I have an EX60URG and found an operator's manual on the John Deere site. The same manual covers the 55 I think. Cost about $30 US. Covers all the basic stuff. The only problem with it is that it seems to be for the current version of the machine-mine is an older unit-and the locations of many things are different. And I don't know what the URG or your UR stand for. There may be differences there as well. In any case-its the only Operator's Manual I've located.
Jackson,
If you look at the way the access to EX-60 manuals is laid out on the John Deere site, there are actually EX60 and then EX60-2, EX60-3 . . . I called the help number for the library but all they do is sell the books and they have no idea whatsoever how to match your serial number to the series involved.
Long time gone (almost before the internet) there used to be a division of Hitachi in the US (in Texas) that could offer modest help with these gray market machines. I got a print version of a parts manual for mine that has been spot on by giving them the serial number but this office is long gone. I believe, as you pointed out that getting the correct operator's, parts or repair manual depends on correctly matching your machine to the series noted above. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THERE IS A WEB RESOURCE FOR ESTABLISHING MODEL AND BUILD DATE FOR GRAY MARKET HITACHI's by SERIAL NUMBER? This is really a necessary adjunct resource to the John Deere Library.
I also have another open question for any other Hitachi gray-fficianados. Was there ever a John Deere equivalent to the EX60, or any of the smaller of the Hitachi line that we get gray from Canada? The assumption I always had was that they weren't marketed in America because John Deere sold equivalent models, but maybe they just weren't marketed in America for competitive or supply reasons but there was no actual equivalent model.
As to the URG - I have always believed, but can't remember if it was ever confirmed to me by anyone at Hitachi, that this designated the offset boom. Does your unit have the boom offset?
As far as the batteries which you seem to have figured out, on mine which according to my notes is an EX60-2 but I have no way of confirming that and the parts manual just says "EX60 Excvator serial No. 10001 - " but no where on my machine is there any 5 digit serial number, instead the MFG. No. is listed as 10C-1977. Now maybe that sould be taken to be 11977 but who knows? Anyway it is 24V, Batteries in series negative ground. The machine starts from the key swith (turn left for glow plugs, yellow light on cluster goes out when plugs are warm enough, then right to start).
Finally for Topcat et al on track tension - I would imagine this debate applies to virtually all rubber track excavators, not just Hitachi. Although perhaps the idler design may include shock absorption on some other models that I have not found present on the Hitachi medium weight gray market rubber track machines. Of course these machines can be tracked either way, you can find EX60's on steel. So maybe smaller units have such niceties.
My EX60 broke a track early in its career, but I don't really believe it was so much from track tension as from the habit of the tracks to get cracks in the rubber and expose the steel cords to corrosion and physical abuse weakening them to the point where they may ultimately snap when challenged.
That said, I run my tracks much looser than I used to as a precaution. This results perhaps in more frequent detracking, but I'm pretty adept at getting these tracks on in 10 minutes. Given that my first experience with detracking was on a 20 ton Kobelco on steel up to its gills in mud, if you survived that, you can survive anything and I believe that the looser tracking is less likely to break rather than detrack. I've got ten years on these new tracks (BTW, I had no money when I broke the track and I actually used stainless steel aircraft cable and a nicropress to stitch the track back together and ran for almost a year that way. When you hear what they want for tracks you might consider that alternative, and/or just to operate in the pinch while you wait for one to get shipped in . . .
Nough said. Apparently I don't have the privilege of starting a new thread and no adminstrator has responded to my e-mail to explain why, but I am particularly interested in chasing down better documentation as to the actually series of machine I own because I need to buy a repair manual as I have to take the swing box out. The seal is gone and I can't keep oil in it and it has started to make a sickening grinding sound so I think I have a few expensive parts on my roster and would be well served by getting the right repair manual although I would vastly appreciate any comments on the experience of those who have pulled their swing box on technique, things to watch out for re falling out the bottom of the unit as you lift it out. And finally, I have a pretty good clunk at the end or reverse of swing which suggests to me that the shaft on the outer planetary gear and or the teeth are worn but I have never been able to find a way to grease or inspect this gear. The only guess I can make is that there is an inspection port under about the right foot of the operator's seating position that doesn't appear to access anything, but perhaps if the cab is turned to just the right spot this seems about the right distance from the center of swing to possibly allow inspection of the shaft for the outer planetary.
Thanks,
Brian
