one. John
I wonder if they offer a rock breaker to suit ?
He actually used this to trench for sewer lines between houses and in areas with heavy roots. The city he lives in did a complete conversion from septic to sewer. Dads motto was always work smarter not harder. This machine uses a small (i think 12 hp honda) for the hydrolics and had a belt drive for the tracks. The tracks were driven by a belt that was either engaged or not engaged so it was tricky to move around. I think moving the travel lever pushed a tensioner pully against a belt and made it bite. i think this machine was around $10,000 US
Can't talk about the US but over here in Ozzieland the smallest is 800kg, I have a KOBELCO SK005 500kg (grey market) which is smallest full feature excavator (full 360 rotation, aux hydraulics and a backfill blade) that KOBELCO make but those little machines where only meant for the Japanese market, I have an operators manual for the SK005 but it is in Japanese.
Hey Dirthauler, mind if I borrow that for a little job up here in BC, and could you mail it up to me
Wow i found this one on ebay for only $2200 and no one bid on it. It weights around 700 lbs to shipping would not be too horrible. http://cgi.ebay.com/Kobelco-SS-mini-excavator-track-hoe-back-hoe-/160465646479?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0 I found a bit more info,
Is your Uncle-in-law named Steve?
I rented one years ago, to do a drainage job in a fenced backyard. Pretty cool little machine. Sure beats a pick and shovel. Only trouble was, halfway through the job, I had to run down to the bank and get another couple rolls of quarters...
:exactly :lmao
I forget his name. He use to have something to do with D&M Machine Division and the invention of the SLASHBUSTER from Wa state.
I remember them well, D&M out of Montesano. We bought and installed several Slashbusters. Most of them ended up with Asplundh. We had a salesman named Steve that had one of these SS machines, it was the only one I had seen..and we were a Kobelco dealer. I used it at my house for a few projects. I was thinking what a small world it is if this was the exact same machine.
David Milbourn was who he bought it from.
I think David must have bought it from Steve, that would make sense. Don and Dave Milburn...Don worked for Asplundh and Dave for D&M and I'm sure all of it was related somehow. The internet sure shrinks the world.
Dave actually had two of them, one for him and one for his wife. Maybe at one point one bought the Steve's. Funny story, my dad bought that one from him at my wedding reception which was at Dave's property in Humptulips WA.
Found a video of one on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rof4Hsjk3Qo