dfkrug
Super Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 7,586
- Location
- Santa Cruz Mtns, CA
- Tractor
- 05 Kioti CK30HST w/ Prairie Dog backhoe, XN08 mini-X
Only a 10hp? The unit must be pretty small. I would be thinking a Kubota or Yanmar
in the 23hp range.
This mini-X is Really Small, just like the Kubota K008. There are dozens of makers of excavators,
and thousands have been made big-and-small, especially after the mid-90s. It is surprising to me
that EPA rules for tiny diesels (SORE) have made it so restrictive that makers are abandoning them.
It also seems that 700+cc in a Yanmar or Kubota 3-cyl should put out more than 10hp. The bigger-
is-better crowd is not going to like this machine. But the owner that needs to squeeze into a tight
backyard or inside a building will see the advantages. Hauling one is also possible in the bed of a
large PU.
But back to my XN08. Since I received my unit partially disassembled for shipment, I did not fully assemble it
until I finished all my mods and testing. Complete pix and 5 videos on my Utube page will be linked at the
end of this thread.
My seller provided accessories and spares at what seems like their cost. In the pix I show a larger bucket, a
ripper tooth, a mechanically-linked grapple, spare filters, and even a toolkit and box. The toolkit contains a complete
set of open-end wrenches 8-30mm and even a grease gun with needle tip. You can see the main spool valve
spare that I traded for my missing engine. It actually costs a bit more than the ChangChai engine. I got 2 spare
bucket cyls at only $50 each, for example. The standard bucket comes with bolt-on teeth. A mechanical thumb is
standard, tho I will use the AUX valve to power a hyd thumb that I plan to make later.
Some nice features of this machine are the steel canopy with integrated rollbar. The main body sheet metal is
2mm (.075") and is quite substantial. The joystick rods and finish screws are stainless steel. All cylinders seem
to have replaceable sleeve bearing inserts. Some of the pins have threaded ends with nylock nuts.
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