Thank You! I recently bought a mini excavator same as yours, an H12. The excavator arrived and the next day the temps dropped from 20's to yesterday 4 degrees F. I have so far been able to remove three of the bolts on one side of the back housing and in a couple days the temps for one day forecasted to be in 30's so I plan on getting the rest of the bolts, I appreciate you showing the bottom bolts attaching the rear weight that keeps the housing against the machine. My plan is to make the rear housing removeable using either latches or small c-clamps allowing quick on-off of the housing. I bought a oil drain hose from Amazon and hydraulic oil cooler from Central Diggers I also bought a seat belt for safety, I've seen videos of operators catapulted forward. Most likely I won't be using the excavator until maybe April when temps thaw things enough but I'm excited to use it, even just for the use of it.
They make a short 6-12in "oil drain extension" hose for those B&S motors. They're great to help you guide the oil into your bucket and eliminate that mess.
Something else you can do is what i have added to my digget em15. I add a 7 gallon external gas tank. On the ht10b i had i took back black cover off to change oil. And extended exhaust pipe. You could make back panel hinged. Will need to cut around counter weight. Then it be easier to get into
I love these little machines and that is a cool frame brace, nice work. I put on a hyd filter and cooler and I plan to put a magnetic oil plug on one side with drain extension on the other side. that is mainly due to the mess and that the engines don't have filters. I'm using air convection with a positive pressure engine bay. the cooler pulls cool air over the cooler and into the engine bay at the right bottom and I've put two fans pulling in on the left side. these blow over the pump and engine to increase heat dissipation and then all the air exits with the hot exhaust out the rear so the exhaust doesn't get sucked into the engine bay
@@NaterTater01 its a fun project to mod and get some useful work out of around the farm.. I forgot, I also added thumb quick connects using ISO-A 3/8. to make it easier to have a thumb and tilt bucket. I can feel the hyd cooler pulling cool air and cooling the fluid but I had to weld a custom mounting frame for it, good project. its hard finding the hyd connections, FYI they are metric DIN light - measure thread diameter for mm size. have fun!
@NaterTater01 you can't hinge the rear panel on H12s because of the counter weight overlap. that works on some of the other machine designs. particularly the ones that don't have counter weights like DLK 12 machines and similar copies of that one. there is also a significan't design difference. some machines like DLK have an internal frame that support the seat so the side and rear panels are not structural. the H12 doesn't have this extra internal frame that takes up space. the rear and side panels are structural so they can't be hinged.
@@derekdal5185 I must respectfully agree and disagree. These machines cannot be hinged on one side but the can have toggle latches installed on both sides. That little trick moving the counterweight back was pretty cool. While it is sad that you must loosen all the bolts for the topside pieces next to the seats it is still easier to do that, loosen the latches on the sides and remove the back piece than to have to almost crawl into the engine compartment on your head to undo the 6 bolts holding the back piece on.
@@richardbrookins5406 I guess you're not disagreeing at all. "these units can't be hinged", true and you agree. maybe better communication is in order or just don't open with disagree and offer a different viable suggestion.
A nice video, thanks. My Hightop HT10 has the same body and very similar counterweight. Your video give me confidence to go ahead and take mine off so I can do some more mods. Thanks! @diggerdavesea
Thank You! I recently bought a mini excavator same as yours, an H12. The excavator arrived and the next day the temps dropped from 20's to yesterday 4 degrees F. I have so far been able to remove three of the bolts on one side of the back housing and in a couple days the temps for one day forecasted to be in 30's so I plan on getting the rest of the bolts, I appreciate you showing the bottom bolts attaching the rear weight that keeps the housing against the machine. My plan is to make the rear housing removeable using either latches or small c-clamps allowing quick on-off of the housing. I bought a oil drain hose from Amazon and hydraulic oil cooler from Central Diggers I also bought a seat belt for safety, I've seen videos of operators catapulted forward. Most likely I won't be using the excavator until maybe April when temps thaw things enough but I'm excited to use it, even just for the use of it.
Nice mods. I think I would weld a tray on the back counterweight so I could add some railroad track to it to add more weight.
They make a short 6-12in "oil drain extension" hose for those B&S motors. They're great to help you guide the oil into your bucket and eliminate that mess.
Great job…God bless!
@@d.jackson7023 thanks!
Cam sweet on the channel garage connection makes kits you can order for the oil cooler and covers for the drive motors and the price isn’t that bad
Something else you can do is what i have added to my digget em15. I add a 7 gallon external gas tank. On the ht10b i had i took back black cover off to change oil. And extended exhaust pipe.
You could make back panel hinged. Will need to cut around counter weight. Then it be easier to get into
Where did you find the steering handle extensions?
@@kentjohnson3071 RICKYZHU 10" Black Shift Knob Extension for Manual Gear Shifter Lever M10x1.5 Extended a.co/d/ahjioiU
I love these little machines and that is a cool frame brace, nice work. I put on a hyd filter and cooler and I plan to put a magnetic oil plug on one side with drain extension on the other side. that is mainly due to the mess and that the engines don't have filters. I'm using air convection with a positive pressure engine bay. the cooler pulls cool air over the cooler and into the engine bay at the right bottom and I've put two fans pulling in on the left side. these blow over the pump and engine to increase heat dissipation and then all the air exits with the hot exhaust out the rear so the exhaust doesn't get sucked into the engine bay
That's awesome. I still wanna add a hydro cooler and filter, and the longer oil drain hose at some point.
@@NaterTater01 its a fun project to mod and get some useful work out of around the farm.. I forgot, I also added thumb quick connects using ISO-A 3/8. to make it easier to have a thumb and tilt bucket. I can feel the hyd cooler pulling cool air and cooling the fluid but I had to weld a custom mounting frame for it, good project. its hard finding the hyd connections, FYI they are metric DIN light - measure thread diameter for mm size. have fun!
When installing bolts for the fan and your hinges and straps for the back door use stainless steel they will last forever
Nice intro. I enjoyed the private conversation. 😆
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
Needs a diesel swap and a counterweight adding to it
Andrew Camarata has a mini just like that. He likes his.
Andrew's got nothing on Nater Tater!!!!!🤣 Andrew is good at burning large excavators down
What brand of welder is that .
Everlast
You should have hinged the back panel so you can get to the engine without having to disassemble everything.
Great idea! There's so much you can do with these little machines.
@NaterTater01 you can't hinge the rear panel on H12s because of the counter weight overlap. that works on some of the other machine designs. particularly the ones that don't have counter weights like DLK 12 machines and similar copies of that one. there is also a significan't design difference. some machines like DLK have an internal frame that support the seat so the side and rear panels are not structural. the H12 doesn't have this extra internal frame that takes up space. the rear and side panels are structural so they can't be hinged.
@@NaterTater01 check response to the original replier to save you some time :)
@@derekdal5185 I must respectfully agree and disagree. These machines cannot be hinged on one side but the can have toggle latches installed on both sides. That little trick moving the counterweight back was pretty cool. While it is sad that you must loosen all the bolts for the topside pieces next to the seats it is still easier to do that, loosen the latches on the sides and remove the back piece than to have to almost crawl into the engine compartment on your head to undo the 6 bolts holding the back piece on.
@@richardbrookins5406 I guess you're not disagreeing at all. "these units can't be hinged", true and you agree. maybe better communication is in order or just don't open with disagree and offer a different viable suggestion.
That's The first thing I would have done
Good video,please no music, thanks
A nice video, thanks. My Hightop HT10 has the same body and very similar counterweight. Your video give me confidence to go ahead and take mine off so I can do some more mods. Thanks! @diggerdavesea
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
Th
Where did you find the steering handle extensions?
@@jimwhite7527 RICKYZHU 10" Black Shift Knob Extension for Manual Gear Shifter Lever M10x1.5 Extended a.co/d/iXOl1wA