Best Bargains

[Thomas7740]

What bargains have people picked up over the years? Mine would have to be this Thwaites 4000 all drive, got it free off a neighbour as a non runner, put oil in it, attached a battery and it started needed a new clutch, injectors, steering ram and a few other bits and bobs so stands me about £600, which it has easily earned. And it runs on fumes

 

[doobin]

I should think you could afford a new seat at that money

 

[Thomas7740]

I should think you could afford a new seat at that money

We bought one but seating position was all wrong

 

[V8Druid]

you get any more in that skip ?? .... can see an empty front right corner, you might get a shovel full into

My old Thwaites Alligator was pretty much the same, as I recall, but in a worse state..... had to sledge the pistons out ..... good 'hone ', new rings and shells and a few bits an' bobs ... started first crank .....has moved some stuff for me over the years ..... currently has my Tico sat on it ..... awaiting my attentions to finish off the plumbing and fit a new shaft seal to the pump, which'll fill the sump with hyd. otherwise

Tico cost me 500 quid and the FLT mast was a freebie for collection effort ...... an either /or jobbie .... both pinned to original skip tip mounts so come off a P.O.P. and skip'll just drop back on
had to make it a bigger hyd tank to cater for the mast's oil requirements .....Tico has its own tank and is a 360 continuous rotation crane .. with winch

it too, could do with a new seat .... and maybe orbital steering control ... what's on there is clever, in the way it works, but could do with some attention after standing so long

'Twere a similar bargain though

 

[Furniss]

I should think you could afford a new seat at that money

you get any more in that skip ?? ...

LOl thats why I never post photos of work

Must be a Thwaites 4000 thing - I bought one from someone over here in France when I first set up - ran it for a couple of years and when I upgraded he bought it back for same money - 10 years later when he was moving back to u.k I bought it back for 500 less to sell on and made a grand on it

 

[V8Druid]

LOl thats why I never post photos of work

Must be a Thwaites 4000 thing - I bought one from someone over here in France when I first set up - ran it for a couple of years and when I upgraded he bought it back for same money - 10 years later when he was moving back to u.k I bought it back for 500 less to sell on and made a grand on it

my favorite sort of deal that ... used to buy and sell a lot of gear, along with my old fab. work, etc. ... it all kept the wolf from the door

 

[JimboCX]

Thwaites 7000 bought for £750 and is out working everyday. It could do with abit spent on it now. It’s dripping out abit of oil and jumps out of gear now and again. Another bargain was this cab. Bought off donedeal for €150. Sandblasted painted and fitted new lights. It Needed very little adjustment to fit straight on. Might be pretty ugly but I know where I want to be on a wet windy day..

 

[Grahams]

That cab was worth every penny.
Graham

 

[V8Druid]

any idea what the cab was off originally @JimboCX .... HTF d you check the oil and water ?

 

[JimboCX]

I Put a concrete saw with a steel blade on it threw the bonnet just behind the seat. And then hindged the front half from the floor. So the seat tips forward inside the cab. And the bit of the bonnet that’s outside hindges back the way. Works handy enough. And if you need any excess to the engine the bonnet inside that’s hinged to the floor can be screwed off by loosing two bolts and lifted out threw the door. I’v been told that in the late 80’s 90’s some water works company orderd new thwaites dumpers with factory fitted cabs.. so I assume it’s originaly off a thwaites dumper. That style of cab is actually popular in my area. I know of 4 other digger men within 10-15 mile of me who have thwaites dumpers with cabs like mine..

 

[Furniss]

I think that cab would restrict how much i can get on my dumper

 

[Mogman]

This has got to be up there with my bargains

Was weighing in some scrap from a job I was doing and because the machine operator was having his dinner had to grab it off myself with his machine and while doing so saw this Takeuchi on its side with the cab burned out and a bit crushed as it had already been introduced the the grab, so after grabbing the old tin sheets and general s**t of promptly grabbed the little digger thinking that there maybe a few bits like the rams and the slew ring may come in handy onto my trailer and weighed off, so basically swapped 1.4 tons of tin for it.
Anyway after 2 years and thought I’d have a look at it as was going to make a rotating grab with the slew gear but when I looked in the engine bay the only damage was a melted air box (plastic),all the pipes and levers where either melted or burned to a crisp that was in the cab so thought it maybe worth a bit more of a look , had a set of servo leavers from another machine that I had scraped (Rex Roth) and also a load of 1/4” pipes, so after a morning pulling old pipes out and routing ‘new pipes’ in, then ripping the old burned out loom, made a simple key start with a charge system using only a couple of wires got it up and running
Made a roll bar from a FLT fit to the original rear cab mounts (works a treat as had it on its side) welded the back guard from the same FLT as a guard to keep you and the boom from meeting then stuck the seat on from the same machine. Oh and made a simple quick hitch for it too.
It cost me a pair of tracks as the old ones where a bit fire damaged and pulled apart after 6 months a air box but the thing that broke my heart was the price of the fuel cap £60

Anyway had it 5 or 6 years nw and never missed a beat

 

[Mintsauce]

Nice one fuel caps are one of my pet hates each time I have to buy one I get bent over

 

[Gunners]

Was weighing in some scrap from a job I was doing and because the machine operator was having his dinner had to grab it off myself with his machine and while doing so saw this Takeuchi on its side with the cab burned out and a bit crushed as it had already been introduced the the grab, so after grabbing the old tin sheets and general s**t of promptly grabbed the little digger thinking that there maybe a few bits like the rams and the slew ring may come in handy onto my trailer and weighed off, so basically swapped 1.4 tons of tin for it.

OK I think you win with that one Mog! There was me thinking I had a result pulling a Chinese made 40kg wacker plate out of a skip and getting it running - you found a whole machine.
Until this year I used a Sthil saw I bought on ebay for £80 with a blade. Was badly listed with a poor photo back in 09 when building was pretty slow. It did me 4 years of full time contracting plus the bit I did part time before that, gave it new filters every year and changed the pull cord a couple of times and she was still up for a days work. Only replaced it as she did a drive belt at 8.30am on a block and beam day and I had 3 guys stood around with no saw - thought it was time the company bought its own saw. I replaced the belt (£10) she did some backup work for a bit then I recently sold it for £220. That's a profit even after the filters and belt its cost me over the years!!!!!!!!

 

[pettsy]

Not really plant related, but a bargain I bought for work earlier this week. Electric pipe freezing machine, around £1200ish new.... cost me £80 inc vat and fees

 

[Regy53]

My biggest bargain was a ditch witch i found in a customers yard, there was no history but it had low hours

it was a non start though due to a sensor or something. Got it back, cleaned it up, spent about £1500 on it and had a very healthy sale on it .. I dont really want to talk numbers but it was worth going for a beer after work for

 

[TiltyShaun]

Went to an an auction to buy some scaffold. After being run up to more than I wanted to pay arranged for our driver to pick the lot up the following day. I called him in the afternoon to see where he was and he was still picking up scaffold. You have have done that this morning I complained. He will still be on it for the next 2 days he said. Turned out I had bid on 4 stillage's.......and there was another 20 outside belonging to the same lot!!

 

[V8Druid]

Went to an an auction to buy some scaffold. After being run up to more than I wanted to pay arranged for our driver to pick the lot up the following day. I called him in the afternoon to see where he was and he was still picking up scaffold. You have have done that this morning I complained. He will still be on it for the next 2 days he said. Turned out I had bid on 4 stillage's.......and there was another 20 outside belonging to the same lot!!

Result .... wanna sell some ?

 

[TiltyShaun]

Will put you top of the list when I retire!!

 

[V8Druid]

Will put you top of the list when I retire!!

I'll be dead and buried by then Shaun