Buying a Cheap Chinese Mini Excavator - Are They Really Worth It? 

Nice to know. Thanks.

Thanks. I only have about 5 hours on mine so far and it's been doing well. I need to do a cooling upgrade also because mine gets so hot the metal around the seat can burn you.

Yeah, it seems like I can make this something I keep for a long time with mandatory upgrades. It is slow, but I do have to say that even the expensive ones are slow this size too. The Kubota and John Deere mini/micro excavators are less than 2 mph top speed also.

Haha. Thank you. I did wonder what the yellow box had in it before I got it. Sadly no real manual for the tractor, but it's pretty simple as it is. Thanks for watching and checking out the channel. More to come.

You will. Come take it for a spin.

They have these with the kubota diesel option, but the overall engineering on these is pretty low anyway. If they were not so cheap to start with, I would have bought a used name brand one. That said, they have a place if you have the need. For me this beats a shovel and I already have a real backhoe loader for heavy work. It's tiny so it fits in places I could not get my backhoe in. I expect to get 500 hours of mostly trouble free work from it, then maybe 1000 hours before I need to swap the engine. If the hydraulics hold up that will be fine with me. I have a list of upgrades I will be doing for it soon. Mine is bigger than the more popular "1 ton" minis, but not by that much. The seat is about 15 inches wide and mine has about 3 extra inches on each side of the seat to "hang over". If that rump is wider than 21 inches when sitting, it will rub the controls area that sticks up a little but not enough to tuck a butt down in. I speak from experience on that. I am losing weight slowly, but if I was much heavier it would be a tight fit. My butt is a lot bigger than it was 20 years ago. The 1 ton minis are basically seat wide in the middle. No extra 6 inches, but also no pilot controls. The controls are only in the front. The gas motor runs the hydraulic pump(s) which runs the hydraulic motors. Mine has 2 pumps for a little more flow vs the single pump version. I find the motor, even though small and only 10-15hp, seems to have enough power for this size machine. Power/Force in hydraulics comes from pressure, and at the flow that is needed on this machine the gas engine builds that pressure fine it seems. The flow is from the RPMs of the engine, and the pressure is from the torque. Any more "power"/pressure and the machine would probably break itself. The relief valve handles that. Set the pressure higher for more force, but also at the risk of breaking it. That said, even a bigger HP engine would do fine, it just would not use all the torque it has. The main issues everyone seems to work on is the heat in the engine compartment. Most of these have no fans, not coolers, no filters, air cooled engines and even the muffler is in the engine bay. That creates a lot of heat and can cause issues when running it for longer periods of time. That is another reason I bought the next size up. The 1 tons have everything packed in rather tight back there, so there is not a lot of room to work in or add things. My "1.5 ton" has more room in the engine compartment to add fans, oil coolers, move the muffler and so on. Hope that helps.

Nice. I am adding the hydraulic thumb this weekend. I ordered one and will make a video on the install. That is a mst for me. I also got some attachments I will video when I try them out. How is the cab? I saw those but with no AC I figured I would end up just frying in Texas. Even winter here would be hot in a cab with no AC I think. I do like that cab type of protection though. I wonder if they sell a small ac unit that would run from the engine?

Thanks!

Good info to know. I plan on adding some fans soon because like most say on these, the engine compartment gets pretty hot. I will try that next time to run it full throttle to see if it helps with the heat. That may be all it needs.

10 inch fans fit perfectly in the H15 and fans help alot ​@@SeidelRanch

I like the expanding tracks idea. Of course those are more. Keeps it small and widens for stability. I wanted small so I could get it into tight places my backhoe could never go. I have had my backhoe for many years now and have not done anything to it but maintenance. I get this thing and already have a list of things I want to do to it. It's weird. I am looking at ways to add weight below the turntable. The lower the better really. I will probably add a rear bumper that allows weight to be added to it also. The canopy on mine is just that. It's not a ROPS really. I am pretty sure it would collapse if rolled. It also does not have a seat belt. It does keep the sun mostly off of me though. I like electric, but I think it still has a ways to go to be really useful. We have 5 electric cars (I know) and they just are a little premature in my opinion. I like them, but the batteries need a better system. I am sure it won't be long for them to get the kinks worked out in that. Also, solid state should help. Thank for checking out the video and channel.

@@SeidelRanch yeah, I've seen models that have hydraulically expanding tracks, I've seen some you can order wider. Some of these are meant to fit through door frames for foundation and and basement work. Not anything I care about so I'm fine with a stationary wider track that would give me room for some super low weights. Electric on one of these things really depends on the cells, if it's lithium batterys, as long as it can go 6+ hours they aren't going to see nearly the charge cycles a car sees and I would prefer to run a machine like that at home. The problem is weather. I'm in Texas now, but plan to buy in the UP of Michigan, running it mid winter might not even be possible depending on the BMS, and even if I could, it might be bad to run them that cold. What electric cars are you running? I had a leaf, a decent daily for a short commute. I have no plans on getting more soon, the trucks aren't really trucks, just XL commuters.

Yeah, the Chinese manufacturers like to clone our older machines. Cheap to build and all kind of information available on them.

It is really fun to use it.

Where are you located? I got mine from an equipment dealer in Central Texas.

@@SeidelRanch hey' we are in Tennessee

Yeah, it's hard to say an exact price because most people buy these at auction and resale them. The auctions of course vary by region and demand. One may sell for $4000 at an auction in one state and then the same one sell for $6000 just a few states over. I would say $5000 ish is good for a 1 ton version and $7000 ish is good for a 1.5 ton one like mine with pilot controls.

@@SeidelRanch thank you

I didn't put the price in the video because it seems to vary on where you are and how you buy it. I bought this one for about 7k for the mini excavator itself from an equipment dealer near me. I also bought an auger, 2 auger bits, a rake, a ripper, a grapple and a larger bucket.

​@@SeidelRanch Ok nice thank you did you get get tho hoses changed for controls was it a lot of work

Thanks. Only have a few hours on it but I expect many more soon.

No sorry needed. That is good info and helps me do better. The engine is kind of loud and seems to blow out my microphone so I usually have to cut the sound because of that. I need a better mic.