Typhon Terror XVII with cab.

[2manyrocks]

It's a bit shocking they'd put the battery in such an inaccessible location.

Do you know where the Kubota engine in this unit was made? Just curious if Kubota has a deal to supply engines or if these are actually made somewhere in china to Kubota specs?

 

[MattB4]

Mine has a sticker on the valve cover saying "Made in Japan". Do not know if China makes any Kubotas.

As a quick review of the engine. It is one heck of an upgrade from a 13.5hp B&S gas engine. The D902 is commercial quality.

ETA: Yeah it is surprising how little thought seems to be put into future maintenance. You can not directly get at the oil filler cap or oil filter. I am planning to use an oil pump in order to refill when that time comes. The oil filter I will need to remove the coolant overflow fill bottle and mounting bracket. That is another thing you can not access is the radiator cap. At least the oil drain plug is accessible at the bottom of the engine and machine deck.

 

[dfkrug]

Yeah it is surprising how little thought seems to be put into future maintenance. You can not directly get at the oil filler cap or oil filter. I am planning to use an oil pump in order to refill when that time comes. The oil filter I will need to remove the coolant overflow fill bottle and mounting bracket. That is another thing you can not access is the radiator cap.

Yeah, Kubotas and Yanmars are excellent engines.

I suspect your machine was designed for another engine. There has been a lot of pressure on the makers to use CARB-certified engines, so shoe-horning a Kub into your machine is likely what they did.

Maybe some sort of access tray needs to be made so the engine can slide out a bit for maintenance. Kinda like generators on motorhomes.

I really like how some makers now use a V-twin GX-type gas engines with as much as 700cc or more. Great engines...smooth, powerful, easy to repair, and cheap.

 

[MattB4]

Went ahead and built the drive motor brace. It mostly came out good once I got all the parts I needed to build it. One error I made though, when welding on the trailer receiver hitch, was I allowed myself to get hurried by an approaching rain storm. I had spot welded in place the tube but one side was not good enough and as I welded around from the other side the spot weld broke and the tube lifted a small bit. This meant the tube is not perfectly level to the cross bar. You can not really notice it but it bugs me.

 

[Carl_NH]

Looks good from here - and you have a cart to load rocks and stuff! I got the same plate and found a bolt on hitch plate from off TEMU 45$ for two so used on on the mini.

Have a HF receiver hitch platform 24x48 to carry spare buckets etc, if needed too.

 

[LittleBill21]

can you link these 12v ac kits yours talking about?

 

[MattB4]

can you link these 12v ac kits yours talking about?

You can easily search them: Google Search

 

[MattB4]

Anybody have a source for an adapter from the Thumbs auxiliary flow selector to a Hydraulic quick connector? The fitting on the selector is designed to connect to a 14mm DIN light hose. I find many female 14mm QC's but they are not DIN and lack the o-ring seal.

 

[LittleBill21]

Anybody have a source for an adapter from the Thumbs auxiliary flow selector to a Hydraulic quick connector? The fitting on the selector is designed to connect to a 14mm DIN light hose. I find many female 14mm QC's but they are not DIN and lack the o-ring seal.

so is this thing a pain in the ass? i was looking at it, but if this is one of those things were you kind of keep needing to mess with, i think im going to pass

 

[MattB4]

so is this thing a pain in the ass? i was looking at it, but if this is one of those things were you kind of keep needing to mess with, i think im going to pass

The selector already directly hooks to the hoses that came with an auger I got but having a quick connect would allow for containing hydraulic fluid when swapping attachments.

The excavator itself runs nicely. Much better than the 1-ton model. The mods I have been making are just things I see as helping with maintenance and operation. A person could get by without doing them other than changing out fluids at the beginning.

Interesting things about the TT-17 versus other 2-tons are thicker front blade setup. The Thumb tines does not reach past boom when fully open as do many of these. Can not hit it. It should not need any strengthening as setup.

I have about 6 hours on it now and while not commercial brand quality it impresses me as being decent for the money. Funny thing about those commercial units. I know a fellow that just bought a brand new Bobcat 35 (IIRC) and within a week it had sprung a major hydraulic leak down in a inaccessible area of the deck. He had to have it go back to the Dealer for almost a month as they ordered in parts and could dismantle it enough to fix the issue.

The thing with the Chinese minis is if things go wrong you are the one handling repairs.