Your Takeuchi TB230

Common jobs for the Takeuchi TB230

The Takeuchi TB230 sits at 3 tonnes and is built for the small contracting jobs where you move the machine often. On Swedish jobs it runs plot digging, drainage and cable trenching on residential streets, often several addresses a week. It is light enough to trailer between jobs and strong enough for a real trench, which makes it a good first machine for a small firm.

On a residential plot the TB230 digs out for foundation and drainage, in a street it lays cable and fibre in narrow trenches. It grades ground ahead of paving and asphalt and loads spoil into a container. It is a machine for the small and mobile work, where you rarely stand in one spot a whole day.

Its weight means favouring light buckets and a grapple the machine carries steadily at full reach. A 3-tonne machine gets tippy fast from a heavy attachment far out, so the attachment weight is the first thing you look at. The hitch is S40, which means the attachments come along when you later size up.

Buckets and attachments that fit the TB230

For a 3-tonne machine you choose a digging bucket for excavation, a narrow cable bucket for drainage and fibre, and a grading bucket for levelling. On cable and drainage jobs it is mostly the narrow bucket and grading bucket you swap between through the day.

A sorting grapple can be run on the TB230 when you load stone or clear roots and demolition debris. At 3 tonnes you keep the load down and do not reach the grapple out far, or the machine loses stability. The grapple weight plus the load has to stay within what the machine can carry.

All attachments run on the S40 hitch, the standard for mini excavators. With the same hitch you swap quickly between bucket, grapple and auger drive without leaving the cab, and you build a set that comes along when you size up.

Auger drive and light attachments for the TB230

On a 3-tonne machine an auger drive is useful for post holes, planting pits and holes for footing piles. The drive rotates and the auger bit is the part that sits in it, and you choose the bit size by the hole. On fence jobs and decks it saves a lot of digging by hand.

A hydraulic breaker on the TB230 is a light breaker for concrete and stone. You run it when you hit an old concrete edge or a stone in the drainage trench. The oil flow on a machine this small is limited, so it is the flow and not the weight that decides which breaker the machine handles. Check the flow before buying.

The most important thing on a 3-tonne machine is not to overload it. The most common mistake is too heavy an attachment far out, which makes the machine tippy. Stick to light attachments within the machine lift capacity so the TB230 works safely even at full reach.

S40 quick hitch and fit

The Takeuchi TB230 runs an S40 hitch, the standard coupler for mini excavators. Check the attachments are listed for S40 before you buy. With a common hitch you build a set of light attachments that all fit and that you swap quickly between tasks.

On a 3-tonne machine the attachment weight matters a lot, so the main thing is to stick to attachments the machine can lift at full reach. That S40 is the same hitch as on the larger mini excavators means the buckets you buy now come along when you later move up to a 5-tonne machine.