Long time lurker, first time poster. Just picked up a higher-hour one-owner 2017 Kubota u55-4 (3,625 hrs) as my first mini-excavator for just screwing around my properties. I think it was fairly well-maintained being an owner-operator machine, came with new tracks. I have no experience with excavators whatsoever -- I've owned a backhoe in the past, so I'm at least semi-proficient at digging. I have a couple questions: 1. Slewing left and right, the boom and house seems to rock back and forth when coming to a stop. Is this normal? When the arm is fully extended, I only have about 3"-4" of side-to-side play at the bucket teeth when moving the boom by hand. I would say half of the play comes from the house, and half from the independent boom swing. If this is normal sway, do I just have to work at coming to a much smoother stop? 2. The dipper stick has some slop at the boom pivot -- I would say the bucket can sway 2-3" when perpendicular to the ground like a pendulum -- is it worthwhile to change that pin and bushings sooner than later, or will that have some play regardless? Happy holidays
Hey unfixed. I have the same machine but a 2016 with 2,200 hours. I don't believe I have any of the symptoms that you are experiencing. I will say that when using my 3' bucket the machine is less stable in all situations (zero tail swing models, I think are more susceptible to this, when you put that 3' 540 lb bucket out there on the arm). I generally use my 2' bucket for general earth moving and demo; my 18" bucket for serious digging and tree removal. I suspect that replacing some pins and bushing would be a good idea. By responding to you it will push your inquiry back to the top of the thread queue. I'm sure some experienced pros on this site will share their expertise soon. I've put about 500 hours on my machine. I haven't had a glitch except a loose hydraulic line on the boom/arm joint when I accidentally whacked a tree with a side movement in heavy brush. Best, Allan