First Kubota U25S mini-ex

[Jfet]

Hi everyone.

My wife wants a new U25S mini excavator for our timber property and who am I to say no to that? I cannot talk her into a U35 so it is a U25S or shovel.

Any positive (or negative) experiences with such a small machine? It has an impressive bucket breakout force of around 5600 pounds. They must have increased the cylinder size because the older U25 specs were something like 4000 pounds of force. We are getting it with the hydraulic thumb, 12 inch dig bucket and 18 inch dig bucket. I keep going back and forth on 18 vs 24 but the 12 is needed. I would like a ripper at some point to get more force from the small machine on roots. I might have to go to ebay for that part.

I want to put it on our Isuzu NRR 20 foot flatbed truck (8300 pounds curb weight, 19,5000 pound GVWR) which should carry it. We built a custom RV for this truck that comes off in pods and they weigh about 9000 pounds total. We have driven it 12,000 miles this past year with no issues (just goes slow up mountains).

I need to get some binders and chains.

Thanks

 

[afret]

Yeah, much better than a shovel and I'm sure it's better than the BH77 backhoe that was on my tractor. I dug up a bunch of moderate size pine stumps with a 16" bucket but it just took some time. Your mini ex should be quite a bit faster at it and the buckets you're getting are probably a good size range for the U25.
Looks like there are several places that sell rippers. The one Kubota sells is for the KX057/U55 and is on back order.