Looking to get an excavator

[Lil Giants]

Depends on what type of soil, sandy loam - maybe, clay - not likely, not without a lot of passes 1st with a ripper tooth. I live in very dense clay & my 90mt Vario with an operating weight of 92# & pressure over 700psi with 22mm bores, breakout force at the bucket's cutting edge of 82# might cut 1/4" slivers at a time if it's fairly moist, a ripper tooth helps a lot! Any 40-50lbs model on the market today isn't going to cut hard ground very well without it being fairly wet.

I dug a 20 foot walk thru tunnel 7 yrs ago to connect my basement to my shop, the Vario did all the digging & my B50 adt hauled out all the dirt. That hoe is 13yrs old, north of 2000hrs with not much upkeep. I have 20 some vids playlist on utube showing the process.

The 490, I've never weighed mine, I think its advertised weight is 22kg, the beef is where it needs to be in the under carriage & house floor. The boom & stick are both 3D printed & I've never had an issue with any cracking, nor have I heard of anyone else breaking either part. I think there's a couple different details packages & it's virtually all 3D printed, I didn't bother with it.. if you want all the handrails, ladders, window guards ect, better to build from brass rod. The cab detail is pretty good. The power of this lil hoe doesn't compare to the much larger Vario so I've never done anything more than scoop loose soil with it.

[DRW96]

That is really impressive! That amount of hours on one is just mind blowing.

I still keep leaning towards the 6015b. It seems like the most likely to suit my goals (Reliable, powerful enough to dig outside, realistic looking, fits budget). I'm hoping to mainly mess around with it in the yard/creek.

I haven't been able to find any good options in size between the 6015b and something smaller like the Fumotec. (That fit my budget)

One thing I read, I think on YouTube, about the 6015b is that people complain that it can't dig very deep. Is that a real concern?

Again, thanks for your input.