Had to choose between a bigger bucket or a thumb for the old excavator

My boss gave me a choice last spring, either get a new 36-inch bucket for the 320 or add a mechanical thumb to the 24-inch one we had. I went with the thumb, thinking it would be more useful for the demo work we had lined up. It cost about $2,500 to install, but it let me pick up and place concrete chunks way easier than just pushing them into a pile. After three months on a site clearing old foundations, I was moving material almost twice as fast. Anyone else had to make a call like that on a machine attachment?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayden_king2d ago

Smart move, that thumb probably saved your back from a lot of manual sorting too.

kelly.patricia2d ago

Actually have to disagree on that one. The thumb is doing the real heavy lifting here, not the back. That's a repetitive stress injury waiting to happen. Seen it too many times. You trade one kind of strain for another, and wrist or thumb problems can be just as bad.

stella1212d ago

But you're missing the whole point of using a tool. The thumb drive lets you move a huge amount of data without touching a single box. That's the win. A sore thumb for a day beats a wrecked back for life, every single time. You can always switch hands or take a break, but a back injury sticks with you. It's not a perfect trade, but it's a way better one.