Mini digger appraisal service

[Muz]

You get diggers that dont really gel all of the parts together to make a complete package .. you get some that have outstandingly good bits, but other parts are just rubbish, and then you get some that are everything bad, in one place at the same time. The KX61 in all three dash variants, is none of these, in my professional opinion, it is in fact one of those excavators that has combined all of the some of the parts, to work exceptionally well, and then be worth something to sell at the end of its shift ... good choice I say .. but its lift capacity will not be in the environs of your published expectations, although none to shabby all the same .. good luck and we look forward to pics ... and any trials and tribulations, although , with such a machine, you will not be throwing spanners at it very often

[v8druid]

With thanks for the help provided, I just wanted to tie this thread off. I did indeed go to both Manor Farm (Howard and Sons) and John Barnes last week. Manor Farm is more of a tractor dealer, they only had a couple of diggers, and for a newbie it was quite an intimidating place to go. One thing I did immediately realise though was that a 5t machine just felt too big for the sort of self-build work I have in mind, so I quickly downgraded my ambition to something in the 2.5-3t class. From there I went to John Barnes in Abergavenny. I found both John and Johnathan to be really straightforward people to deal with, very helpful and informative, let me spend a bit of time looking over their stock (they've got a *lot*). I liked the look of the Kubota KX61 but the one they had in had worked quite hard.

Next day I went off to Devon Plant Services in, guess where, Devon. Liked the people and saw a very tidy KX61 with 3100 hours. Did the deal on Friday afternoon and it was delivered here today. Now I need a dumper...

wish you well with it .....
not the first time Devon plant have come up recently https://www.planttalk.co.uk/threads/...ge-2#post-1340
I went to look at a duck belonging to their brother/uncle, some time ago ..... was a total dog ..... and nothing like the description I'd been given

Glad you enjoyed John and Jonathan's 'company' .... they're decent guys .... and extremely knowledgeable

[jtbjtb]

its lift capacity will not be in the environs of your published expectations

Yes, you're quite right about this - but I had to compromise on something - and the ability to move a dumpy bag was the necessary compromise. (My thinking is that all I have to do is dig a couple of buckets out of the bag into a spare bag and then I should be able to move the material to the point of use. We'll see - aggregate delivery is first thing tomorrow).

[jtbjtb]

wish you well with it .....
not the first time Devon plant have come up recently https://www.planttalk.co.uk/threads/...ge-2#post-1340
I went to look at a duck belonging to their brother/uncle, some time ago ..... was a total dog ..... and nothing like the description I'd been given

Glad you enjoyed John and Jonathan's 'company' .... they're decent guys .... and extremely knowledgeable

That's interesting, and the chap named in that thread is the same chap I dealt with - who on my dealings over the past few days couldn't have been more straightforward. I guess only time will tell if the machine is ok or not. Check back in 6 months...

[v8druid]

That's interesting, and the chap named in that thread is the same chap I dealt with - who on my dealings over the past few days couldn't have been more straightforward. I guess only time will tell if the machine is ok or not. Check back in 6 months...

thought it might be of interest to you

[jtbjtb]

good luck and we look forward to pics

Here you go:




There were two things I wanted to be able to do with dumpy bags: one was lift them off the back of the pickup, and the other was move them around the site. To my pleasant surprise this morning I discovered that the latter is definitely possible. (I'm pretty sure the former won't be, but that's fine).

[Muz]

Everything is fitted with a quick hitch these days.. and yours isnt, which makes a small difference for sure . Not sure what you are trying to prove though? The digger is on its tip toes .. so that bag aint going anywhere with the boom lifting it alone I thought your objective was free lifting of said bags ?

And BTW *edit* the first bump you go over, the boom can drop a little, unless you can hold it tight to the blade and the arse of the bag scores across the ground , gets ripped and proceeds to spread its contents and all of this is dependant on what the bag is holding ofcourse ?

[v8druid]

Everything is fitted with a quick hitch these days.. and yours isnt, which makes a small difference for sure . Not sure what you are trying to prove though? The digger is on its tip toes .. so that bag aint going anywhere with the boom lifting it alone I thought your objective was free lifting of said bags ?

And BTW *edit* the first bump you go over, the boom can drop a little, unless you can hold it tight to the blade and the arse of the bag scores across the ground , gets ripped and proceeds to spread its contents and all of this is dependant on what the bag is holding ofcourse ?

first bump and the straps leap off the bucket teeth ..... if you got to do that .... sit the the straps closest to the bucket body on top of the straps closest to the machine ..... the former will hold the latter on the teeth better ....... and crowd the bucket more to form more of a hook for them to attach to
better still .... use a bag lifter





WP_20180915_14_28_59_Pro.jpg WP_20180915_14_01_07_Pro.jpg

[jtbjtb]

Everything is fitted with a quick hitch these days.. and yours isnt, which makes a small difference for sure . Not sure what you are trying to prove though? The digger is on its tip toes .. so that bag aint going anywhere with the boom lifting it alone I thought your objective was free lifting of said bags ?

And BTW *edit* the first bump you go over, the boom can drop a little, unless you can hold it tight to the blade and the arse of the bag scores across the ground , gets ripped and proceeds to spread its contents and all of this is dependant on what the bag is holding ofcourse ?

Well ok but despite your words of doom here, I moved a lot of bags around the site on Wednesday - with absolutely no issues at all.

And yesterday it even managed to lift a dumpy bag off the back of my pickup truck - although I'd concede that it *was* absolutely on its tip toes doing that. Still pretty impressive for little 2.6t machine though, I thought.

[jtbjtb]

first bump and the straps leap off the bucket teeth ..... if you got to do that .... sit the the straps closest to the bucket body on top of the straps closest to the machine ..... the former will hold the latter on the teeth better ....... and crowd the bucket more to form more of a hook for them to attach to
better still .... use a bag lifter





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Tee-hee, nice, but I suspect that my little machine would have no chance of lifting both the bag lifter *and* the bag... :D

Good tips about the overlapping straps though, cheers.