I regularly use CAT excavators, but the past week I was on a HITACHI 200 Zaxis, which I found to have extremely jerky controls in comparison to the smoothness of the cat excavators. Does anyone else notice this? What are your thoughts on these excavators? Machine has 6500 hours, I felt it was just overly sensitive, and movements of the joysticks had to be extremely minimal...
I usually find it the other way around with the cat controls being jerky and hard to finesse... I wonder if someone has turned up the pilot pressure or there is a problem with it from improper service being done in the past.
It is not the reputation HITACHI has , ask your local dealer he will set up the machine to your wishes
I did find it very out of the ordinary, the guy who owns it does a lot of work on it himself im sure - where do you adjust pilot pressure? the swing is beyond odd, it will turn faster than is anywhere in the realm of normal. Very quiet machine otherwise, Not sure how the isuzu engines are. The guy who owns it wont even run it at full throttle. how does deere trackhoes compare to the these? Only run a mini deere, just cat otherwise....
There is something wrong with it. Hitachi's have very smooth controls. Our machines are 90% Hitachi/Deere and when we rent anything smaller than a Cat 365 they complain the Cat's are jerky. I can tell you with proper maintenance the Isuzu will last damn near forever. They are quiet, smooth, and very fuel efficient. Even compared to a Deere engine in the same machine. If I remember correctly the pilot pressure is set by shimming the pilot relief. I wonder if someone has been screwing with the pump controls? A Zaxis Hitachi is the exact same machine as a Deere C Series, only difference is the engine/cooling package. A Zaxis-3 is a Deere D Series and a Zaxis-5 is a Deere G Series.
Thx for info. I figured something wasn`t right. Dont find the cats too jerky, my bet is the guy has messed around with it.
I am wondering by your comment about the swing if the machine is jerky, or is it because you are used to the s l o w speed of a Cat compared to a Hitachi that you are not comfortable with its speed yet? I am not knocking you, as I do not know your experience, but in my experience, Hitachi is hands down a faster and smoother machine than a Cat.
This was a common complaint on the ZX-5 and D series deeres....shorter jjoysticks and a more responsive hydraulic system. It can be tamed down by adjusting the pump regulators if needed