7 ms·

I bought a container full of Chinese electric excavators. Here's what showed up

196 points by nkurz 2y ago

rishikeshs 2y ago
What about maintenance? Is it something you can do locally?
- potato3732842 2y ago
  Normally the way you maintain China power equipment is that you go on Amazon or any other retail channel that sells junk from China and punch in your broken part or worn service part. These machines are usually loose integrations of the same sort of commodity hardware that gets packaged for retail sale and stacked on the shelves of Tractor Supply or shipped to you via Amazon. Sprockets, hoses, pins, valves, levers, seats, basically everything except the big weldments. The engines are generally Brigs or Predator clone depending on how the importer specs them but they're nothing special and any comparable engine would work. The fact that the author is trumpeting the fact that he as a dealer has parts tells me that there's a need to, which I think is a downgrade over the gas equipment. Source: have a buddy who imports comparable gas power equipment
mythrwy 2y ago
As a person who had dug a lot of holes in his life, these look completely awesome! I'd like to see a more substantial version, these look like they would last about 15 uses before breaking and where do you get replacement parts?
- moron4hire 2y ago
  I can kind of see going in on something like this with my neighbor, as we both are rather new home owners trying to terraform our backyards into our own things, but ultimately I think I'd rather build something out of the Open Source Ecology project: https://www.opensourceecology.org/ https://www.opensourceecology.org/
  - 0_____0 2y ago
    Maybe Earth will be uninhabitable someday and we'll have to terraform it then, but today what you're calling terraforming is just called 'landscaping.'
    - moron4hire 2y ago
      Have you perhaps ever heard of a concepts "poetic license" or "hyperbole"?
      - 0_____0 2y ago
        In isolation I'd think of it as cute turn of phrase, but I've heard it about a dozen times unironically using 'terraforming' in place of 'landscaping.' I think you could artfully call Las Vegas a terraforming project on account of it being in the middle of the desert and needing water brought in, but otherwise it's just using the wrong word.
- icegreentea2 2y ago
  In case it's not clear, the article writer actually runs a business semi-customizing these from China, importing them, and selling in America (so yes, this is technically an ad). The linked through site from the company says that they stock spare parts in the US (in Florida). Their warranty is for 1 year/1000 hours operation.
sampton 2y ago
There should be a park for adults with bunch of these machines. Beats therapy.
- jcgrillo 2y ago
  there are many parks, be the change you want to see in the world
- davidsojevic 2y ago
  I once looked into this and there's actually more than a handful of theme parks like this, one of which even has a few locations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggerland
  - georgeburdell 2y ago
    Huh, I thought Peppa Pig just made up Diggerland (I have young children)
    - alias_neo 2y ago
      Diggerland is amazing, we took our kids to the one near (in?) Leeds (NW England, UK), for my son's third birthday, he was able (allowed) to operate all but the largest which I would estimate is somewhere in the 7.5T range. The diggers don't move, they're fixed in position, and don't rotate, but otherwise you have full control of the arm using the normal stick-type controls. My 4yo daughter picked it up far quicker than myself despite me being a life-long gamer, but we all had a fantastic time. There are various games set up with different type of "diggers" such as "hook a duck"; with a hook on the end of the arm, 10-pin bowling; with a mini wrecking ball on the end of the arm, tyre stacking, where you drive a weird looking machine with pincers and rear wheel steering (that one was challenging) and of course "dig a hole".
  - echelon 2y ago
    Or other permutations of the idea: https://tanktownusa.com/ https://tanktownusa.com/
jumploops 2y ago
My toddler is absolutely obsessed with excavators. We've seen the famed "no-name diesel-powered Chinese mini-excavator bought at auction for $5,200" and I'd be lying if I say the thought hasn't crossed my mind ;) An all electric excavator seems even cooler... now to leave the city.
- dhosek 2y ago
  Kind of reminds me of being on vacation with my family in Michigan and the only place with cell reception was a construction site nearby. While talking with my wife who was in Morocco at the time, I climbed inside a front loader to avoid the mosquitos and then discovered I couldn’t open the door from the inside to get back out. I don’t remember how I managed to finally escape my predicament.
  - eru 2y ago
    Perhaps you didn't, and you are still inside?
- usefulcat 2y ago
  Same here with my oldest kid at that age. I've definitely seen every episode of Mighty Machines, most multiple times.
- Llamamoe 2y ago
  There's even cheaper ones on AliExpress/Alibaba, and some of them are pretty good- there are YouTube videos from owners, and even some Reddit testimonials. The quality is extremely variable, but some of them are apparently pretty good.
- MaKey 2y ago
  You could start with a small building block excavator from Mould King and build it together. I bet you both will love it!
retox 2y ago
The "Here's what showed up" is unnecessary; he bought a container of Chinese electric excavators.
- mh- 2y ago
  Anyone who has ordered frequently from AliExpress (or Temu, Wish, ..) will tell you that line is not unnecessary.
  - fl0id 2y ago
    He did pre-shipping inspection, worked with the factory etc, donuts not at all like temu or aliexpress
    - TeMPOraL 2y ago
      Rather, it's exactly like approximately everything anyone here owns, because almost every physical good available to buy locally arrives from China in a container, in more-less the fashion described in the article.
  - croes 2y ago
    But did he order from AliExpress, Temu or Wish?
- eudhxhdhsb32 2y ago
  Well it suggests the main topic will be discussion of what he received and that it may not have been as expected. Without that, maybe the topic is about something like the customs and payment process.
  - alias_neo 2y ago
    Sadly it was neither of those things, he bought, and received exactly what was expected, the headline was simply click bait. I only clicked through as I expected something unusually-interesting, but read it anyway because electrified big-kid toys.
serviceberry 2y ago
For folks who haven't operated an excavator, the trade-off with these mini-excavators isn't necessarily that they're underpowered. There are two other problems. First, they are very wobbly and you're gonna be limited by that. You really need a fair amount of surface contact and a robust counterweight when you're extending the arm and moving boulders, pulling out roots, or digging into hard soil. Second, you might look at specs and say "oh, cool, digging depth of 5 ft, I don't need more!". Except, this is attainable in one specific (and awkward) position of the excavator's boom and arm. It's less than that across most of the movement range. Another thing to keep in mind that this is not like buying a car. An excavator or a tractor deprecates far more slowly, and many private owners keep them for 20-30 years. A diesel excavator will need DIY maintenance and simple repairs, but it should hold up for life. Battery-powered equipment will probably need new battery packs before that. Just something to keep in mind when figuring out the pros and cons. If you're in the suburbs, noise is a concern, but then, you honestly don't need your own excavator...
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  > An excavator or a tractor deprecates far more slowly, and many private owners keep them for 20-30 years. There are still tractors and excavators from the 50's in regular use. > Battery-powered equipment will probably need new battery packs before that. It's a tiny 10kWh battery, $1000 - $2000. It looks like about 6 hours / cycle, so that's ~4000 of work time, longer if you don't mind reduced capacity. That's quite comparable to a diesel which needs an overhaul every ~10,000 hours.
- Shog9 2y ago
  The battery life is probably not an issue in practice; the author estimates 5 hours per charge - assuming a very conservative 2000-cycle life for the pack, that's 10,000 hours of work, which is quite respectable. Yes, a private owner might keep a tractor for decades, but probably not using it for hours every single day and definitely not without some pretty significant repairs; the cost of a new 200ah battery pack is nothing compared to a diesel engine rebuild. I... Tend to suspect other parts on these things will be unacceptably worn long before the battery craps out.
- 2y ago
genter 2y ago
60 years ago, a super shitty car company from Japan called Toyota starting importing their pieces of shit to us. They were small, weird, with a poorly translated manual. And they were shit. And Toyota kept improving, and learning from their mistakes, and got to know the US market better. And now they are one of the largest corporations on Earth. This is why when I see a $1 stepper motor on AliExpress, or a YouTube review of some cheap Vevor tool, or a shipping container of electric miniexcavators, I realize this is China being a teenager, learning how to be an adult. And they are a lot bigger than Japan, and are going to have a bigger impact than Toyota, or Sony, or Mitsubishi. And this is why I hate Trump. Because he is completely right about how much China is gaining on us, but he has no understanding of how or why, and is therefore doing absolutely nothing to actually help us maintain our manufacturing power.
- UncleOxidant 2y ago
  And a lot of the things he's doing are going to make things worse for us.
  - croes 2y ago
    Especially in the long run after his presidency
- bozhark 2y ago
  If only the leadership lead
- CraigJPerry 2y ago
  Does China not end up running headlong into the problem of demographics? It’s a structural problem that the US isn’t really facing. US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_S... China: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China That’s like a 1/3rd reduction in workforce.
  - vkou 2y ago
thdhhghgbhy 2y ago
Seems wasteful to me.
- Livanskoy 2y ago
  Doesn't seem wasteful to him.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    The guy is reselling $6000 excavators for $20,000. So he's doing OK. He's not going to get rich from it, he's spending thousands per excavator to import it, plus a lot of time. It certainly doesn't seem wasteful.
    - skellington 2y ago
      Why can't I just buy it off AliExpress for $6000 + $50 shipping?
      - palmfacehn 2y ago
        He talks about some of the extras he did in the post. Assembly, testing and pre-purchase inspections. I assume some of the markup will be removed when others enter the niche. You can also find some deals on branded equipment on gov auction sites. People are buying lots there, refurbishing when required and reselling for similar markups. All of the options require a bit of legwork and elbow grease.
        whamlastxmas 2y ago
        Having the combination of capital to buy an entire shipping container of these and also put in the months of work to sell them for a $60k profit seems like an uncommon combination. Like I’d personally find it super cool but I don’t have $100k in cash to gamble on this
      - potato3732842 2y ago
maxglute 2y ago
Just a few purple panels away from constructicon paint scheme.
twothamendment 2y ago
Any excavator beats a shovel! I'm just a homeowner with a decent size piece of land and lots of trees. The ground is glacial till/drumlin, so rocks vary from gravel, to bowling balls and table size boulders. I have a 7,000 lb excavator and couldn't imagine using smaller for my needs, but there is a right size for everyone! I'd love it if mine were electric. I don't use it all of the time or all day, but the smoking old diesel is not the part of it that I enjoy.
- voakbasda 2y ago
  I have owned a 3.5T mini excavator for over a decade. This class of machine is around 8’ wide and almost 10’ tall. Any bigger any I couldn’t haul it with my pickup truck. I use it regularly on my farm and love it, but it is far too big for many tasks. Consequently, I recently bought a 1.3T micro excavator. It’s only 36” wide and less than 8’ tall, and even shorter with the canopy off. It opens up a whole new world of jobs that I can do without breaking my back, but it cannot come close to doing the same amount of work as the bigger machine. Recently, I mucked out a livestock shelter with the micro machine, as my mini could barely reach into the structure without bumping the roof. The micro can drive all around in the structure; however, it can barely reach high enough to dump its bucket into the dump trailer. As a result, the small machine made a big pile outside the structure, then the big machine loaded it into the trailer. Each machine did its portion of the work at least twice as fast as the other would take. It was a great demonstration of using the right tool for the job.
  - kylebenzle 2y ago
    Also great demonstration of the benefits of being exceedingly wealthy.
    - rembicilious 2y ago
      Please, the exceedingly wealthy don’t muck out their own barn. Where I live a piece of equipment like an excavator is a great investment. It’s a tax write off and it frees up time for you to do other more valuable tasks instead of breaking your back with a shovel for far too long. Many (most) people will take out a loan to purchase a piece of equipment with the expectation that it will “pay for itself” over it’s service life.
mttch 2y ago
These would be great in the UK where we have smaller gardens and poor access. Typically access to rear gardens in semi-detached housing stock is down a narrow path between then houses. For terraced houses I’ve seen someone drive a mini-digger through the house to access the garden.
Erikun 2y ago
”[…] the NESHER NX2500 is priced at US $19,600.” Son to be $21,560 I guess.
- reaperman 2y ago
  I'm glad excavators are "equipment" instead of vehicles...there's a 100% tariff on Chinese EV's.
aorloff 2y ago
Every month at the Bar None Auction there are quite a few newer model cheap excavators that go for about $3k. Typically like a 9k excavator or something small, gas or diesel powered. https://bid.barnoneauction.com/lot/230633363/2024-agt-mh12r-hydraulic-excavator?ref=catalog https://bid.barnoneauction.com/lot/230633363/2024-agt-mh12r-... Given the usage pattern of an excavator, which is that typically its sitting around until you need to use it nonstop for several days, I like the option of just filling it up with gas.
altacc 2y ago
Related, Oslo has rules for reducing emissions from building sites which has made it a pioneer in the development and use of electric building machinery. Some of it is battery powered and some requires a really long extension cord. I do wonder how practical that is when maneuvering and if they need somebody to move the cable out of the way when it reverses. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/oslo-leads-quiet-low-emission-electric-vehicles-building-sites https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/oslo-leads-qui... A 38-ton electric track excavator that requires a cable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuYgPv8s5c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuYgPv8s5c
- Yeul 2y ago
  Yeah for Americans: In some countries things like pollution and noise matters. And China went all in on batteries.
  - yostrovs 2y ago
    Thanks, whoever you are. We Americans, with pollution control laws and noise ordinances, didn't know other peoples are also concerned about these things.
    - altacc 2y ago
      Well, you had those laws and ordinances! Let's wait a few days to see if they survive the ongoing bonfire of government entities once they are deemed criminal government interference, a scam or communism ;) I don't know where the poster is but Europe has very loud cities. Oslo is particularly quiet and car free in the centre and almost every other city I travel to in Europe seems loud and hectic in comparison.
      - yostrovs 2y ago
        You're right, let's wait and see if speculations turn into reality. We can't talk about what is, because something might change one day, and it may change in an unknown direction. But lecturing Americans, as one whole, who care not for noise or the environment, we can do right now.
Havoc 2y ago
Is he reselling them or why so many?
- JoBrad 2y ago
  He has a small business that sells electric machines. Also: > the NESHER NX2500 is priced at US $19,600.
LinuxBender 2y ago
Which excavator shops in the US would service these when they have a problem too complicated for the average construction worker to fix? Who sells the replacement parts?
- potato3732842 2y ago
  For the gas ones the way it works is that the owner services it with aftermarket parts. It's all cookie cutter stuff. You break a spool valve and you punch spool valve into Amazon and someone is selling the same Chinese spool valve they built the machine with. For the electric ones? Your guess is as good as mine but the fact that he says they sell parts makes me think that they're more tightly integrated machines and it's not as easy to source parts the gas ones so he buys parts with each order.

196 points by nkurz 2y ago

rishikeshs 2y ago

What about maintenance? Is it something you can do locally?

potato3732842 2y ago
Normally the way you maintain China power equipment is that you go on Amazon or any other retail channel that sells junk from China and punch in your broken part or worn service part. These machines are usually loose integrations of the same sort of commodity hardware that gets packaged for retail sale and stacked on the shelves of Tractor Supply or shipped to you via Amazon. Sprockets, hoses, pins, valves, levers, seats, basically everything except the big weldments. The engines are generally Brigs or Predator clone depending on how the importer specs them but they're nothing special and any comparable engine would work. The fact that the author is trumpeting the fact that he as a dealer has parts tells me that there's a need to, which I think is a downgrade over the gas equipment. Source: have a buddy who imports comparable gas power equipment

mythrwy 2y ago

As a person who had dug a lot of holes in his life, these look completely awesome! I'd like to see a more substantial version, these look like they would last about 15 uses before breaking and where do you get replacement parts?

moron4hire 2y ago
I can kind of see going in on something like this with my neighbor, as we both are rather new home owners trying to terraform our backyards into our own things, but ultimately I think I'd rather build something out of the Open Source Ecology project: https://www.opensourceecology.org/ https://www.opensourceecology.org/
- 0_____0 2y ago
  Maybe Earth will be uninhabitable someday and we'll have to terraform it then, but today what you're calling terraforming is just called 'landscaping.'
  - moron4hire 2y ago
    Have you perhaps ever heard of a concepts "poetic license" or "hyperbole"?
    - 0_____0 2y ago
      In isolation I'd think of it as cute turn of phrase, but I've heard it about a dozen times unironically using 'terraforming' in place of 'landscaping.' I think you could artfully call Las Vegas a terraforming project on account of it being in the middle of the desert and needing water brought in, but otherwise it's just using the wrong word.
icegreentea2 2y ago
In case it's not clear, the article writer actually runs a business semi-customizing these from China, importing them, and selling in America (so yes, this is technically an ad). The linked through site from the company says that they stock spare parts in the US (in Florida). Their warranty is for 1 year/1000 hours operation.

sampton 2y ago

There should be a park for adults with bunch of these machines. Beats therapy.

jcgrillo 2y ago
there are many parks, be the change you want to see in the world
davidsojevic 2y ago
I once looked into this and there's actually more than a handful of theme parks like this, one of which even has a few locations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggerland
- georgeburdell 2y ago
  Huh, I thought Peppa Pig just made up Diggerland (I have young children)
  - alias_neo 2y ago
    Diggerland is amazing, we took our kids to the one near (in?) Leeds (NW England, UK), for my son's third birthday, he was able (allowed) to operate all but the largest which I would estimate is somewhere in the 7.5T range. The diggers don't move, they're fixed in position, and don't rotate, but otherwise you have full control of the arm using the normal stick-type controls. My 4yo daughter picked it up far quicker than myself despite me being a life-long gamer, but we all had a fantastic time. There are various games set up with different type of "diggers" such as "hook a duck"; with a hook on the end of the arm, 10-pin bowling; with a mini wrecking ball on the end of the arm, tyre stacking, where you drive a weird looking machine with pincers and rear wheel steering (that one was challenging) and of course "dig a hole".
- echelon 2y ago
  Or other permutations of the idea: https://tanktownusa.com/ https://tanktownusa.com/

jumploops 2y ago

My toddler is absolutely obsessed with excavators. We've seen the famed "no-name diesel-powered Chinese mini-excavator bought at auction for $5,200" and I'd be lying if I say the thought hasn't crossed my mind ;) An all electric excavator seems even cooler... now to leave the city.

dhosek 2y ago
Kind of reminds me of being on vacation with my family in Michigan and the only place with cell reception was a construction site nearby. While talking with my wife who was in Morocco at the time, I climbed inside a front loader to avoid the mosquitos and then discovered I couldn’t open the door from the inside to get back out. I don’t remember how I managed to finally escape my predicament.
- eru 2y ago
  Perhaps you didn't, and you are still inside?
usefulcat 2y ago
Same here with my oldest kid at that age. I've definitely seen every episode of Mighty Machines, most multiple times.
Llamamoe 2y ago
There's even cheaper ones on AliExpress/Alibaba, and some of them are pretty good- there are YouTube videos from owners, and even some Reddit testimonials. The quality is extremely variable, but some of them are apparently pretty good.
MaKey 2y ago
You could start with a small building block excavator from Mould King and build it together. I bet you both will love it!

retox 2y ago

The "Here's what showed up" is unnecessary; he bought a container of Chinese electric excavators.

mh- 2y ago
Anyone who has ordered frequently from AliExpress (or Temu, Wish, ..) will tell you that line is not unnecessary.
- fl0id 2y ago
  He did pre-shipping inspection, worked with the factory etc, donuts not at all like temu or aliexpress
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    Rather, it's exactly like approximately everything anyone here owns, because almost every physical good available to buy locally arrives from China in a container, in more-less the fashion described in the article.
- croes 2y ago
  But did he order from AliExpress, Temu or Wish?
eudhxhdhsb32 2y ago
Well it suggests the main topic will be discussion of what he received and that it may not have been as expected. Without that, maybe the topic is about something like the customs and payment process.
- alias_neo 2y ago
  Sadly it was neither of those things, he bought, and received exactly what was expected, the headline was simply click bait. I only clicked through as I expected something unusually-interesting, but read it anyway because electrified big-kid toys.

serviceberry 2y ago

For folks who haven't operated an excavator, the trade-off with these mini-excavators isn't necessarily that they're underpowered. There are two other problems. First, they are very wobbly and you're gonna be limited by that. You really need a fair amount of surface contact and a robust counterweight when you're extending the arm and moving boulders, pulling out roots, or digging into hard soil. Second, you might look at specs and say "oh, cool, digging depth of 5 ft, I don't need more!". Except, this is attainable in one specific (and awkward) position of the excavator's boom and arm. It's less than that across most of the movement range. Another thing to keep in mind that this is not like buying a car. An excavator or a tractor deprecates far more slowly, and many private owners keep them for 20-30 years. A diesel excavator will need DIY maintenance and simple repairs, but it should hold up for life. Battery-powered equipment will probably need new battery packs before that. Just something to keep in mind when figuring out the pros and cons. If you're in the suburbs, noise is a concern, but then, you honestly don't need your own excavator...

bryanlarsen 2y ago
> An excavator or a tractor deprecates far more slowly, and many private owners keep them for 20-30 years. There are still tractors and excavators from the 50's in regular use. > Battery-powered equipment will probably need new battery packs before that. It's a tiny 10kWh battery, $1000 - $2000. It looks like about 6 hours / cycle, so that's ~4000 of work time, longer if you don't mind reduced capacity. That's quite comparable to a diesel which needs an overhaul every ~10,000 hours.
Shog9 2y ago
The battery life is probably not an issue in practice; the author estimates 5 hours per charge - assuming a very conservative 2000-cycle life for the pack, that's 10,000 hours of work, which is quite respectable. Yes, a private owner might keep a tractor for decades, but probably not using it for hours every single day and definitely not without some pretty significant repairs; the cost of a new 200ah battery pack is nothing compared to a diesel engine rebuild. I... Tend to suspect other parts on these things will be unacceptably worn long before the battery craps out.
2y ago

genter 2y ago

60 years ago, a super shitty car company from Japan called Toyota starting importing their pieces of shit to us. They were small, weird, with a poorly translated manual. And they were shit. And Toyota kept improving, and learning from their mistakes, and got to know the US market better. And now they are one of the largest corporations on Earth. This is why when I see a $1 stepper motor on AliExpress, or a YouTube review of some cheap Vevor tool, or a shipping container of electric miniexcavators, I realize this is China being a teenager, learning how to be an adult. And they are a lot bigger than Japan, and are going to have a bigger impact than Toyota, or Sony, or Mitsubishi. And this is why I hate Trump. Because he is completely right about how much China is gaining on us, but he has no understanding of how or why, and is therefore doing absolutely nothing to actually help us maintain our manufacturing power.

UncleOxidant 2y ago
And a lot of the things he's doing are going to make things worse for us.
- croes 2y ago
  Especially in the long run after his presidency
bozhark 2y ago
If only the leadership lead
CraigJPerry 2y ago
Does China not end up running headlong into the problem of demographics? It’s a structural problem that the US isn’t really facing. US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_S... China: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_China That’s like a 1/3rd reduction in workforce.
- vkou 2y ago

thdhhghgbhy 2y ago

Seems wasteful to me.

Livanskoy 2y ago
Doesn't seem wasteful to him.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  The guy is reselling $6000 excavators for $20,000. So he's doing OK. He's not going to get rich from it, he's spending thousands per excavator to import it, plus a lot of time. It certainly doesn't seem wasteful.
  - skellington 2y ago
    Why can't I just buy it off AliExpress for $6000 + $50 shipping?
    - palmfacehn 2y ago
      He talks about some of the extras he did in the post. Assembly, testing and pre-purchase inspections. I assume some of the markup will be removed when others enter the niche. You can also find some deals on branded equipment on gov auction sites. People are buying lots there, refurbishing when required and reselling for similar markups. All of the options require a bit of legwork and elbow grease.
      - whamlastxmas 2y ago
        Having the combination of capital to buy an entire shipping container of these and also put in the months of work to sell them for a $60k profit seems like an uncommon combination. Like I’d personally find it super cool but I don’t have $100k in cash to gamble on this
    - potato3732842 2y ago

maxglute 2y ago

Just a few purple panels away from constructicon paint scheme.

twothamendment 2y ago

Any excavator beats a shovel! I'm just a homeowner with a decent size piece of land and lots of trees. The ground is glacial till/drumlin, so rocks vary from gravel, to bowling balls and table size boulders. I have a 7,000 lb excavator and couldn't imagine using smaller for my needs, but there is a right size for everyone! I'd love it if mine were electric. I don't use it all of the time or all day, but the smoking old diesel is not the part of it that I enjoy.

voakbasda 2y ago
I have owned a 3.5T mini excavator for over a decade. This class of machine is around 8’ wide and almost 10’ tall. Any bigger any I couldn’t haul it with my pickup truck. I use it regularly on my farm and love it, but it is far too big for many tasks. Consequently, I recently bought a 1.3T micro excavator. It’s only 36” wide and less than 8’ tall, and even shorter with the canopy off. It opens up a whole new world of jobs that I can do without breaking my back, but it cannot come close to doing the same amount of work as the bigger machine. Recently, I mucked out a livestock shelter with the micro machine, as my mini could barely reach into the structure without bumping the roof. The micro can drive all around in the structure; however, it can barely reach high enough to dump its bucket into the dump trailer. As a result, the small machine made a big pile outside the structure, then the big machine loaded it into the trailer. Each machine did its portion of the work at least twice as fast as the other would take. It was a great demonstration of using the right tool for the job.
- kylebenzle 2y ago
  Also great demonstration of the benefits of being exceedingly wealthy.
  - rembicilious 2y ago
    Please, the exceedingly wealthy don’t muck out their own barn. Where I live a piece of equipment like an excavator is a great investment. It’s a tax write off and it frees up time for you to do other more valuable tasks instead of breaking your back with a shovel for far too long. Many (most) people will take out a loan to purchase a piece of equipment with the expectation that it will “pay for itself” over it’s service life.

mttch 2y ago

These would be great in the UK where we have smaller gardens and poor access. Typically access to rear gardens in semi-detached housing stock is down a narrow path between then houses. For terraced houses I’ve seen someone drive a mini-digger through the house to access the garden.

Erikun 2y ago

”[…] the NESHER NX2500 is priced at US $19,600.” Son to be $21,560 I guess.

reaperman 2y ago
I'm glad excavators are "equipment" instead of vehicles...there's a 100% tariff on Chinese EV's.

aorloff 2y ago

Every month at the Bar None Auction there are quite a few newer model cheap excavators that go for about $3k. Typically like a 9k excavator or something small, gas or diesel powered. https://bid.barnoneauction.com/lot/230633363/2024-agt-mh12r-hydraulic-excavator?ref=catalog https://bid.barnoneauction.com/lot/230633363/2024-agt-mh12r-... Given the usage pattern of an excavator, which is that typically its sitting around until you need to use it nonstop for several days, I like the option of just filling it up with gas.

altacc 2y ago

Related, Oslo has rules for reducing emissions from building sites which has made it a pioneer in the development and use of electric building machinery. Some of it is battery powered and some requires a really long extension cord. I do wonder how practical that is when maneuvering and if they need somebody to move the cable out of the way when it reverses. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/oslo-leads-quiet-low-emission-electric-vehicles-building-sites https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/oslo-leads-qui... A 38-ton electric track excavator that requires a cable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuYgPv8s5c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYuYgPv8s5c

Yeul 2y ago
Yeah for Americans: In some countries things like pollution and noise matters. And China went all in on batteries.
- yostrovs 2y ago
  Thanks, whoever you are. We Americans, with pollution control laws and noise ordinances, didn't know other peoples are also concerned about these things.
  - altacc 2y ago
    Well, you had those laws and ordinances! Let's wait a few days to see if they survive the ongoing bonfire of government entities once they are deemed criminal government interference, a scam or communism ;) I don't know where the poster is but Europe has very loud cities. Oslo is particularly quiet and car free in the centre and almost every other city I travel to in Europe seems loud and hectic in comparison.
    - yostrovs 2y ago
      You're right, let's wait and see if speculations turn into reality. We can't talk about what is, because something might change one day, and it may change in an unknown direction. But lecturing Americans, as one whole, who care not for noise or the environment, we can do right now.

Havoc 2y ago

Is he reselling them or why so many?

JoBrad 2y ago
He has a small business that sells electric machines. Also: > the NESHER NX2500 is priced at US $19,600.

LinuxBender 2y ago

Which excavator shops in the US would service these when they have a problem too complicated for the average construction worker to fix? Who sells the replacement parts?

potato3732842 2y ago
For the gas ones the way it works is that the owner services it with aftermarket parts. It's all cookie cutter stuff. You break a spool valve and you punch spool valve into Amazon and someone is selling the same Chinese spool valve they built the machine with. For the electric ones? Your guess is as good as mine but the fact that he says they sell parts makes me think that they're more tightly integrated machines and it's not as easy to source parts the gas ones so he buys parts with each order.