Version 2.0 equipment

[stuvecorp]

Today my 'new to me' equipment showed up. If the weather will get better I will be able to put it to use. With the excavator I will be able to hopefully get on the site first and lead to more landscaping work. I have been wanting the VTS for a long time, I guess you just have to be patient sometimes.

[bobcat_ron]

What is that white stuff? I've never seen that before!

[YellowDogSVC]

what's all that white crap in the tracks? :)

89 degrees down here this week!

[kreft]

nice equipment, how do you like your kobelco?

[bobcat_ron]

That must be crack in his tracks!

[ksss]

I like the short tail on the Kobleco. They make a strong excavator. I was supposed to put the VTS on my 440 but did not get to it. That is on the short list to get done.

[YellowDogSVC]

I'd love to get some snow just so it would melt and we would get some water. Drought is back here.

Congrats on the equipment. I really, really am jealous of the kobelco! I've been wanting one for my ranch so I can build a road across the arroyos.

[Construct'O]

Blizzard warning up toward your direction,so you still might have snow to push:confused:

Good luck with your equipment and hopefully you miss the storms.:usflag:

[stuvecorp]

The snow is almost gone but I had to flatten out the snow banks and took the pictures before cleaning the tracks. Tonight we might get 1-4" snow, not likely but that's what our cheif meterologist says.

The 135 just got delivered today, The Case dealer came out and switched the controls to Deere style so we could run it. Will get to do some messing around later this week.

[RockSet N' Grade]

Stuvecorp: I see on your excavator you have the old wain-roy style coupler. I too have that coupler on my machine. Alot of guys just use a lynch pin to secure the main pin to the bucket......I switched over to grade 8 bolt with an air-craft nylock nut to secure my main pin after throwing a bucket off the stick. Make sure you check that pin connection on a regular basis........throwing a bucket off your stick is a little scary and they don't make baseball mits big enough to catch a flying excavator bucket. I carry 4-5 nut/bolt set ups and replace it on a regular basis. Great old system that wain roy.....from my research, you loose no breakout force with that coupler vs. some of the other systems where you can lose up to 10-12% breakout force.

[stuvecorp]

Thanks RockSet, I will get some spares for it. I have found a hydraulic JRB pin grabber that hopefully no one wants or finds. I also have alot of small things that need to be fixed to make it pretty but the machine has to earn its keep alittle before sinking to much time or money. Need to get a thumb for it down the road too.

I ran around with the skid and the stability with the VTS is way better than just wheels. The skid is a '03 with only 765 hours, everything is real tight. One thing I noticed with the VTS, is the speed is reduced. I already miss the two speed.

[ksss]

you might PM KXtraxx I think his name is. The resident VTS specialist, he might have a cure for that.

[stuvecorp]

I actually got the machine from him, it was a package deal. I probably have talked to Dale hundreds of times about the VTS. He thought Loegering meant to gear down to protect the machine but with the Case power is not the issue.

[Scag48]

Really like that Kobelco hoe, you'll love it, they're a solid machine. One of my ag teachers in high school was a certified Kobelco mechanic, don't know why he started teaching, but he said most of them were bulletproof if you took care of them. I'd buy one.

[Construct'O]

I ran around with the skid and the stability with the VTS is way better than just wheels. The skid is a '03 with only 765 hours, everything is real tight. One thing I noticed with the VTS, is the speed is reduced. I already miss the two speed.

The reduced speed was mentioned before ,but on a Cat skid ,so it must be how the VTS system is geared.Which is in the size of the drive sprocket .Right? Anyway it has a large sprocket compared to a CTL machine.

Speed isn't everything sometime ,you will just have to learn to work smarter(no punt) as in getting the material where you want it the first time and not having to move it more then needed.

I guess when moving the snow speed would be better,sorry!So is it snowing yet.Rain here.:usflag:

[stuvecorp]

It seems like I get alot of jobs that you have to move material around with the skid and the high speed really cuts time down. I wanted a series3 machine but for the price of the 70, I can take the tracks and sell the machine for what I have in it and then put the tracks on the new machine.

I was told that the 135 was built in Japan and they have more rigid quality control. It has 11,800 hours but for less than $30,000 it seemed not to risky of a gamble. The pump was replaced and everything seems pretty tight for the hours, the motor(Isuzu) just purrs. My service guys said that if the cosmetic things were touched up it would likely sell for more than I paid.

[stuvecorp]

Had to move the skid in this afternoon to take off the other guys graphics and start cleaning/servicing. Our spring is delayed awhile...

[Scag48]

Nice looking Lightning!

[stuvecorp]

Thanks Scag, I am torn do I hang on to it or sell it and get a quad? Right now I am trying to keep it, we'll see.

[Scag48]

A buddy of mine that I work with at the restaurant has a pretty nice Lightning, he had the older body style before the one he has now. They're definately not a screaming fast truck, but pretty quick stock. Definately can get them tuned up real quick for even better results.

[stuvecorp]

Yesterday I had some time to do some digging. On the 135 I was trying out the digging modes. Found a leaking hose, experienced the joys of a short radius machine, how to try to get to stuff. I noticed a little extra 'swing' in my swing, otherwise dug good.

The 70XT w/VTS was different than the 440. The bad - no two speed, doesn't have the foot throttle(can get that later, I think), and controls seemed harder. The good - just pull down the seatbar and go(no parking brake switch to mess with), the aux. fittings are the same as the one on my attachments, seemed to have lots of power(no big difference from the 440). I got to spend about three hours dumping dirt/rocks in to a hole, stripping topsoil, and grabbing brush with the grapple. The machine seemed much more stabil, on the 440 it seemed more 'bucky'(might have something to do with the two speed). When I was stripping topsoil the machine seemed to cut much better than the 440 with OTT's. Climbing in and out of the hole was smooth, didn't spin at all.

In the spoil/dirt/junk pile there was still frost and when digging found some too.

[ksss]

Yesterday I had some time to do some digging. On the 135 I was trying out the digging modes. Found a leaking hose, experienced the joys of a short radius machine, how to try to get to stuff. I noticed a little extra 'swing' in my swing, otherwise dug good.

The 70XT w/VTS was different than the 440. The bad - no two speed, doesn't have the foot throttle(can get that later, I think), and controls seemed harder. The good - just pull down the seatbar and go(no parking brake switch to mess with), the aux. fittings are the same as the one on my attachments, seemed to have lots of power(no big difference from the 440). I got to spend about three hours dumping dirt/rocks in to a hole, stripping topsoil, and grabbing brush with the grapple. The machine seemed much more stabil, on the 440 it seemed more 'bucky'(might have something to do with the two speed). When I was stripping topsoil the machine seemed to cut much better than the 440 with OTT's. Climbing in and out of the hole was smooth, didn't spin at all.

In the spoil/dirt/junk pile there was still frost and when digging found some too.

The controls in the 440 are smoother than the 70. It has a different control package. The 70 I ran with the VTS was really impressive. After running the 440 for so long now I couldn't go back to a 70. The 70 was a good machine but the better control package, two speed and what I believe is a better torque curve in the 440 makes it a step up IMHO. Does your 70 have ride control?

[stuvecorp]

No ride control, with the slower top speed probably don't need it. It's pretty bare bones. I am surprised that people are still hung up on the 1840/1845's and not giving the XT's more respect. I worked for client that had a 1845C and wouldn't touch a newer skid, 'too much electrical gizmos'. To be honest I am looking forward to getting in a series3 440.

[ksss]

No ride control, with the slower top speed probably don't need it. It's pretty bare bones. I am surprised that people are still hung up on the 1840/1845's and not giving the XT's more respect. I worked for client that had a 1845C and wouldn't touch a newer skid, 'too much electrical gizmos'. To be honest I am looking forward to getting in a series3 440.

I really liked the 1840s I had at the time, but when the XT machines came out I was all over it. The 1800 series was very durable and reliable. However the XT machines set the standards for productivity. I will say that they don't stand head and shoulders above others now but back when it was BC and CASE almost exclusively they kicked the door open to the viability of high hp, high hyd flow skid steers. There are more things to go wrong simply by way of having more features. However I will accept that in exchange for the increased performance. One could make the same arguement when comparing the 743 Bobcat to the current BC machines. Anytime you put more features in a machine the chances of something failing are increased, but if I had to sit in an 1800 series machine all day or an XT or 400 series all day, there is no comparison for me.

[Scag48]

Yeah, but if you had to sit in a Cat C series all day, you wouldn't go back to Case :laugh: Them Cat boys are going to try to convert you when you go in for your laser setup, you know that right?

[ksss]

Yeah, but if you had to sit in a Cat C series all day, you wouldn't go back to Case :laugh: Them Cat boys are going to try to convert you when you go in for your laser setup, you know that right?

Like I said They cant build a skid steer but I am hoping they can build a good sandwich. By noon today I will be hungry.