I saw on a UK forum and a few youtube videos some grab trucks, and like any rational male I felt that I wanted and needed this capability if I could do it on the cheap.
I already had a Mitsubishi truck with a 2.5 ton capacity HIAB crane, but it just had a hook on the end. I needed a grab bucket to dangle on the end and voila!, a grab truck I'd have. However looking at the cost of a new hydraulic grab, it wasn't going to happen... unless I found a clamshell grab for a ridiculously low price.
What does a man do when he dreams of unattainable bits of machinery? He goes to ebay and searches in hope but not with much expectation. Then after a few weeks and not really looking, doing a search under excavators, a grab appeared! It was new, had been sitting in a yard for some time and was going cheap, $2000. So I watched it to see the bids come in over time. None did, so within a few minutes of the end of bidding I threw my hat into the ring and put my bid in and watched the seconds count down... No one else put in a bid and the grab was mine :thumbsup:thumbsup
A trip of a few hours with the trailer and I had the grab home. It was New Zealand made and had a single ram for closing the grab, a swedish manufactured hydraulic rotator and long hoses with quick connects. It was 700mm, (about 30"), wide and bigger than it looked on ebay. Fully open the grab jaw width was over 6 feet
Although the $2000 had broke the bank I still had to power the device while dangling it from my HIAB crane. Checking prices for solenoid controlled hydraulic diverter valves along with the associated hosing, connectors etc was looking expensive. Then I saw some inexpensive 24v hydraulic power packs... on ebay again
I figured that mounting the portable power pack on the HIAB dipper arm would do the job so I ordered one from the other side of Australia, made a swivelling bracket so it stayed horizontal, mounted it, bought a few fittings and quick connector, some cheap high amperage jumper cables and Anderson connectors, connected it all up and it worked:woohoo
Evidence is in the photos below
AusDave
I already had a Mitsubishi truck with a 2.5 ton capacity HIAB crane, but it just had a hook on the end. I needed a grab bucket to dangle on the end and voila!, a grab truck I'd have. However looking at the cost of a new hydraulic grab, it wasn't going to happen... unless I found a clamshell grab for a ridiculously low price.
What does a man do when he dreams of unattainable bits of machinery? He goes to ebay and searches in hope but not with much expectation. Then after a few weeks and not really looking, doing a search under excavators, a grab appeared! It was new, had been sitting in a yard for some time and was going cheap, $2000. So I watched it to see the bids come in over time. None did, so within a few minutes of the end of bidding I threw my hat into the ring and put my bid in and watched the seconds count down... No one else put in a bid and the grab was mine :thumbsup:thumbsup
A trip of a few hours with the trailer and I had the grab home. It was New Zealand made and had a single ram for closing the grab, a swedish manufactured hydraulic rotator and long hoses with quick connects. It was 700mm, (about 30"), wide and bigger than it looked on ebay. Fully open the grab jaw width was over 6 feet
Although the $2000 had broke the bank I still had to power the device while dangling it from my HIAB crane. Checking prices for solenoid controlled hydraulic diverter valves along with the associated hosing, connectors etc was looking expensive. Then I saw some inexpensive 24v hydraulic power packs... on ebay again
I figured that mounting the portable power pack on the HIAB dipper arm would do the job so I ordered one from the other side of Australia, made a swivelling bracket so it stayed horizontal, mounted it, bought a few fittings and quick connector, some cheap high amperage jumper cables and Anderson connectors, connected it all up and it worked:woohoo
Evidence is in the photos below
AusDave
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