New Liebherr 964C

[Jim M]

This is the new excavator that replaced the Volvo EC700C on site. I operated it for an hour last week to get familiarized , and my first impressions of it was ok! and is the first Liebherr excavator i've operated . The main operator didn't take to it at first but now has got used to it. we have both picked a few gripes with it, like the sound of the returning oil from the lift cylinders is very noticeable even with the radio on , and the narrow track width doesn't seem wide enough for the size of the machine and is pain when sat on soft / wet material as you find yourself having to keep lifting up and repositioning the machine. Big plus points is a huge cab which is comfortable and with good visibility, and powerful Liebherr V8 engine which produces good digging power which is good for digging out the clay .

[Jeremy Rowland]

Nice looking machine there Jim, you know I can't recall seeing a Liebherr machine with wide tracks even their bigger machines have narrow tracks.

Jeremy

[bigkit]

Rock quarry spec? Does the oil return power something else like so many of the eco options on newer machines do? That may acount for the noise if its passing through an accumulator or something. Just a guess??????

Nice tho', it wont have come cheap!

[Gavin Phillips]

Excellent pictures, very moody looking sky there!

The demolition firm Thompsons operate quite a few fairly hefty Liebherr excavators and I recall these making a fair bit of noise when lifting the boom as well so maybe this is rather a design "feature" than an individual machine issue?

Never really thought much about the track width on Liebherr machines, I'll have to pay more attention when I spot another one. I mostly see the larger ones on demolition jobs so having wide tracks on those probably isn't a great idea but from your pictures, yes the tracks do look something on the slim side - more like what I'd expect on a quarry machine for working on rock rather than something softer.

[andrew campbell]

Does anyone know much about Chepstow, they seem to have a big fleet. Is most of it self drive / hired out.

[Jim M]

Look on there web site chaz, they recently put some Cat 657G scrapers into Drax powerstation. I've been on the 964 today for 10hrs and got to like it a lot more, but you need a degree just to open the bonnet on the thing . The machine will dig that's the main thing but the fly by wire controls took a bit to get used to, all in all i'm quite impressed.