New digger for light use wanted

JerryRtilt

JerryRtilt

Well-known member
More than that...they have eyes and ears into every nook and cranny....plus every consumer on the planet buys their phones and drones and cameras....must have every inch of Europe mapped and photographed to the last mm. Perfect strategy if you ever wanted to flatten strategic parts....
Just accessed militaries payroll, if that’s not a wake up call??
 
Bri963

Bri963

Well-known member
Why not if you have a decent choice from within europe
Sorry mate, but I’ve no more allegiance to Europe than any other part of the world. I’d have bought a baby Jake if I could have found one at the right price. The Kub came at the right time and the right price.
 
O

Old Operator

Well-known member
Think this was the other guy with the smaller budget https://www.planttalk.co.uk/threads/micro-mini-diggers.5211/
BTW Liugong took over Dressta & sent the smaller machines Hystat - before that they were a hybrid of Komatsu & old IH technology. I know nothing of the newer stuff. Re Chinese, I would say look where they source all hyd components, their own are known to be very poor. If they are just fabricating locally & using western / Japanese components well maybe OK but if using their own - run away.
 
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Bri963

Bri963

Well-known member
Think this was the other guy with the smaller budget https://www.planttalk.co.uk/threads/micro-mini-diggers.5211/
BTW Liugong took over Dressta & sent the smaller machines Hystat - before that they were a hybrid of Komatsu & old IH technology. I know nothing of the newer stuff. Re Chinese, I would say look where they source all hyd components, their own are known to be very poor. If they are just fabricating locally & using western / Japanese components well maybe OK but if using their own - run away.
Close, mate, but Dressta were pure IH apart from the engines, they carried on from Dresser Industries. The small Komatsu’s, 31,37 and 41 were a mix of IH and their own bits.
 
Lancs Lad

Lancs Lad

Well-known member
Close, mate, but Dressta were pure IH apart from the engines, they carried on from Dresser Industries. The small Komatsu’s, 31,37 and 41 were a mix of IH and their own bits.
Dressta are Liugong now tho?

Making a big deal out of this dozer..
Thoughts Bri?
 
Bri963

Bri963

Well-known member
Dressta are Liugong now tho?

Making a big deal out of this dozer..
Thoughts Bri?
That’s right, lock stock and two smoking barrels. They haven’t done much in the way of upgrades to the bigger machines, but they seem to have wiped out the power shift TD8, 9, & 10.

Regarding the 16, There’s Nothing not to like on paper, but I do wonder how those rear steps would survive in some of the conditions I’ve put a machine in over the years, and without trying one out, the blade looks a long way out front. Marvellous for blade visibility but I wonder how easy it would be to grade with if you couldn’t use the grade control for any reason. I do like the low engine cover for forward visibility, and the rear rad is a definite plus. I can’t remember when I last had to blow out the rad on a 963 or 953 but it’s a regular job on a D6.
 
D

Diggerwanter

Member
I think it’ll last ok, plenty clicking up some hours on hire.

Why did you go for a 1.8, I thought you were set on a 2.8?
Hi, i had a 3t on hire caused to much ground damage for what i need, only put 20 odd hours on the Luigong…… and its pretty damn good! it’s surprised me just how well it can dig, i got the kubota Xk61-2the day before so used that a while that day. Next day Gong arrived my kid wanted a hole to play in dug a foot away from the day before and took out the water pipe 😂 (in my defence…. it went from the road to our outbuilding then to the house!! so did us a favour i think as knocking those out buildings down next week.
Will do a review of the Gong, but so far it’s impressed the crap put me.
The Kubota came with a very tidy Ifor plant trailer, runs like a dream, nice a tight, does need a seal kit on main arm, and i’m going to replace 3 hydro pipes. Had a once over by an Agricom Mech, he seems to think it’s a very nice machine and not been abused, so now i have two diggers 😂 No idea what i’m going to do with the Kubota i guess use for my home projects then move her on! She’s bloody powerful tho compared to Gong!
 
O

Old Operator

Well-known member
Stokey, now based about a mile from me bought new a Dressta TD 25. They have a mixed fleet of some Cat, Komatsu & Liebherr dozers.
What made me think of Dressta having a Komatsu input was that they offered the TD8 as a direct drive powershift 3f 3r with an inching pedal. As far as I know IH never offered this, The Dresser 125E went to a 3F 3R powershift with a torque converter, long levers that directly applied brakes & operated a valve to release the power op steering clutch. LH pedal became decelerator & RH main brake. Before this IH had a philosophy that 2 speeds were all that was needed if you had a torque converter. (many old hands used to say they needed a lower 1st gear - including my instructor on the 100B)
I am sure I read somewhere that Komatsu had an interest in Dressta - it may be that they owned Dresser for a while? Might be wrong so many rumours fly about.
Bri did I read that you were interested in a mini Jakes type machine? I was once but never found anything that could do say 25 mph so not needing to be transported. (apart from the thirsty over engined 2CX / 3CX compact) In my thoughts once you need to transport you might as well stick with a mini. Used to rent long term a 'digger dumper' but that very slow on road. Mini ducks not fast. Considered wheel or track skid steer with a pick up backhoe - but vision from cab poor when say following a trench line. So it leaves a mini assisted by a mini dumper.
Did find this unusual range https://power-trac.com/t8class.htm
 
S

Smiffy

Well-known member
Stokey, now based about a mile from me bought new a Dressta TD 25. They have a mixed fleet of some Cat, Komatsu & Liebherr dozers.
What made me think of Dressta having a Komatsu input was that they offered the TD8 as a direct drive powershift 3f 3r with an inching pedal. As far as I know IH never offered this, The Dresser 125E went to a 3F 3R powershift with a torque converter, long levers that directly applied brakes & operated a valve to release the power op steering clutch. LH pedal became decelerator & RH main brake. Before this IH had a philosophy that 2 speeds were all that was needed if you had a torque converter. (many old hands used to say they needed a lower 1st gear - including my instructor on the 100B)
I am sure I read somewhere that Komatsu had an interest in Dressta - it may be that they owned Dresser for a while? Might be wrong so many rumours fly about.
Bri did I read that you were interested in a mini Jakes type machine? I was once but never found anything that could do say 25 mph so not needing to be transported. (apart from the thirsty over engined 2CX / 3CX compact) In my thoughts once you need to transport you might as well stick with a mini. Used to rent long term a 'digger dumper' but that very slow on road. Mini ducks not fast. Considered wheel or track skid steer with a pick up backhoe - but vision from cab poor when say following a trench line. So it leaves a mini assisted by a mini dumper.
Did find this unusual range https://power-trac.com/t8class.htm

Jcb made the 1cx, 1cxt, mini cx and midi cx in the past. Hydromek make a 1cx and 1cxt equivalent. Mecalac make their funny boomed duck to be compact. Maybe not the perfect answer but there are options out there.
 
Bri963

Bri963

Well-known member
Stokey, now based about a mile from me bought new a Dressta TD 25. They have a mixed fleet of some Cat, Komatsu & Liebherr dozers.
What made me think of Dressta having a Komatsu input was that they offered the TD8 as a direct drive powershift 3f 3r with an inching pedal. As far as I know IH never offered this, The Dresser 125E went to a 3F 3R powershift with a torque converter, long levers that directly applied brakes & operated a valve to release the power op steering clutch. LH pedal became decelerator & RH main brake. Before this IH had a philosophy that 2 speeds were all that was needed if you had a torque converter. (many old hands used to say they needed a lower 1st gear - including my instructor on the 100B)
I am sure I read somewhere that Komatsu had an interest in Dressta - it may be that they owned Dresser for a while? Might be wrong so many rumours fly about.
Bri did I read that you were interested in a mini Jakes type machine? I was once but never found anything that could do say 25 mph so not needing to be transported. (apart from the thirsty over engined 2CX / 3CX compact) In my thoughts once you need to transport you might as well stick with a mini. Used to rent long term a 'digger dumper' but that very slow on road. Mini ducks not fast. Considered wheel or track skid steer with a pick up backhoe - but vision from cab poor when say following a trench line. So it leaves a mini assisted by a mini dumper.
Did find this unusual range https://power-trac.com/t8class.htm
No Mate, not a baby Jake, when I was looking for a micro ten years ago the two smallest JCB micros were in the frame, but Ross found me the Kubota K008, which is all I need for what I do - weekend warrior. There was an entity called Komatsu Dresser which dissolved during the Dressta years. The small dozer technology leaked east, not west. i never operated any of the IH/dresser/Dressta dozers, but rated the small Drotts . I’d love to get a bit of time on a powershift TD8, doubt it’ll happen now.
 
O

Old Operator

Well-known member
I drove TD8B's both Mk 1 & 2 (the difference between 1 & 2 were largely cosmetic, they shared 90% parts commonality with the 125B, All three had two manual speeds on the floor - could only be shifted with tractor stationary. Gears were 3.7 & 4.5 mph at max governed revs from memory. These machines worked well if looked after - the bugbear was the idiot who would slam from forward to reverse at full revs without the tractor even coming to a stop. Particularly bad if the tractor was spreading topsoil downhill. I only drove the blades on the power station ash site so that is the only material I encountered.
There had been a TD6B (50 HP basically a 100B with blade) this was discontinued in '74 when the cosmetic upgrade was done. Only about 400 TD6B's were made. The range of IH powershift models in the 50 to 70 HP size started 1970 (prior to this they had been dry hand main clutch).The manual range ceased in about 1976 I think, the last ever powershift was made late '81. A salesman ex Saville's said he went from selling one machine per day to one per week to one per month. The economic times early 80s did not help but there was a general shift away from crawlers even when things picked up for a while.
The Case 750 (built '61 to '67) I also drove must have been very advanced for its time

Something I would love to know - is a direct drive tractor more fuel efficient than a torque converter one? The old boys said so - the engines were designed much lower max revs. The TD8 / 125 had a 25 gall tank - I make that £177 in white fuel, supposed to last 3 days.
Because of the white thing & my age am only interested in a small 'weekend warrior machine' otherwise just too much money to be stood out if a bad payer
That is if I can surface from present legal difficulties (not business related)
 
Bri963

Bri963

Well-known member
On paper, a direct drive is more fuel efficient. In reality you can move far more in a day with a full power shift due to speed of direction changes, less operator fatigue etc. I operated a 100b that had a two-speed power shift in the early ‘90’s and it was a dream compared to a manual, but if they’d done like Cat and gone with pedal steer, 3 speed, Cat wouldn’t have shifted many 931’s or 939’s, imo. IH had by far the superior loader arm and bucket geometry.

on blades, manual transmission came into its own on scraper work, as long as you could master shifting on the move.
 
O

Old Operator

Well-known member
Komatsu reckoned they had the best of both worlds with their 'hydro shift - direct drive powershift & inching pedal. Japan had few oil resources & fuel was a much bigger thing to them than in the states where the 'USA big five' dominated design of crawlers. I was lucky to be in at the last days of the crawler loader, they were still being bought new in numbers about 1980 I gather Dresser was briefly owned by Haliburton (with connections to the presidents Bush)
It must have been wider than the sad demise of IH because virtually no one makes a small crawler shovel now.

Smiffy I looked at the 1CX & 1CXT but they were too heavy to trailer under our laws, I had looked at Mecalac but the roading top speed not that good, likewise several other small ducks. Bosch Rexroth made an on the go shifting hystat transmission that allowed small hystat tractors to do 25 mph, sadly this was just after the midi CX was dropped. The midi CX sold far better in the States than it did here. The 2CX or 3CX compact would fit the bill but sadly I think it would be an uphill battle to get it hired out, many builders see these machines as too slow to re position when trenching. What they do not see is the ability to shift a full pallet of bricks /blocks / slabs up a drive too narrow for the truck. A mini digger & mini dumper together cost far less than one of these.
Terramite, Allmand, Ingersoll, Deere, JCB all gave up on mini TLB's, so I assume no one wants them. Likewise Bobcat who took over Czech maker Earthworks then closed it down.
 
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