2018 Mecalac 6MCR

[Dstebbins83]

I've been wanting one of these for years. Finally found a used one nearby that I could afford.

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Looks a little different than the similar sized Bobcat.
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That's awesome and were my assessments correct? The only deterrent is the locality of your authorized dealers near by and that it's hard to put an employee in the seat of it for too long because they get over confident but they're great machine

 

[materthegreater]

That's awesome and were my assessments correct? The only deterrent is the locality of your authorized dealers near by and that it's hard to put an employee in the seat of it for too long because they get over confident but they're great machine

Yes it's a very useful machine. I don't have any employees so so thankfully don't have to worry about that.

 

[materthegreater]

Finally some progress on the CMP bucket. The welding shop finished the mounting ears/plate after 2 months, and Tuesday was warm enough to sneak in a quick paint job.



Dang thing is heavy!


With the mounting plate, the bucket weighs 882lbs.

 

[CThemRollinBCD]

That thing is awesome. I’m going look for one. Are parts difficult? I’m ok if they are, all of my stuff is like that.

 

[materthegreater]

Parts aren't bad if you can find an agreeable parts guy at the dealer.

 

[materthegreater]

Unfortunately there is a slight issue with the mounting plate:



I would just cut a notch out of the plate so it wouldn't interfere with the arm, but I don't think I'm quite happy with the curl and dump angles compared to the stock bucket:

 

[materthegreater]

More angles

 

[materthegreater]

I think I can reduce the distance marked in red by about an inch and it should give me a little more of a dump angle and hopefully eliminate the interference with the arm. Unfortunately it means cutting apart the freshly painted mount...

 

[Columbo]

That sucks! Better to sort it out now at least when you’re not working a paying job

 

[Simon C]

Welds all looked good, but the engineering just needs a tweek. Did you send them pictures? What did they say?
Simon C

 

[materthegreater]

Welds all looked good, but the engineering just needs a tweek. Did you send them pictures? What did they say?
Simon C

Yes, they said just cut or grind enough off the mounting plate so it doesn't contact the arm. He said he didn't see any design flaw.

 

[HarleyHappy]

Well there is obviously a bit of a design flaw as you are losing about 15 degrees of operation, fore and aft.

 

[materthegreater]

Today I fixed the cracked exhaust pipe that someone had attempted to fix before I got the machine.





My repair isn't pretty but hopefully it holds together for a while






There wasn't much left to weld to...

 

[materthegreater]

Next project is modifying the mount for the CMP bucket.



Think an inch out of one end will be enough change in angle?

 

[crane operator]

Make a cardboard copy of the outline of the coupler and the bucket. Hold/tape the cardboard "templates" in place and see if it gives you the angle you want.

Its pretty easy to play around with the cardboard, before you weld the plate.

 

[lantraxco]

First saw these machines at CONEXPO a couple shows ago, dang near passed out right there I was so impressed! Damn shame their distribution/dealer network was so crappy, would have liked to been a dealer. But then I always would have liked to be rich and good looking too, see how that worked out. Keep those pictures coming, love it!

 

[materthegreater]

Forgot to post, I also installed the wiring harness upgrade kit yesterday. Won't know if it completely solved the problem until it gets cold again. But at least I know there's no voltage loss from the power block on the engine to the relay board in the cab.



Also this foolish battery temp sensor has been driving me nuts (more than I already am) over the last few months. The terminals have gotten loose where they are riveted to it and when traveling fast or going over bumps it will set off the battery overheat warning alarm. So I just replaced it with a 100 ohm resistor. Problem solved.

 

[lantraxco]

Modern technology... these days the sensors, monitors, watchdogs and safety software causes more problems than it's worth sometimes. Good job on the workaround. Could just borrow an overheat switch from your dryer maybe, lol.

 

[materthegreater]

Make a cardboard copy of the outline of the coupler and the bucket. Hold/tape the cardboard "templates" in place and see if it gives you the angle you want.

Its pretty easy to play around with the cardboard, before you weld the plate.

That's a good idea CO, that I would normally use, but in this case I wanted to be able to put the bucket on to see exactly how far it improved the angles.


This afternoon's progress:

Original CMP design:


3" subtracted from the back end of the ears:





I can't decide if I want to take out another 1" or so.

 

[laidback01]

hey... I see your battery posts are oxidized a bit. I would totally recommend putting lithium grease all over them. I do it for every rig I've got. I don't bother with the die-electric crap, it's just annoying stuff that you can't get off your fingers and seems to get all over everything.

the idea behind the grease is to act as a barrier to oxygen and battery-expelled corrosive gasses. If you get a good coating on your freshly polished posts, you won't have oxidized posts anymore.

Looking again, it might be the posts and the clamp have some kind of orange grease on them... I just use the same stuff I'm putting in the zircs as battery post coating. it will not impact your electrical system in any way shape or form - other than corrosion reduction.