New Beginning's - ARPI photo tour

[bobcat_ron]

Originally Posted by ARP

Ya, I would put a long stick and an extra counterweight on a 160 and either a 32" Bradco or Fecon or a 48" Denis Cimaf. The flow is basically the same between a 160/200/225 so I wouldn't lose anything there either. I'm still leaning towards a 160, especially after I saw a nice Kenworth T800 and a triple axle tag go past me on the highway this morning....

Just make sure you plan for a separate pump on those big hoes for running a mulcher or a mower, just because they say they have XXX amount of oil flow per minute (which could be 5 times higher than what you use now) that flow will severely hinder the machine and it gets cut down as you move the stick and house around.
One of my brother's competitors has a 200 Deere with a 48" Promac disc mower and he cheaped out, now he has to shut the head off just to move the tracks 10 feet and wait for it to catch up while he moves the boom.
It also over heats very, very quickly.

[ARP]

The 160 we've speced out has a hydraulic priority flow valve to divert flow to the head first. I like the idea of a dedicated pump- I wonder how hard that would be to do on a 160?

Oh ya- the new worksaver is up on Bobcat's website . We're the last contractor in the article "Is this the time to become your own boss?".

Link: http://www.bobcat.com/publicadmin/vi....html?id=21212

[earthmover]

Congrats and Nice work!

[Junior M]

Nice! I saw that magazine at Bobcat last week and didnt think to pick it up..

why didnt you mention the guys from LS?!

[Gravel Rat]

There isn't much room under the cowling of a 160 to get a extra pump or the engine will have enough power to drive a larger pump.

If you want a excavator stay away from fullsize Deere excavators they will kill you in fuel. The deere engines are pigs on fuel and make more noise than they need too, same with Komatsu.

[AEL]

Originally Posted by Gravel Rat

There isn't much room under the cowling of a 160 to get a extra pump or the engine will have enough power to drive a larger pump.

If you want a excavator stay away from fullsize Deere excavators they will kill you in fuel. The deere engines are pigs on fuel and make more noise than they need too, same with Komatsu.

Komatsu's are pretty solid machines, and are not that bad on fuel imo. What about a pc138, or Volvo Ecr 145 ? If you really are interested in a pc138 let me know. I know someone who is selling brand new ones with warranty and everything for real cheap.

[Gravel Rat]

Originally Posted by T_S_S

Komatsu's are pretty solid machines, and are not that bad on fuel imo. What about a pc138, or Volvo Ecr 145 ? If you really are interested in a pc138 let me know. I know someone who is selling brand new ones with warranty and everything for real cheap.

I used to do the maintance on a 158 man what a pig on fuel it needed filling up everyday. There is a guy Ron and I know anyhow he bought a Komatsu mini I asked him hows it on fuel he wasn't impressed with its fuel consumption.

When there was a Komatsu mechanic living in this area he said the biggest customer complaints about Komatsu was its fuel consumption. When one of the gravel mines bought a big Komatsu hoe for loading haul trucks they saw a huge increase in fuel use it was burning just as much as the Cat it replaced.

[ARP]

Thanks Sean, as much as I'd love a ZTS machine, a 138/145/135 machine is too small for what I want to do in the future. Just curious though, how cheap is cheap?

[ARP]

Figured I should keep posting the pics from the project last week.

First up, on the second day we brought the excavator and flail mower in to reach up the bank to mulch limbs and brush that the ground guys cut and dragged down from the top of the embankment:




Once I got caught up to the ground guys, I went past them and started mowing the brush as far up the bank as the machine could reach:

[ARP]

Quick pose pic:


A couple work in progress pics:




A possible shot for the desktop on my computer? The 50 may be small for this type of work, but she sure acts like a bigger machine