I've been looking for a hydraulic thumb for my Cat 304c. I want the pin-mounted type, not a weld-on. I've exhausted Google search and haven't found anything, new or used. Does anyone have a source for hydraulic thumbs?
I used this guy for a thumb on a slightly smaller machine, guys have yet to bend or break it, so that must count for something. Very well made and installed perfectly, came with a new longer main bucket pin to accommodate the thumb. Stick already had a top mount for the cylinder, but they will supply one if yours doesn’t have one. https://www.northsaw.com/page/
Thanks! I'll reach out to them
I have a Cat 302c and bought a hydraulic thumb from Tom's Thumbs. It has been excellent and fits like a glove. He sent a form to fill out for exact measurements and the thumb grips between the teeth on the bucket I would use him again in a heartbeat.
Showtime fabrication. https://showtimefab.com
I second the recommendation for Showtime Fabrication. Very quick service, very high quality.
Have you priced one from Cat? We have a Cat one on our 305, simple and easy and was not that expensive. I think it was $2,400 installed when we bought the machine "new to us". That's thumb, cylinder, lines, valve for the aux. and longer bucket pin.
My experience with the 305 and the CAT thumb has been different. I seldom disagree with CM1995, but we just may have different perspectives on this one. We pull a lot of concrete at a DOE site every year. Most of it, since its our tax dollars that put it in, is overly thick, most with bar and overly done for what it was meant to do. My Machine (Taki 257) was tied up for a week and we had a deadline to meet so they rented a 305 with an Amulet direct link thumb. After a half a day, they parked it and had CAT come get it. Compared to the HPF Pro link thumb with 4 claw design and a much heavier build and grabbing power, the 305/Amulet was unproductive for what they needed to do. The 305 couldn't lift near as much and thumb was weak and more difficult to manage the concrete. They determined to give it back and wait for our setup to clear itself and finish with it. That is not to say in a better environment that it wouldn't work fine for a lot operations, but it wasn't set up for what was needed on this project. It wasn't me that was running it but the guy that manages the DOE project stuff. He knows after years of working together what the Taki and HPF can do, but he had never seen a direct comparison with other (more conventional) set ups. It solidified my companies position, I will say that.
So far the Cat thumb has done everything we need it to do. If we're doing heavy demo we're going to use the 325 or 321 for obvious reasons. I tore the 6" concrete drive thru lane and curbing out with the 305 and the thumb handled the pieces well. As far as concrete demo goes nothing hard but suits our needs. Ours is just the single acting thumb not a progressive one.
Not to beat a dead horse but I've found our 305 and thumb quite capable. KSS maybe that machine had something wrong with it? Not familiar with the Amulet thumb either. The combo will lift enough over the blade that it tips the machine over the side. Back at the BK to Starbucks job tearing out the drive thru. 4 - 5.5" thick concrete. The 305 tore both of these slabs out of the ground and handled them well front to back. Extended over the side tipped the machine. KSS was it a rental machine? If so it might have had the pressures dialed down in order to keep joystick holders from tearing the machine apart.(?)
It was a rental, maybe it just wasn't right. I have run the 306 which I think is a hell of an excavator. Its heavier of course, it was much more capable.
Yeah the 306 is a nice mini, rented one last year before we bought the 305. Problem for us with the 306 is weight as it pretty much requires a CDL rig to move it and I'm the only CDL driver at the moment.