Hydraulic over electric on my Clamshell, no regrets after 8 months

Everyone in the shop swore by electric swing drives for precision on the Mississippi job near Baton Rouge. I picked a hydraulic unit for the old 288 and it handles mud loads way better, no stalling when the bucket packs. Sure it uses more fuel, about 12 gallons extra a week, but I never had to stop and recalibrate like the electric guys did. Anyone else run hydraulics on soft bottom and get called crazy for it?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

elliot_grant3820d ago

Did you see that thread on the heavy equipment forum last month about hydraulic vs electric on soft ground? A guy ran numbers on cycle times and said hydraulic won out in mud because the electric motors kept hitting thermal limits and slowing down. I ran hydraulic on a dredge cut down in Plaquemines and saw the same thing, the flow just keeps pulling when the going gets thick. The fuel cost is real but downtime costs more.

5