Everyone ready for a laugh ?

[diggerjones]

as @Powerfab says ... the old walkers can put in some serious digging in a day ...
just limited by their slew radius really (170 deg.s usually)
mine is a Fleming/Manor Micron ... have had it 30 years and have done some muck shifting with it .. dug a lot of trenches and gotten into places nothing else would get to ... in good digging it'll keep 3-4 fit men, on barrows, going all day
View attachment 45064 View attachment 45065
with practice there's not a lot of places you won't get with one .. this un'll go through 28" doorway ... pull/push yourself along with the arm.
this'll give you an idea if you've not seen one

Why dont you sell it him. At least you haven't devalued it by painting it with some tish

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

as @Powerfab says ... the old walkers can put in some serious digging in a day ...
just limited by their slew radius really (170 deg.s usually)
mine is a Fleming/Manor Micron ... have had it 30 years and have done some muck shifting with it .. dug a lot of trenches and gotten into places nothing else would get to ... in good digging it'll keep 3-4 fit men, on barrows, going all day
View attachment 45064 View attachment 45065
with practice there's not a lot of places you won't get with one .. this un'll go through 28" doorway ... pull/push yourself along with the arm.
this'll give you an idea if you've not seen one

Amazing really 20 years ago these kind of things were laying around for 100 quid delivered. Can’t even by a replacement engine for that now

 

[Monkeybusiness]

@Stebbo - buy the biggest mini digger that will fit onto your job (width tends to be the restricting factor, but you can reinstate gate posts etc relatively easily when compared to digging holes by hand).
It will be more than your budget but if you buy something half decent you won’t lose much/anything over your ownership (unless you are very unlucky) once you sell it in when you are finished.
Avoid anything Chinese unless you want to gain a new first-person understanding of the word DEPRECIATION!

 

[Canal Navvy]

I think that everyone should have their own mini-digger.
If you haven't used one before then hire a newish one first so you know what they should do.
They are wonderful for what you are looking at but the hard to find part is what sits in the seat.
If you find the right machine and find enough to do with it then it all becomes more intuitive and more satisfying the more hours you clock up as a driver.
Financially you're better off finding a GOOD owner operator, but the satisfaction of doing it yourself probably has a higher value.

Personally I'd avoid cheap new and try to find a not too wrecked familiar machine of a more mature age. You are not likely to have to try to explain to your customer that all machines can break down so you don't have to compete with other buyers looking for something more defendable.

I might be slightly over excited at the moment as I've had a lovely weekend on my elderly Terex Shaeff doing a site clearance and had forgotten how damned relaxing it is watching it doing its stuff

 

[Stebbo]

I really can’t get over the phenomenal response. I said I’d come across helpful forums before but this one has got to top the lot.
I’ve rebuilt Land Rover and Fergie gearboxes. Swopped petrol for diesel engines. Got welding, forging and machining facilities but what I haven’t got is time. I can see a walker would get me out of a muddle but I suppose I’d imagined the more convenient tracked version with a bulldozer blade. OK, so I’ve got my little boys head on but can certainly appreciate and indeed see the sense in upping my budget, particularly as I’ll move it on when I’m done. I know from other bits of kit that I’ve sold how well machinery in general hold their prices. I wouldn’t avoid a machine that needed a bit of tinkering but just wouldn’t have the time for a full rebuild. I just can’t believe how I ever had time to work full time. Rest assured guys, thanks to all your advice, I’ll now need to reset my criteria.

 

[JD450A]

FYI I've just sold a Bobcat 322 - Admittedly to a mate - for £5500...... They are about, just a matter of knowing where to look.
The older Kubota KH Series diggers and to some extent the Early KX's can be had for under 6k.... Very Dated but workable.

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[pettsy]

It might be worth a phone call to the forum owner, Ross @ Sandhill plant. That’s how I ended up with my first micro, a Hanix that needed some mechanical attention. Did everything I needed it to do, and sold easily when I replaced it with something a bit newer.

 

[jd6820]

Takeuchi TB016 would be my first choice, probably find one in good condition for £7500, a good solid machine with pretty good digging capabilities for its size, otherwise I think my next choice would be an JCB 803 or one of its smaller brothers.

 

[Gecko]

@Stebbo , I'm very much at your end of the market - been through the process of starting with what turned out to be an unrealistic budget and no operating experience.
It's much easier to 'up your budget' if you think of it as a refundable deposit!
For an experienced operator, hiring a machine dry makes sense, but teaching yourself to operate while paying an hourly rate is not ideal.
Similarly, hiring a machine wet will be the most efficient if you can line up a full days work, but the convenience of having a machine always on site makes the 5min job practical.

Remember there is no perfect machine - big enough to unload a jumbo bag, small enough to go through a doorway. Consider buying at the heavier end of your range and hiring a micro if/when it is necessary.

 

[Bri963]

It might be worth a phone call to the forum owner, Ross @ Sandhill plant. That’s how I ended up with my first micro, a Hanix that needed some mechanical attention. Did everything I needed it to do, and sold easily when I replaced it with something a bit newer.

Same here. Ross sorted me out with a K008 about 9 years ago. Still going strong, and worth more than I paid and spent on it. Probably a bit small for what you’re doing, it’ll never lift a tonne bag, but pretty good for restricted access, which is mostly what it gets used for.

 

[Nick...]

@Stebbo keep an eye on Facebook.stuff often comes up on there.if I see anything I’ll let you know.I’m pretty close to attleborough so may find something local
nick…

 

[sfrs4]

Has anyone on here actually bought anything plant equipment wise from alibaba?
There is a guy over the other side of the pond on an equipment forum I like for the bigger equipment, he's just imported a 1.8 ton cab less mini ex and a stand behind mini skid steer from alibaba for work around his own home, the skid has had a couple of small issues ( chucked a track, found tensioner nut was missing and a flat battery, the alternator is there but not wired up? ) but so far the mini digger has been an absolute bargain from what he has been reporting back. his largest problem was how long it took, I think from memory it was six months from order to arriving in the states
Everything has to be taken into perspective, for what you pay for a brand new machine in china with a decent kubota engine, you can't buy a worn out torn up piece of junk in the UK for.
You'll still have problems with the UK one, probably more so. Worn pins, bushes and undercarriage, tired old engine, temperamental electronics, all the things the previous owner knew was to much hassle to sort, in my eyes you take the risk and roll the dice which ever way you go. Sometimes your lucky sometimes less so.

 

[Charlie]

At the same level as you @Stebbo and bought this for the odd job around the farm. Cost me 2.5K about 4-5 years ago. Not the prettiest thing to look at and a bit slow but easy to work on as very little electrics .
I found it on ebay but using a little known 'Ebay Local' beta site, so I knew I'd be able to take a quick trip locally and scratch & sniff before I bought it.

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[Brendan]

If it's just for working at your daughter's, may as well just hire one and possibly a dumper, depending on if you have to move the material.

You will get a lot done in a week.
Fair enough you won't have any experience but you should pick it up after a few hours and be somewhere handy/reasonable.
4k gets you alot of hire and you should get a sub 3t for less than 1k for the month and a micro should be under £750. Unless your working in acres of land you should be able to get it all done within a week or two.


It's nice to own one and they are handy just to have around for the odd small jobs but if your looking to just buy one for this job and sell off, any repair bills will quickly eat into the difference of purchase and selling Vs hire cost

 

[Bri963]

If it's just for working at your daughter's, may as well just hire one and possibly a dumper, depending on if you have to move the material.

You will get a lot done in a week.
Fair enough you won't have any experience but you should pick it up after a few hours and be somewhere handy/reasonable.
4k gets you alot of hire and you should get a sub 3t for less than 1k for the month and a micro should be under £750. Unless your working in acres of land you should be able to get it all done within a week or two.


It's nice to own one and they are handy just to have around for the odd small jobs but if your looking to just buy one for this job and sell off, any repair bills will quickly eat into the difference of purchase and selling Vs hire cost

What I’ve spent in parts for the K008-3 + initial purchase is way less than the machine is worth. If Stebbo is as well set up as he says engineering wise, he’ll be unlucky if he can’t manage to do the same. Even a s**t heap of a machine will dig a hole if it’ll start and move. One company I subbed to proved that many a time.

 

[Brendan]

Has anyone on here actually bought anything plant equipment wise from alibaba?
There is a guy over the other side of the pond on an equipment forum I like for the bigger equipment, he's just imported a 1.8 ton cab less mini ex and a stand behind mini skid steer from alibaba for work around his own home, the skid has had a couple of small issues ( chucked a track, found tensioner nut was missing and a flat battery, the alternator is there but not wired up? ) but so far the mini digger has been an absolute bargain from what he has been reporting back. his largest problem was how long it took, I think from memory it was six months from order to arriving in the states
Everything has to be taken into perspective, for what you pay for a brand new machine in china with a decent kubota engine, you can't buy a worn out torn up piece of junk in the UK for.
You'll still have problems with the UK one, probably more so. Worn pins, bushes and undercarriage, tired old engine, temperamental electronics, all the things the previous owner knew was to much hassle to sort, in my eyes you take the risk and roll the dice which ever way you go. Sometimes your lucky sometimes less so.

Wouldn't feel to great seeing that they missed little bits like tensioner nut and wiring the alternator. Biggest issue will be when (not if) something breaks and if it has any sort of guarantee having to wait weeks for what will hopefully be the correct part .
Old machines, even though worn will still put in a decent shift, but repairs can be costly but at least the parts are available next day, my old tb108 (2004 vintage) was old and worn but still outperformed the dx10 in quite a few areas.

 

[Brendan]

What I’ve spent in parts for the K008-3 + initial purchase is way less than the machine is worth. If Stebbo is as well set up as he says engineering wise, he’ll be unlucky if he can’t manage to do the same. Even a s**t heap of a machine will dig a hole if it’ll start and move. One company I subbed to proved that many a time.

Except used prices are still fairly high. If you bought your k008 a few years ago, it's probably gone up 1 or 2k in value. My mate bought a k008 in August last year was 6.5k plus vat and they must have spent best part of 1k and that's without sorting the weeping valve block and eventually having to swap the tracks. To be fair he could probably sell it for what it owes him, but the market is eventually going to drop.
For one job, it just isn't worth the hassle of buying plus you can hire the right machine for the job and not have to buy whats in budget and make do, plus saves trying to sort all the scamming effers from the genuine.

 

[Stebbo]

Well guys, and the help/suggestions keep coming. Thank you all so much.
Very interested in sfrs4’s contribution. I guess you’ve put into words my initial thoughts. The guys here however have made me stop and think. But it’s curious how things turn out. When I started to think harder about what might be available locally I mentioned it to a couple of good friends - like you do - and as luck would have it, one has just been offered a 1.5 ton JCB by his brother in law. He was hesitant at first but I persuaded him to follow it up and offered to go halves. His family are all mechanical engineers, so there shouldn’t be a problem sorting anything out. He only lives 6 miles away which will be very handy. So far we know very little about it but the brother in law only wants 4K (mates rates) for it ! So watch this space and when I know more I’ll run it by you all. Funny how things turn out. Not a certainty but fingers crossed.
Thanks also to Nick for keeping an eye out.

 

[diggerjones]

I bought this about 11-12 years ago it was to replace my case. Luckily i decided to keep it, think i wanted 4.5k at the time. They are the same age.

 

[Stebbo]

I really must get quicker at typing. Five more bits of advice/suggestions since I started the last reply. I can’t thank you enough, even though the more replies I get the harder it is to decide the best way forward . I don’t understand emojis so I hope I haven’t upset anyone !