Importing and modifying a new mini excavator from China

[D'oh]

Thanks for the throught. I could just as easily drill (carefully magnet) into the Fill Tube, and just drop the sending unit through there and reseal the hole. Remember, I am now 12 mile Boat Trip to get to the Hoe, Wrong Fitting would ruin a weekend of work.

 

[dfkrug]

Yes, that would work. No fancy solution needed. The capillary temp gauge works well, as I said.

 

[Fredrik]

To anyone trying to cool oil and get the heat out of the dog house , I found this on line. You can get AN10 to 5/8" barbed fittings to connect up your oil suction line.

These fans push/pull a lot of air. Oil doesn't care if it's horizontal or vertically drawn.

Found it on Amazon. storefront is Pit66, $122.00 . Basically the internals of the $300.00 units.

 

[Fredrik]

Same standard crappy bucket.

Yes the buckets are small but there is a cheap fix.

I cut a piece of old road grader blade and welded it on as a cutting edge and cheeks as well as adding more 3/16" plate to sides.

The odd shape of the side doesn't interfere with picking up things with the thumb. Looks funny but doubled the per scoop capacity.

 

[Fredrik]

Newest up grade is travel stick extensions. Mine were about 6" long. Made smooth control sketchy at best when loading on my trailer.

Threaded 3/8" bar stock ,lock washer and nut.
Then welded on sections of old Foosball rods. " Knew I would find a use for the last two I had."

Really smoothed out the controls and solved the jerkiness.

 

[dfkrug]

The odd shape of the side doesn't interfere with picking up things with the thumb. Looks funny but doubled the per scoop capacity.

Looks like a good solution.

As to the teeth, your modification shows that the backward tooth problem requires more than a simple fix. Adding steel to the cutting edge before reversing the teeth is necessary, as you have done. Nice job.

 

[dfkrug]

Here is the mini-X a friend just got, a Diggit EM15.

Interesting machine. It has a 43" wide blade, and it is 64" long, from tip of blade to end of track. The tracks look to be a bit longer than my XN08. I will post the track size later.

The boom is offset to the right a few inches, and there is no counterweight. Both are surprises. Sadly, no hyd oil filtration I can see. I suspect the weight is still about a ton despite slightly larger size, since there is no counterweight.

The biggest and most significant difference is the servo controls. They are hydraulic, not electric. Operation seems a bit smoother than the non-servo units I have driven.

More pix coming.

 

[D'oh]

That Diggit is a good looking unit, haven't seen many of them at Canadian Sales yet.

I would really like to know Who builds What ever North American Named unit

Agrotk
Diggit
Rhinoceros
JF/FF/MM

And so on.

I realize similarities between my Brand JF Industrial and Agrotk, but not the Original Manufacture.

 

[Fredrik]

I would be willing to bet that they are made within a couple of miles of each other.
The small amount of info Iv'e gleaned is the majority come out of Shandong Province.
My Agrotk appears to have been made by Qingdao Zongjin Engineering Machinery Co.
Minimum order is 6 pieces @ $3600.00 per with Koop standard , B&S optional.
They claim that the Koop is EPA cert.
Prices are all over the place , from $1599. - $6000. for 1 piece in the one ton class.
There are 601 pages at 56 companies per page on the Made-In-China site.
Tonnage does start to go up at about page 100.
I don't know how one could choose which company to go with without going to China and checking out factories. Kinda glad I bought mine at an auction.
Koodoes to dfkrug for blazing this trail for us.

 

[TimberFarm]

I found out by accident that a company called Jiahe was making a lot of different "brands" for others.
I inquired about an Oulide brand I saw someone selling on Facebook and in my exchange I asked why his was better than Wolf, Longsheen, and a couple others.
He replied to me not to buy them because they don't make any of them. They were all made by Jiahe and they just put their names on them.
So, naturally I contacted Jiahe.

 

[Fredrik]

So, naturally I contacted Jiahe.

I smell a mini in TimberFarms future.

 

[dfkrug]

Virtually all these machines come from Shandong province, tho it is difficult to tell who the factories are and who is just a reseller.

The Diggit has one of those bizarre hyd pumps that looks like it has 3 chambers, but only one inlet and one outlet. This machine divides the flow for the servo controls at the main valve stack.

 

[dfkrug]

The 2 arm consoles house 2-spool hyd valves, connected up with 1/4-inch hoses.

 

[dfkrug]

You can see above that fueling up the Briggs engine requires removing the small or large plate under the seat. I suppose leaving either open would just roast the operator.

 

[D'oh]

Virtually all these machines come from Shandong province, tho it is difficult to tell who the factories are and who is just a reseller.

The Diggit has one of those bizarre hyd pumps that looks like it has 3 chambers, but only one inlet and one outlet. This machine divides the flow for the servo controls at the main valve stack.
View attachment 808172

I noticed the Pump on the Digger also, however unlike the other picture, only a single line out?

And pretty tight in the Digger

 

[Rich B1]

That pump really looks like it has an unloaded in it. The hex sticking out of the middle is likely the unloaded valves.

Getting pilot (servo) pressure from the main valve isn’t unusual, they use a pressure reducing valve for the pilot. But it is odd in likely an open center system, unless they have a priority flow divider as part of the valve inlet.

 

[pmsmechanic]

New oil cooler.View attachment 805399View attachment 805400

Just a note on this installation. The outlet line should be looped over the top of the cooler. Or the inlet and outlet mounted to one side with the outlet on top. Otherwise the oil takes the path of least resistance and possibly the cooler never runs full of oil.

 

[TimberFarm]

I smell a mini in TimberFarms future.

Absolutely!

 

[dfkrug]

That pump really looks like it has an unloaded in it. The hex sticking out of the middle is likely the unloaded valves.

Yes, it looks like the pump may have an RV on the center section (unloader valve). I should have taken it off to see what it is.

In operation of the excavator, I was looking for signs of a 2-stage pump with internal RV. Could not detect that it behaved like it had one. I would have expected that the flow rate would have been higher when moving a given cylinder until it met resistance. Then it would slow down. I did not experience that behavior.

I did notice that the machine exhibited signs of low main RV setting, which I adjusted. Pix are next.

 

[dfkrug]

I opened up the Diggit EM15 and here are some more pix.

The main stack valve looks like others on these 1-ton-ish machines. It has 8 spools, with 4 of them actuated by servos. Wheel motors, blade, and AUX are direct-acting, with the boom, dipper, bkt and house pivot all handled by the arm-rest servo valve joysticks. AUX and blade are operated by foot pedals.

A hydraulic accumulator is used with the pilot circuit to maintain control in all conditions.

As for the sheet metal on the house, workmanship is disappointing. One of the side panels is hinged, but it can't be opened until another panel is removed. Panel removals are necessary to get at the battery. Overall internal accessibility is not bad, however. No need to remove ROPS or console, as with many other machines.