Importing and modifying a new mini excavator from China

[Fixastuff]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Chant it while you work.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I'm the first guy who lowers the rpm whenever doing tricky hydraulic work.

 

[D'oh]

I think that you get used to the "Jerky" with use and just feather the spool to deal with it. The problem as I see it is "Slow" is Slow overall, swinging 180 degrees would take too long.

The Joysticks don't turn the flow on/off 100% or nothing. Easing it does cause Heat, but it is not often that Jerky is more concerning than speed

 

[dfkrug]

I'm the first guy who lowers the rpm whenever doing tricky hydraulic work.

The problem is that these big thumper gas engines make so little power below 3000 RPM. Too slow and the engine stalls easily. You need to run it at 3000 or more. Hence the need for a smaller pump.

I slow the engine down with my tractor's backhoe attachment, since the engine does not stall out.

 

[MattB4]

The B&S gas engine does not really have much in the way of speed control. The long throw of the throttle handle on these excavators is pretty much useless for anything other than a few clicks up and down. Between idle and full out is 2 clicks. I find for trying to operate without to much jerkyness the best adjustment is that one click in between.

Because the little unit travels so slow I just bought a small trailer to move it about. It is a 5 x 10 (8 X 2 ft drop deck) with 3500lb axle.

ETA: Some pictures and observations. The first time loading the Ex on my trailer went pretty good though a few things should improve with practice. I am going to have to add ballast to the front of the skid steer though if I am going to pull the setup. I noticed quickly on a small incline the front tires feeling light and ready to rise off the ground. That would be not good.

 

[dfkrug]

The B&S gas engine does not really have much in the way of speed control. The long throw of the throttle handle on these excavators is pretty much useless for anything other than a few clicks up and down. Between idle and full out is 2 clicks. I find for trying to operate without to much jerkyness the best adjustment is that one click in between.

The throttle cable is fully adjustable. You can also install extra return springs and lube the throttle lever. Mine works well.

Same with the choke cable. I am going to upgrade my cable to a better one, accessible from the front, rather than the rear.

The makers also sell a really cheap off-road only one axle trailer to move these small units around. No suspension. About $200 or so, IIRC, FOB factory.

 

[MattB4]

The throttle cable is fully adjustable. You can also install extra return springs and lube the throttle lever. Mine works well.

Same with the choke cable. I am going to upgrade my cable to a better one, accessible from the front, rather than the rear.

The makers also sell a really cheap off-road only one axle trailer to move these small units around. No suspension. About $200 or so, IIRC, FOB factory.

The throttle cable being adjustable is meaningless. It is mostly slack until the small amount of off idle area. Mine works fine for what it is. The choke cable is basically the same story. Either on or off with more cable length than needed.

I have seen the the "cheap" no sprung axle off road trailer listed for more than I paid for my road legal little unit at $1600. The $200 you quote I have no idea where you get that from especially once you add in import costs.

Edit: I will say I was uncharitable about the 2 clicks. Carefully watching the cable and the engines throttle position I can count 4 total clicks between cable being slack idle and hitting maximum full on.

 

[dfkrug]

The throttle cable being adjustable is meaningless. It is mostly slack until the small amount of off idle area.

That is why you have to install an extra return spring, and loosen/lube the pivot nut. These small engines are designed with friction pivots so the hand lever holds the throttle in place. Converting to a cable throttle requires some adjustment, and some patience.

If folks bought the accessories and spares at the time they imported their mini-X, all the prices are very low. Add maybe 50% for all the fees, tariffs, shipping and tax. For example, my ripper tooth, which was $60 at the factory, cost me about $90 by the time I got it. Buy it from an importer in the US, and they want $400 or more for it. Ouch.

I understand that many new buyers are going to get their excavators from an importer that is using an auction service. Accessories and spare parts are going to be very expensive unless you buy directly from the maker, maybe using AliExpress.

 

[Colby16]

The throttle cable being adjustable is meaningless. It is mostly slack until the small amount of off idle area. Mine works fine for what it is. The choke cable is basically the same story. Either on or off with more cable length than needed.

I have seen the the "cheap" no sprung axle off road trailer listed for more than I paid for my road legal little unit at $1600. The $200 you quote I have no idea where you get that from especially once you add in import costs.

Edit: I will say I was uncharitable about the 2 clicks. Carefully watching the cable and the engines throttle position I can count 4 total clicks between cable being slack idle and hitting maximum full on.

My throttle cable isn't too bad and there are 9 clicks between idle and full throttle. I have been running it at about half. It has plenty of power and speed of operations at that level, just jumpy. With a little practice, I have improved some. I still find it usable, maybe I'll get more use to it with more time. I can go full speed if I start out with lower RPMs and increase to near full while holding the travel levels forward. I am not sure if that is something bad to do or not.

 

[MattB4]

That is why you have to install an extra return spring, and loosen/lube the pivot nut. These small engines are designed with friction pivots so the hand lever holds the throttle in place. Converting to a cable throttle requires some adjustment, and some patience.

If folks bought the accessories and spares at the time they imported their mini-X, all the prices are very low. Add maybe 50% for all the fees, tariffs, shipping and tax. For example, my ripper tooth, which was $60 at the factory, cost me about $90 by the time I got it. Buy it from an importer in the US, and they want $400 or more for it. Ouch.

I understand that many new buyers are going to get their excavators from an importer that is using an auction service. Accessories and spare parts are going to be very expensive unless you buy directly from the maker, maybe using AliExpress.

The B&S engines may not be like the one you are using. They basically are simple lawn mower styled governor controlled. Very little speed adjustment is allowed and the spring setup is different. The governor return spring that it has is plenty strong enough. Indeed there are much better gas engine designs that could be used but likely would up the cost of these things.

The operators lever throttle that is on these units allows too much throw travel and someone could easily damage things by trying to force it to the full position. Also because of the nature of the governor by moving the operator lever all the way shut you actually go past the minimum idle setting and just have a bend in the cable at the engine. I will bet that many new owners of one of these units ends up damaging the control by not understanding this.

I would agree that buying the accessories with machine while importing probably gives a great ability to get better prices than buying after imported.

Seems to me that there is a good business opportunity for a person to sell upgrade kits, oil coolers, fans and such and after market things like better buckets. Like the little trailer I bought to move my unit around it took some looking to find a good design.

 

[dfkrug]

The B&S engines may not be like the one you are using. They basically are simple lawn mower styled governor controlled. Very little speed adjustment is allowed and the spring setup is different. The governor return spring that it has is plenty strong enough. Indeed there are much better gas engine designs that could be used but likely would up the cost of these things.

The operators lever throttle that is on these units allows too much throw travel and someone could easily damage things by trying to force it to the full position. Also because of the nature of the governor by moving the operator lever all the way shut you actually go past the minimum idle setting and just have a bend in the cable at the engine. I will bet that many new owners of one of these units ends up damaging the control by not understanding this.

My XN08 uses the 420cc motor labeled DuroMax. I have also had 2 of the Oking minis with the B&S 420, which is also made in China. I do not recall if the throttle control was any different on the 2 engine types. I did have to loosen the throttle nut and lube the mech on all engines. A second throttle return spring would also have helped, but I did not install one on the Oking units.

I did not mess with the governor spring. Keep that the same.

 

[Rich B1]

Picked it up yesterday from the auction yard. Got it home and played with it for a while.



Function wise…the function with the most jerkiness is the hoist. Which gets better when I would multi function. The travel is not as slow as I expected. It is a lot of fun to check the engine oil, but has access underneath to drain the oil.

Now to figure out what pieces I need to install a hydraulic filter

 

[dfkrug]

Now to figure out what pieces I need to install a hydraulic filter

Congrats on the purchase, Rich.

See my post #31 on hydraulic oil filtration:

Importing and modifying a new mini excavator from China

The hydraulic oil tank also features a very convenient sight glass just like the one for the fuel tank. It is also a hefty 4mm-wall steel tank. The machine welds look great. The first photo here shows the tank and pump on the right side of the house chassis, as it originally was made. The...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[brandonb]

My mini finally arrived from Shandong. I really like the robust roll cage, with roof and mirror that this one has. I had them install a hydraulic cooler at the factory. I've operated it for about 2 hours and noticed it didn't heat up too much. Like everyone else, it does seem a touch on the jerky side but, I've figured out how to feather the controls more.

 

[dfkrug]

I had them install a hydraulic cooler at the factory.

Looks great! Congrats on the purchase. Tell us the particulars on your importation.

Did you also get hydraulic oil return filtration?

Yours is the first I have seen that properly ducts the gas engine flywheel fan air from the outside, as they do with the 1-cyl diesels, and I did with mine.

I also like the reversed boom cylinder and guard. The plastic console with all the gauges, as used in the latest Rhino machines, is an improvement, too. Getting the hyd thumb from the factory is a good idea as well.

 

[Rich B1]

Congrats on the purchase, Rich.

See my post #31 on hydraulic oil filtration:

Importing and modifying a new mini excavator from China

The hydraulic oil tank also features a very convenient sight glass just like the one for the fuel tank. It is also a hefty 4mm-wall steel tank. The machine welds look great. The first photo here shows the tank and pump on the right side of the house chassis, as it originally was made. The...

www.tractorbynet.com

I had read most of this thread. My plan is to use the same filter for the return line. I don’t plan to modify the reservoir, but to adapt to the existing return line, then into the tank from the filter. Discount Hydraulic hose has adapters from DIN2353 fittings to NPT. Nit ideal but cheap and quick.

 

[brandonb]

Looks great! Congrats on the purchase. Tell us the particulars on your importation.

Did you also get hydraulic oil return filtration?

Yours is the first I have seen that properly ducts the gas engine flywheel fan air from the outside, as they do with the 1-cyl diesels, and I did with mine.

I also like the reversed boom cylinder and guard. The plastic console with all the gauges, as used in the latest Rhino machines, is an improvement, too. Getting the hyd thumb from the factory is a good idea as well.

The import process was surprisingly uneventful. I used the suppliers recommended customs broker in California that handled all forms for me. The supplier provided LCL CIF shipping to my inland port of Atlanta. I used the suppliers freight forwarding services, Vanguard Logistics, which handled the crate all the way to my local CFS warehouse. I did not have to interact with the freight forwarder with exception of a phone call to acknowledge the arrival notice and provide an email address. The supplier handled everything.

The crate was dispatched from Shandong on time and I tracked the boat from Qingdao to New York. That journey took about 1 month. Once the vessel arrived in NYC, the crate was processed by US Customs and released in about 10 days. The crate was then transported via rail to Atlanta, where I received it about 3 days later.

I rented a 6x12 U-Haul utility trailer (without the gate) and the forklift operators loaded the crate, no problem. I used a couple 3,000lbs straps to secure the crate and I was driving home! My local CFS warehouse was excellent. I was in, loaded, and out in 45 minutes.

It looks like I did not get any hydraulic filtration, but I vaguely remember asking the supplier about it. I just reviewed the contract from Alibaba and it just says hydraulic oil cooler. I guess I missed the filtration part. I suppose I can add an inline filter?

So far, I've been impressed with this little digger. They used lock washers, everywhere, hard hydraulic lines on the boom and all soft lines were spiral wrapped in either metal or polyethylene. They used actual hinge pins instead of bolts.

The console looks modern with two nice digital back lit instruments. There are two rocker switches on the console, one for the oil cooler fan and one for the boom light. I noticed the rocker switches did not illuminate when in the ON position. I disassemble the switches to find a resistor and LED inside each rocker switch, but the supplier did not wire the LED prongs. Another project for another day.

As mentioned, I was also impressed to see the supplier had ducted the fly wheel air out of the chassis.

I really like this body style of 1 ton. It has a single latch to unlock the "hood" and I can then rotate it back to gain access to the engine bay. No screws or body panels to remove and realign. The ROPS system is the most robust one I've seen. This body style can be configured for 2 or 4 post. The supplier provided parts for both configurations.

 

[dfkrug]

The import process was surprisingly uneventful. I used the suppliers recommended customs broker in California that handled all forms for me. The supplier provided LCL CIF shipping to my inland port of Atlanta.

So, sounds like you went factory-direct or reseller-direct, and not Alibaba?

Lack of oil cooling is very noticeable, since these machines get really hot, especially when used in hot weather. I have seen a machine with Kubota diesel that integrated oil cooling into the water coolant radiator.

Lack of oil return filtration (10u) is not really noticeable until your pump wears out at 200hr.

 

[brandonb]

So, sounds like you went factory-direct or reseller-direct, and not Alibaba?

Lack of oil cooling is very noticeable, since these machines get really hot, especially when used in hot weather. I have seen a machine with Kubota diesel that integrated oil cooling into the water coolant radiator.

Lack of oil return filtration (10u) is not really noticeable until your pump wears out at 200hr.

I used Alibaba for this transaction as this was my first import. I wanted to have their tradeassurance support.

 

[D'oh]

So the answer is Yes Vicsec Buckets do have 25mm pin holes everyone