mini digger vs JCB 3C
Rob
for £2500.
He says it's good, and I trust him on that one.
I really want something for digging trenches for land drains (probably a
more than a kilometer of trenches eventually), plus clearing out
existing drainage ditches. The land is nearly always on a slope, and
ranges from uneven to soft and eneven.
Would this sort of machine be any good for what I want? For trenching is
it a matter of moving, putting the feet down, digging a bit then moving
again?
Would a tracked mini digger be a better buy? I've seen some reasonable
1.5 ton excavators for similar or slightly more cash.
Any thoughts on the relative merits?
cormaic
enriched all our lives with these words......:
>I've been offered a 20 year old but very serviceable JCB 3C by a mate
>for £2500.
I'd go with the 3C every time. they are a much more versatile
machine and, at that price, you are unlikely to see it depreciate,
whereas the bottom end of the mini-digger market is around 1,000.
The 3C is faster, stronger, can be transported on the public
highway under its own power, and a doddle to maintain. If you own a
sizable chunk of land or a farm, you can hardly afford to pass up the
offer, as it will pay for itself over and over again in the years to
come.
--
cormaic Paving and Drainage Web Site
Culcheth http://www.pavingexpert.com/
Peoples' Republic of South Lancashire
cormaic CAN BE FOUND AT borlochshall.co.uk
Rob
Any thoughts about how well they compare on soft ground and / or steep
slopes. Some of it's very soft, hence the need for land drains.
The 3C is only 2 wheel drive. I'm guessing the X in 3CX is something to do
with 4 wheel drive.
My 4 wheel drive tractor will cope with it, but I wouldn't take a Land
Rover on a lot of it - if that gives you an idea.
I wouldn't ever need to transport these on the road. I have a trailer that
can cope with a 1.5 ton digger anyway.
The JCB is 200 miles away so I guess it's going to need a haulage company
to move it.
.
>I've been offered a 20 year old but very serviceable JCB 3C by a mate
>for £2500.
>He says it's good, and I trust him on that one.
>
The 3CX will be better,more versatile,,also it almost certainly has a
wider track than a mini digger and so much more suited/safer for
spannig a trench/digging trenches
Roger Chapman
from Rob <rjc...@hotmail.com> contains these words:
> The JCB is 200 miles away so I guess it's going to need a haulage company
> to move it.
Where is it if you don't want it? I have a neighbour who might be
interested at that sort of price if it is local.
--
Roger
Andy Dingley
>I've been offered a 20 year old but very serviceable JCB 3C by a mate
>for £2500.
>He says it's good, and I trust him on that one.
For that price it ought to be !
cormaic
enriched all our lives with these words......:
>Thanks Cormaic.
>
>Any thoughts about how well they compare on soft ground and / or steep
>slopes. Some of it's very soft, hence the need for land drains.
The beauty of the JCB backhoe excavators, even the seemingly
ancient 3C range, is that they can dig themselves out of trouble. We
used to have a number of 3C's and I can't recall them being more prone
to bogging-down than the more up-to-date 3CX's.
The key is to avoid the worst of the soft ground - or buy a
full-size tracked excavator. Even mini-diggers can get bogged down,
and it's harder for them to dig themselves out of trouble.
Steve Marshell
genuine 7200 hours New tyres and full service history for £1200, granted
it cost me £300 to get it home from 150 miles away but £2500 is WAY WAY
OTT.
I have had tracked mini diggers on hire and they are OK for their
purpose but not very versatile, would have liked a 3CX but could not get
a good one for the right money (best price I could get for an OK
mmachine was about £3500)
Where in the country are you, I am in North Lincs and it sounds as if I
have similar problems to you, I need to put in drainage into about 10
acres as well as do fencing electrics and water.
If you are buying one make sure you don't get ripped off on haulage, you
should not pay over about £2/mile for the trip if you are the only load
(ie 150ml one way = £300) or half this if you can get a back load, I got
some seriously dodgy quotes up to about £600 for a 150ml one way!
Spares are cheap and easy to get, they cn dig themselves out of trouble
and if you pay the right price they don;t depreciate at the age we are
looking at, you'll get at least £700 back even as a scrapper.
I would advise looking long and hard, we took several weeks and hundreds
of miles of travelling to find ours, you will probably need to do the
same to get the best deal, but you can get an OK machine from a dealer
for about £1750 of the age you are talking.
Hope this is helpful
Steve
"Rob" <rjc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3C513F50...@hotmail.com...
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Rob
Steve Marshell wrote:
I'm in South Wales. I've been scouring the adds but haven't found anything
except total nails for the money you're talking.
The only 3Cs I've seen for under 2 grand have been mid 70's machines.
I'd pay that money from a dealer if I could find one for that price, as far as
I'm concerned weeks of searching and and several hundered miles travelling is
worth quite a lot of money to me! I really don't have the time, I've got a
farm and a full time job, so I'm resigned to paying a premium.
Thanks for the tip with the haulage. I still haven't sorted that out. I'd need
to move this one from South Yorks, which is about 250 miles from me, so if it
costs as much as £2 a mile I won't go for it anyway. Tentative hypothetical
enquiries from plant haulage people were more in the order of £300, but no one
has committed to that!
Steve Marshell
I know there was one in North Wales a couple of weeks back but have no
idea of the condition it was too far for me. I'm lucky my work takes me
all over the country and I can normally find an excuse to be anywhere
with a few days notice so the travelling didn't matter to me. There is
a guy who advertised in the Farmers Guardian a couple of weeks ago a
(what he said was) good one same as mine and he was in Huddersfield but
I didn't keep the number but if you have a back copy you'll probably
find it. He turned out to be a dealer (I always ask have you still got
your digger for sale and see what the response is if it is private ad
and this is really revealing) I drew a basic blank with most of the
normal advertising sources but trawled the web for free-ad papers
(adscene, loot, adtrader, etc. etc.) and found an amazing selection.
The one I bought was advertised at £2200 but apparently they had had no
response and they were going to re-advertise but after pointing out a
few other (welll chosen) adverts to them and getting them to look into
transport costs we agreed on the very revised price.
I am amased at the haulage cost you have been given, they do realise
they weigh in at about 7.5 tonnes do they? You really need someone with
a beaver tail to transport it easily unless you have loading ramps at
both ends.
Things to look out for apart from the obvious are king pins (especially
if you are going to use it on the road) Lift the whole thing up on it's
rams and front bucket and check them well. Hoses are no problem nor are
seals as long as the chrome is good as both are cheap, check that the
pressure releases at both ends of travel on all rams and with the lowest
tick-over possible check you can lift with all rams (it'll be slow but
should give a good indication of the hydraulics)
There are machinery sales (York has a good one) but prices are very
unpredictable and possibility of checking them out is limited but if I'd
had the money last year I could have bougth up to 10 3CX Sitemasters
with 3 hours on the clock for £9000 + Vat + 10% buyers premium from a
bankrupcy auction in Nottingham. In the past I have found these to be a
great source of stuff, these are normally at relatively short notice,
and if the business that has gone down does not specialise in what you
are after there are likely to be very few people interested and hence
ludicrously low prices for some stuff, as above (it was a leasing
company and there were loads of office equipment computers etc. etc. and
these JCBs, all to be sold without reserve.
I have had some excllent bargains but would avoid the agricultural type
sales as stuff we are interested in fetches too much (sometimes over
retail!!)
I know there is a plant auction at John Pye http://www.johnpye.co.uk/
coming up soon which may have something of interest but I find tham by
talking to the official receivers, it may be worth contacting them in
your area.
I wish you luck in your search and before you but remember to HPI it as
there are a lot of stolen ones about (I was offered two, and not even
cheap cheap) but after agreeing money one was nicked and the other did
not have matching numbers (reg no was of a machine that had very
recently changed hands and the 'owner' said he had had it for years and
had lost the paperwork, the reg no was not reported stolen but would you
but it with wrong engine etc. nos? I know it costs about £38 to HPI it
but if you buy a wrong-un you'll lose it and your money as everything
has to be taxed and insured now, no more under 12 miles a year
exemptions.
Keep me posted ho you get on I'll be interested to hear, but don't pay
silly money, it's cheaper to hire.