Mecalac 6mcr thoughts?

[V8Druid]

That was an 11MWR, We have had 9MWR's for the past few years and feel like we needed a change this year, I have been trying to convince the team that we should get a 15MWR as they are actually very comparable price wise to the equivalent Volvo or Liebherr but it doesn't look like it will be going that way at present, which is a shame as the 15 is a monster!

The Mecalac boom geometry does take a minute to get your head around, for me the underslung dipper cylinder means you tend to operate the intermediate boom far more than on a traditional '3-peice boom' machine and that's where operators tend to get caught out, on the MWR its simple as your left foot can live on the pedal for the intermediate boom and you can operate all 3 functions (dipper, inter boom and main boom) at the same time, on the MCR its a bit different as this is not possible when you are tracking (and we tend to track a lot!) so you tend to use the button on the right Joystick to swap between the main and intermediate booms a lot, I know one machine where the operator has nearly worn through this button in under 1000hrs he uses it so much.

exactly how I operate my 'Drema ... I use the intermediate section a lot ... gives the ability to grade/reach from full stretch to the blade or even under it if it's up or the back end of the machine if the other way round .. gives huge 'pull'

 

[6feetdown]

You know what that means…. Forum day out to Mecalac UK

Could be a very expensive outing

 

[DaveDCB]

Could be a very expensive outing

….at the gift shop on the way out?

 

[APhillips]

Talking of flails on the other thread ... remember the first time I saw a video of a mec flailing tracking at full tilt and flailing happily .
Daft question not having used one but the boom must give you loads more scope of high stuff. Most frustrating in normal boom is constantly repositioning on hedges head high and up wards.

I haven't directly compared figures between different models but the Mecalac's tends to be a little shorter on outright horizontal reach so I suspect there isn't a massive difference in total height available, what I feel makes a big different when working at height is the booms ability to work in a zone closer to the machine which naturally doesn't affect its stability so much and therefore maintains its capability.

Take the red dotted areas below, for a standard machine working here would be pretty much impossible as you would have ran out of boom travel at this point and then working your dipper moves outwards in quite a large arc. As you can see with the Mecalac you would still have rearward or upward movement in these positions depending on which element of the boom your using.

If you then take into consideration the independent hydraulic systems for tracks and boom functions it is possible to very accurately and smoothly track and move the boom with no jerky movements due to loss of flow, as an operator this consistency to operation of the individual functions makes a far bigger difference than I believe a lot of people would consider.