Takeuchi Excavators

[Nick Drew]

Just a few shots of the little machine I am currently operating a brand new Takeuchi TB145.

I have to say that I have been very impressed with the performance of this machine they are without doubt the best mini diggers on the market (in my opinion) would be interested to hear what other people think of these??

We also have a 14 ton TB1140 coming on demo this week so I will try to get some decent shots of that this week

[Robban_C]

That seems to be a nice machine!

What are the width and volume of that grading bucket?

[Nick Drew]

That seems to be a nice machine!

What are the width and volume of that grading bucket?

Ahh I knew I could count on you Rob to ask technical questions!!

I am not sure I will have to have a measure up at some point, I can tell you that it is the same size as the grading bucket on a TB175 that is also on our site.

I will endeavour to find out!!

Nick

[Robban_C]

... Ahh I knew I could count on you Rob to ask technical questions!! ...

Why did you expect that from me?

[Nick Drew]

Well we had the Takeuchi TB1140 on demonstration last week and I have to say it was a fantastic piece of kit!!

Sadly we did not get to use it that much as we have been involved in overnight streetworks and the TB1140 was to big for that

Any way here are some shots of the demo machine.

[Robban_C]

It´s strange that you use those wide grading buckets but you can´t tilt them in any way. Why?

On my mchine I have a quick hitch (like those Takeuchis) and tilting head (dont know the English name, "tilthuvud" in Swedish) so I can use the buckets with or without tilting depending on what work I do.
Today I drove without it as I was doing some piping where I didn´t want the added width of the tilting head. And when I dug a swimming pool for my neighbour I drove without it as I wanted to get rid of that extra weight. Also because I wanted shorter bucket radius to get more break-out force as the mud was very stiff.
But otherwise I usually use the tilting head in most types of work.

[Niklas Eriksson]

Very nice machine Nick! They do look really nice accually!

[Ross]

Looks like a tidy machine

Nick: youve had some lever time on loads of machines How did this machine perform?

Ross

[Nick Drew]

Yes Ross, since they brought in the CPCS card scheme in 2004 I have amassed over 7,000 hours on various excavators, I dread to think how many hours I have spent "in the seat" since I started in the industry in 1977

I have to say I thought the new Takeuchi TB1140 was a fantastic and very usefull machine, and its easy to see why Takeuchi mini excavators are so popular in the UK, the new 14 tonner is just a natural progression for the company in my opinion, it has all the benefits of a mini digger in a larger size, the thing that impresses me most about Takeuchis are the silky smooth hydraulics and ease of operation.

Robban, I agree with all you say, I just wish more British managers would be prepared to spend money on tilt rotators, the problem is in the UK people are very slow to embrace new technology!! I as an individual try to promote the benefits of tilt rotators but I think it will be many years before they are accepted here

[Robban_C]

Nick, here´s a story about your conservative fellow countrymen:

I live just outside Eskilstuna where Volvo and its Customer Center is situated. You could say that Eskilstuna is Volvo Town.
Sometimes they hire me as an extra driver. Last time was during the Volvo Days -07. I don´t know if you have heard about the Volvo Days but everyone in the business in Sweden knows about it.

Anyway, I was at the Compact Excavator station and I was talking to a driver from GB about the tilt rotator and its benefits. I was showing him how to use it, we had an ECR88 Plus with an Indexator and the new ECR35C with the new light weight Engcon EC02. Both were off corse equipped with proportional steering of the rotortilts. You could almost say that it was state-of-the-art regarding excavators and rotortilts in combination. Well, he drove them and I drove them to show what could be done with them. I probably spent half an hour with that customer talking about higher productivity, quick hitches and different buckets/tools, better ergonomics, less "foot people" etc.
And then he said "That´s nice but we don´t need that in GB". (Holger, I miss a smiley showing a guy banging his forehead into a brick wall! )
As I wrote on the Swedish Maskinisten site:
I can understand why British motorcycle industry died!

Nick, you should have been the CEO of British Small Arms, in that case they might have survived the battle against the Japs.

And in case anyone wonders, I prefer Italian bikes with Japs engines. Or just Japanese bikes.