Agrotk excavators: Does anyone have one? Opinions/comments/critiques?

[dfkrug]

They have issues but they are worth 3k I buy one for 3k out the door

...and you probably have an auction that is not too far away...

 

[TripleS]

...and you probably have an auction that is not too far away...

I'm only about 5 miles away from the auction, 12/02 they had about 40 and they sold about 4k, its hooked with proxybid and the online kept the prices up with the 2-300 people that were live I'm sure they would have sold for under 3k next auction is 02/24 I hope by then the price is down they have flooded the market

 

[oldrustysteel]

Well, possibly a new low price in the US for new AGROTK minis: $2600 + tax and 10% buyer's fee. About $3K out the door. QH12R

62 mini-excavators sold today at our local monthly auction in Sacramento, CA. That is down from 65 last month, but this month no larger ones (2-4T).

2 weeks ago, I gave 6500 for my AGT L12, delivered and tax included. After 12 hours of use and a few improvements, I am very satisfied with my little machine. i will continue to update problems and fixes as I find them.

 

[oldrustysteel]

For anyone looking for attachments, this place seems to have good prices. They are on FBMP. Located in St. Albans West Virginia. I have not dealt with them and have no other info on them.
.

 

[Sonny580]

After taking the motor apart and cleaning everything out, ground the valves, cleaned the burned crap out of the ports in the head, drained the gas out of the crankcase and out of the tank, got the crud out of the carb, --finally got it runnin, THEN bent one of the outer teeth diggin horseradish with it.!
Tach. had 4 hours on it,---auction company said all they did was lift it out of the shipping container direct from chimna and set it in the line to sell! S'POSED to have been new machine. Motor must have been used at the factory for something before they boxed it up and sent it to agrotk factory to put in the L-12! --- Anyway I got a junk motor and b&s wont warranty it cause it didnt come from an authorized b&s dealer according to them!
Have 9 hours on the meter now and ground is froze so no more diggin til spring with it.
Hopefully I can get the tall plate welded on top of the dinky blade and get my flow control valve put in the system.
Sale today had 65 of them on it but no L-12's! Dont think many of them actually sold cause they only had $3,000 to $4,200 bid. I ran one up to $2,700 to see IF they would take it or not and they didnt.! Want another one to use as a parts machine cause WHEN you need parts,---aint gonna be any! Gotta modify stuff! lol!
Sorry for the long post but thats what I ran into with the whole deal!

 

[oldrustysteel]

After taking the motor apart and cleaning everything out, ground the valves, cleaned the burned crap out of the ports in the head, drained the gas out of the crankcase and out of the tank, got the crud out of the carb, --finally got it runnin, THEN bent one of the outer teeth diggin horseradish with it.!
Tach. had 4 hours on it,---auction company said all they did was lift it out of the shipping container direct from chimna and set it in the line to sell! S'POSED to have been new machine. Motor must have been used at the factory for something before they boxed it up and sent it to agrotk factory to put in the L-12! --- Anyway I got a junk motor and b&s wont warranty it cause it didnt come from an authorized b&s dealer according to them!
Have 9 hours on the meter now and ground is froze so no more diggin til spring with it.
Hopefully I can get the tall plate welded on top of the dinky blade and get my flow control valve put in the system.
Sale today had 65 of them on it but no L-12's! Dont think many of them actually sold cause they only had $3,000 to $4,200 bid. I ran one up to $2,700 to see IF they would take it or not and they didnt.! Want another one to use as a parts machine cause WHEN you need parts,---aint gonna be any! Gotta modify stuff! lol!
Sorry for the long post but thats what I ran into with the whole deal!

I considered making the blade on my L12 taller but dfkrug mentioned doing so may interfere with the counterweight when you swing the house. I checked mine and he is correct. the most I can add is 2 inches. Not sure if its worth it for my use.

 

[D'oh]

I considered making the blade on my L12 taller but dfkrug mentioned doing so may interfere with the counterweight when you swing the house. I checked mine and he is correct. the most I can add is 2 inches. Not sure if its worth it for my use.

I bolted a Tongue Hitch to the top plate of my Blade and yes, it does hit the Counter Weight if the Blade is fully lifted.

 

[Sonny580]

The blade is out front and drove into the ground when diggin so shouldnt hit,---gotta check. Mine pushes dirt over the blade when I try to dig. got blade stuck almost full cyl. stroke in the ground and still drags me off in the hole. Backfill, grading loading on the truck, going to dig areas, the blade would be in the front and plenty of room. --- I need to be able to hold more dirt out front when diggin!
Never tried diggin from the side, cause thats gonna destroy the rubber tracks.

 

[oldrustysteel]

Be sure to let us know if you modify the blade. It would be a useful improvement as I use my L12 to clear trails. the small blade on this model is a bit of an inconvenience.

 

[TimberFarm]

After taking the motor apart and cleaning everything out, ground the valves, cleaned the burned crap out of the ports in the head, drained the gas out of the crankcase and out of the tank, got the crud out of the carb, --finally got it runnin, THEN bent one of the outer teeth diggin horseradish with it.!
Tach. had 4 hours on it,---auction company said all they did was lift it out of the shipping container direct from chimna and set it in the line to sell! S'POSED to have been new machine. Motor must have been used at the factory for something before they boxed it up and sent it to agrotk factory to put in the L-12! --- Anyway I got a junk motor and b&s wont warranty it cause it didnt come from an authorized b&s dealer according to them!
Have 9 hours on the meter now and ground is froze so no more diggin til spring with it.
Hopefully I can get the tall plate welded on top of the dinky blade and get my flow control valve put in the system.
Sale today had 65 of them on it but no L-12's! Dont think many of them actually sold cause they only had $3,000 to $4,200 bid. I ran one up to $2,700 to see IF they would take it or not and they didnt.! Want another one to use as a parts machine cause WHEN you need parts,---aint gonna be any! Gotta modify stuff! lol!
Sorry for the long post but thats what I ran into with the whole deal!

Do these have a battery? On mine I have the battery kill switch and if the switch is left on, the meter will keep running whether the motor is running or not.
When mine was in the warehouse and they were moving it around out of the container they left the battery disconnect switch on at one point and put almost 4hrs on it sitting in the warehouse.

 

[oldrustysteel]

you

Do these have a battery? On mine I have the battery kill switch and if the switch is left on, the meter will keep running whether the motor is running or not.
When mine was in the warehouse and they were moving it around out of the container they left the battery disconnect switch on at one point and put almost 4hrs on it sitting in the warehouse.

You need to change the ignition switch so you can connect the hour meter and lights to the new switch. Then the hour meter only runs when the key is on. after that you can remove the main battery disconnect if you want, or keep it.
i did a post about it in another thread.

 

[dfkrug]

Hopefully I can get the tall plate welded on top of the dinky blade

Cone on, you guys. Don't weld anything on the top of your blade, or it will crash into the underside of the house when you turn with it up. I posted about this at length already.

And you need to not limit the height that your blade can rise to.

This is the proper fix if you want a taller blade: cut the 2 arms and extend the blade far enough to be clear of the house when it is up. Not a difficult mod; you may need as much as a 10-12" extension. It will also give greater leverage, which will help somewhat with digging.

I have not done this mod, and longer dozer blade arms will make it easier to hit with the bucket while digging. Somebody try it and report back.

 

[MattB4]

These little things are not great at dozing work.

To keep the dirt from rolling over when digging I find that simply staying a bit further out working with stick and bucket, and than backing the excavator up, instead of trying to ditch/dig right up to the blade. It is part of learning to work within the machines limitations.

It does make me think that it would the makings of a nifty little dozer to take one of the mini ex's hydraulic undercarriages and instead of a swing housing have a fixed one. Then a small 6 way dozer blade out front. There is no baby hydraulic dozers cheaply available that I know of. Your choice of the B&S gas or a Yanmar diesel. I would buy one for $6K.

 

[dfkrug]

It does make me think that it would the makings of a nifty little dozer to take one of the mini ex's hydraulic undercarriages and instead of a swing housing have a fixed one. Then a small 6 way dozer blade out front. There is no baby hydraulic dozers cheaply available that I know of. Your choice of the B&S gas or a Yanmar diesel. I would buy one for $6K.

The Magnetracks have been available for a long time.

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Dirt spilling over the blade while dozing is a limitation of our small excavators. At some point, you have to accept these limitations and work within them. I may hit 200 hours this winter, depending on how many mudslides I get.

I have posted extensively on re-making the whole electrical system.

 

[MattB4]

The Strucks are way too costly. That is why I specified cheap! Chinese cheap

Another sorta wacky idea if you could get one of these baby ex's real cheap would be to take off the hoe and then construct on the house a giant robot figure that you ride inside. Impress the neighbors!

 

[oldrustysteel]

The Strucks are way too costly. That is why I specified cheap! Chinese cheap

if the price keeps dropping on these machines, I would consider buying one to part out. At $3k I think there may be $6k in parts. I would enjoy taking one down to the frame. Is that a crazy idea?

 

[oldrustysteel]

Cone on, you guys. Don't weld anything on the top of your blade, or it will crash into the underside of the house when you turn with it up. I posted about this at length already.

And you need to not limit the height that your blade can rise to.

This is the proper fix if you want a taller blade: cut the 2 arms and extend the blade far enough to be clear of the house when it is up. Not a difficult mod; you may need as much as a 10-12" extension. It will also give greater leverage, which will help somewhat with digging.

I have not done this mod, and longer dozer blade arms will make it easier to hit with the bucket while digging. Somebody try it and report back.

Hey Dfkrug,, I like your idea of extending the blade arms outward maybe 10 inches or so. I have a feeling that would put a lot more stress on the weld points on the frame. After seeing a video with the frame broken at the cyl mounting area, I have been a little concerned about that area. I did not see a good way to reinforce the frame on my baby digger. Am I being paranoid? its on Utube everydaywithmenick. everyone with a baby digger should see this..

 

[TripleS]

It's thin steel, cut the tabs off and weld a long strip of of good steel across and the put the cylinder tabs back on.

 

[Sonny580]

Dont want longer arms! ---that would defeat the purpose. Gotta have the blade taller to hold more dirt to hold the digger from sliding in the hole.
I am NOT bulldozing with it!
A 6" plate on top of the blade is just right and NO it wont hit anything! I NEVER turn more than 90* with it

 

[Sonny580]

gonna buy a couple for parts machines soon! Price drops another $100 and deal is on!