sjs5060
Well-known member
Following on from the sany thread, as I said I was today I visited liugong uk in altrincham nr Manchester.
The depo is a smart new place which looks as good as any place I’ve visited.
I was greeted at the door by the salesman ste, offered a brew and taken to his office, had a chat to him and the service manger who to be fair where both very nice laid back blokes who made me feel welcome without actually trying to sell me anything, the service manger I already know of and I know he knows his stuff.
I was then taken in the workshop
I’m never really one for taking photos but with you lot in mind whipped my phone out and took these.
On going into the workshop I was introduced to a couple of fitters who again where very laid back, there’s never many degrees of separation so you can always find people you know in common with these people and to be fair I had a bit of banter with the fitters so enjoyed it really.
I was told to pick whichever machines I wanted to try just ask and they’d get them out, no problem with the 9018 as there was enough room in the shed to work that but they did have to move a couple of machines to get the 9035 out which I’ve been in places before that that’d be too much trouble for them.
Anyway, the machines, I got on the little one first, I’m going to say before I say anything that whenever I go looking at stuff I try my best to pick fault with it, firstly if you’ve got the type of salesman that is telling you his is better than anyone else’s, if you can come up with constructive criticism it just quietens them down a bit, but also because that bit of a thing you pickup on with your first look around could easily become something that really pisses you off later on. On top of that i really don’t like spending my hard earned and always try and talk myself out of it. That is where I fell at the first hurdle with the little liugong, I honestly struggled to fault it without being pedantic, which to be fair I naturally am. It seems well screwed together, I didn’t pick anything in the cab that was less quality than any of the others I’ve been in, yeah it’s full of plastic but they all are. I found the driving position comfortable, there’s pedals on the track levers that are actually usable and everything that’s need comes to hand easily.
So I started the thing up to see what it was like, I can only tell you my opinion, others have theirs and may think mine is wrong but I found it smooth and responsive to drive, better than any the others I’ve tried, I do the same thing when I jump on all of them, try to track and do something productive with the arm at the same time, most of the minis have basically refused to do this, the liugong actually did it, yeah it wasn’t like doing it with a 130 hitachi but by feathering the track pedals you could take a bucket full and put it in a dumper whilst on the move if you chose to. It will also easily clean up against the blade without being a full offset, again several of the others won’t. As I say I do try to pick faults, and if I did I’d say there’s not really and damping on the end of the stroke on the rams, yep not perfect but my current machine is like that and you soon learn where the end of the stroke is on a machine? It has also a fecking big arse on it, but again I’m used of that (and I don’t mean the mrs
).
So I’ve finally jumped on a new 1.5 tonner that has genuinely impressed me, yeah there’s things that are better on other makes, but you can say that about them all, none of thems perfect, but I personally like the way the machine drives. I also drove a 9035 which I’ll give a mention too in a minute, but from the workshop it was back in the office to talk numbers, Steve the salesman made it perfectly clear that I didnt want to sit there all afternoon with me haggling on the price and the price he gives me is what I can buy it for, no messing about, which is the way I like to do things.
The long and short of it is, it’s 1.9 ton with a cab, expanding tracks, white’s hitch & 3 buckets, twin prop lines on joystick switches, pre piped for hyd hitch it’s £16,900. Now everyone else will have their own options on the machines and the price but to be perfectly honest I like the machine, I like the dealership so if id pay the same money for it as I would for instance a bobcat as I prefer the machine to drive and I can’t really see the build quality is less (maybe the other way round?)
right the 9035, this one was one of the outgoing e range and is going to be replaced by a 5 ton f range this year. I was keen to look at this as it’s 4.2 ton, which lets face it I’d send out at the same rate as a 5 but it’s narrow enough to go on a chain lift wagon (which has been discussed). Now again I tried to pick fault, the build quality doesn’t seem any worse than the newer range, it’s a well finished thing, on jumping in the cab the first thing that struck me is the front window is quite narrow, it’s not the only machine I’ve been on like that and I suppose there’s always a compromise on a zero swing at this size, but I do like a full width window, but I suppose I’d get used to it, that said the visibility in general was decent enough. The other thing that instantly struck me was the track pedals, to high up and although user friendly, I wouldn’t describe them as comfortable, this is where I really started warming to the staff, I had the fitter with me at this point, I told him in thought they could be better, he agreed and said he could probably alter them to my liking if needs be, I certainly never got that response when I pointed things out at jcb. Another small gripe I had with it was it doesn’t offset that well to the right, I’d have liked a few more degrees to make it a bit easier to see but again a small zero swing can easily become unbalanced so can sort of see the reasoning. Anyway I took it out in the yard and had a play, drove alright to be fair, easy to grade with, I commented to the fitter that was a bit slow for my liking, he instantly responded with ‘I’ll tweak the pump a bit if you think it needs a bit more’, I just get blank looks at other places when say a machines a bit slow
It did seem like it could get a bit light cross carriage if not careful but again I’ve been on plenty of machines like that. In all honesty yeah I was just as impressed as I was with the little one, I think the new model will probably be more sorted, I kind of felt like some of the earlier zero swings before they got the balance of the right. But the thing is only 1.7m wide so to be zero swing at that width and have a reach of 5.7m it’s never gonna be that ‘planted’? Was I blown away with it? No, not really. Do it think I could go out and do a job with it? Yeah easily, I’ve used a lot worse.
It would have been easy to not be bothered about the bigger machine but, its 4.2 ton, zero swing,aircon, hyd hitch & 3 buckets twin prop lines on the sticks, it’s £28000, it’s a lot of machine for the money and I’m very tempted.
sorry for the long post, but that’s my take on it, all I say to others is not to discount them because I was impressed by the dealer and the machines in many ways and lot of the main brands have had the opposite affect lately.
ste
The depo is a smart new place which looks as good as any place I’ve visited.
I was greeted at the door by the salesman ste, offered a brew and taken to his office, had a chat to him and the service manger who to be fair where both very nice laid back blokes who made me feel welcome without actually trying to sell me anything, the service manger I already know of and I know he knows his stuff.
I was then taken in the workshop
I’m never really one for taking photos but with you lot in mind whipped my phone out and took these.
On going into the workshop I was introduced to a couple of fitters who again where very laid back, there’s never many degrees of separation so you can always find people you know in common with these people and to be fair I had a bit of banter with the fitters so enjoyed it really.
I was told to pick whichever machines I wanted to try just ask and they’d get them out, no problem with the 9018 as there was enough room in the shed to work that but they did have to move a couple of machines to get the 9035 out which I’ve been in places before that that’d be too much trouble for them.
Anyway, the machines, I got on the little one first, I’m going to say before I say anything that whenever I go looking at stuff I try my best to pick fault with it, firstly if you’ve got the type of salesman that is telling you his is better than anyone else’s, if you can come up with constructive criticism it just quietens them down a bit, but also because that bit of a thing you pickup on with your first look around could easily become something that really pisses you off later on. On top of that i really don’t like spending my hard earned and always try and talk myself out of it. That is where I fell at the first hurdle with the little liugong, I honestly struggled to fault it without being pedantic, which to be fair I naturally am. It seems well screwed together, I didn’t pick anything in the cab that was less quality than any of the others I’ve been in, yeah it’s full of plastic but they all are. I found the driving position comfortable, there’s pedals on the track levers that are actually usable and everything that’s need comes to hand easily.
So I started the thing up to see what it was like, I can only tell you my opinion, others have theirs and may think mine is wrong but I found it smooth and responsive to drive, better than any the others I’ve tried, I do the same thing when I jump on all of them, try to track and do something productive with the arm at the same time, most of the minis have basically refused to do this, the liugong actually did it, yeah it wasn’t like doing it with a 130 hitachi but by feathering the track pedals you could take a bucket full and put it in a dumper whilst on the move if you chose to. It will also easily clean up against the blade without being a full offset, again several of the others won’t. As I say I do try to pick faults, and if I did I’d say there’s not really and damping on the end of the stroke on the rams, yep not perfect but my current machine is like that and you soon learn where the end of the stroke is on a machine? It has also a fecking big arse on it, but again I’m used of that (and I don’t mean the mrs
).So I’ve finally jumped on a new 1.5 tonner that has genuinely impressed me, yeah there’s things that are better on other makes, but you can say that about them all, none of thems perfect, but I personally like the way the machine drives. I also drove a 9035 which I’ll give a mention too in a minute, but from the workshop it was back in the office to talk numbers, Steve the salesman made it perfectly clear that I didnt want to sit there all afternoon with me haggling on the price and the price he gives me is what I can buy it for, no messing about, which is the way I like to do things.
The long and short of it is, it’s 1.9 ton with a cab, expanding tracks, white’s hitch & 3 buckets, twin prop lines on joystick switches, pre piped for hyd hitch it’s £16,900. Now everyone else will have their own options on the machines and the price but to be perfectly honest I like the machine, I like the dealership so if id pay the same money for it as I would for instance a bobcat as I prefer the machine to drive and I can’t really see the build quality is less (maybe the other way round?)
right the 9035, this one was one of the outgoing e range and is going to be replaced by a 5 ton f range this year. I was keen to look at this as it’s 4.2 ton, which lets face it I’d send out at the same rate as a 5 but it’s narrow enough to go on a chain lift wagon (which has been discussed). Now again I tried to pick fault, the build quality doesn’t seem any worse than the newer range, it’s a well finished thing, on jumping in the cab the first thing that struck me is the front window is quite narrow, it’s not the only machine I’ve been on like that and I suppose there’s always a compromise on a zero swing at this size, but I do like a full width window, but I suppose I’d get used to it, that said the visibility in general was decent enough. The other thing that instantly struck me was the track pedals, to high up and although user friendly, I wouldn’t describe them as comfortable, this is where I really started warming to the staff, I had the fitter with me at this point, I told him in thought they could be better, he agreed and said he could probably alter them to my liking if needs be, I certainly never got that response when I pointed things out at jcb. Another small gripe I had with it was it doesn’t offset that well to the right, I’d have liked a few more degrees to make it a bit easier to see but again a small zero swing can easily become unbalanced so can sort of see the reasoning. Anyway I took it out in the yard and had a play, drove alright to be fair, easy to grade with, I commented to the fitter that was a bit slow for my liking, he instantly responded with ‘I’ll tweak the pump a bit if you think it needs a bit more’, I just get blank looks at other places when say a machines a bit slow
It did seem like it could get a bit light cross carriage if not careful but again I’ve been on plenty of machines like that. In all honesty yeah I was just as impressed as I was with the little one, I think the new model will probably be more sorted, I kind of felt like some of the earlier zero swings before they got the balance of the right. But the thing is only 1.7m wide so to be zero swing at that width and have a reach of 5.7m it’s never gonna be that ‘planted’? Was I blown away with it? No, not really. Do it think I could go out and do a job with it? Yeah easily, I’ve used a lot worse.It would have been easy to not be bothered about the bigger machine but, its 4.2 ton, zero swing,aircon, hyd hitch & 3 buckets twin prop lines on the sticks, it’s £28000, it’s a lot of machine for the money and I’m very tempted.
sorry for the long post, but that’s my take on it, all I say to others is not to discount them because I was impressed by the dealer and the machines in many ways and lot of the main brands have had the opposite affect lately.
ste
