Case launched the world’s first electric backhoe on the market earlier this year, and on this episode of The Dirt, host and professional operator Bryan Furnace puts it through its paces in a side-by-side comparison with the company’s diesel model.
Case first revealed the electric backhoe as Project Zeus at ConExpo 2020. Rather than retrofit a diesel model, the company designed the 580EV from the ground up, basing its performance specs on the diesel 580 Super N, the company’s most popular backhoe.
So how does the 580EV stack up against the Super N?
Bryan’s verdict: “It’s an absolutely awesome machine to run.”
Of course, when it comes to electric construction equipment, questions quickly center on runtime, charge time, cost and other issues. Along with his review and test run, Bryan interviews Case product manager George MacIntyre to get all your questions answered about the 580EV.
So to find out more about the world’s first electric backhoe to hit the market, check out the latest episode of The Dirt.
Equipment World serves up weekly videos on the latest in construction equipment, work trucks and pickup trucks – everything contractors need to get their work done. Subscribe and visit us at equipmentworld.com!
In This Episode:
- 00:00 – Case 580EV Overview & Review
- 00:41 – Walkaround
- 01:10 – Battery Storage
- 01:37 – Battery Management & Hydraulic Tank
- 01:55 – Specs Compared to Diesel
- 02:26 – Runtime
- 04:03 – Charging
- 05:00 – Customization
- 06:05 – Traditional Transmission
- 06:54 – Reversible Fan
- 07:20 – Thermal Management System
- 08:47 – Low Voltage Battery System
- 09:43 – Included Extra Features
- 10:45 – Auxiliary Hydraulics
- 11:43 – Battery Management Unit
- 12:32 – What to Do if the Batteries Die
- 13:12 – Attachments
- 14:13 – Independent Sensitivity Settings
- 14:45 – Independent Motors
- 15:49 – How to Operate for Maximum Battery Life
- 16:53 – Hydraulic Settings
- 18:28 – Review
- 20:33 – Cabin
- 20:57 – Operation
- 22:49 – Electric vs Diesel – Sound
- 24:07 – Electric vs Diesel – Performance
- 26:23 – Room for Improvement
- 28:33 – Final Thoughts
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:12:12
Bryan Furnace
Today we're here to talk about Case’s 580EV. That is the electric backhoe that Case has on the market. We actually went out and reviewed this piece of equipment. And I have to say I'm pretty stinkin’ impressed. So without further ado, we're going to cut over to my conversation with the Case representative as we walk around the machine and talk about some of the subtle differences and what you're going to notice about the new Case.
00:00:34:03 - 00:00:43:10
Bryan Furnace
Five ATV.
00:00:43:12 - 00:01:08:07
George MacIntyre
All right. So this is our five ATV backhoe loader. It's electric product electric battery. So it's got a 400-volt battery system in it. And two electric motors that are tied to that, with a traditional, transmission as well. So it's got a direct drive Powershift transmission that's tied into one of the electric motors. And then the second electric motor is for all the hydraulics, whether it's for a loader or for tobacco.
00:01:08:09 - 00:01:09:10
George MacIntyre
Okay, okay.
00:01:09:13 - 00:01:15:13
Bryan Furnace
Battery storage looks what I was kind of initially walking up. Looks like it's low on the machine. Or is that what's under the hood?
00:01:15:15 - 00:01:36:04
George MacIntyre
All right. So the batteries are actually located behind this side panel here okay. There's two batteries stacked on top of each other with the small gap in between them for cooling purposes. Okay. And that's right underneath the hood. The actual the hood design is completely changed from what you'd see on a 580 super. And which would be the equivalent diesel model.
00:01:36:06 - 00:01:55:10
George MacIntyre
Okay. The hydraulic tank used to be on the other side of the unit, and this side was the diesel fuel fill. So no need for that anymore. So now we brought the hydraulic take on this side. And then the battery management system components are where the tank was before. Gotcha. Okay.
00:01:55:12 - 00:02:08:08
Bryan Furnace
So when it comes to the performance characteristics of this compared to the diesel counterpart, was the goal to build it pretty on par with the diesel model or kind of take advantage of the oof that electric offers. And do you have some performance gains, right.
00:02:08:10 - 00:02:25:08
George MacIntyre
So the goal was to build a ground up new unit okay, okay. And that's what we started with. As far as specs goes, that is one area where we wanted to have equivalent specs. So if you look at the specs of this machine, you'll see the same performance specs as the 580 super in okay.
00:02:25:09 - 00:02:35:05
Bryan Furnace
And then when it comes to runtime, I know there's the big electric conversation. There's job time, but there's run time, right? What's your run time on? Right.
00:02:35:06 - 00:02:52:17
George MacIntyre
Yeah. That is by far the number one question we get is what's the runtime on the machine. We say 4 to 8 hours and it's a range for a reason. It depends on what you're doing. So if you're operating the backhoe, you're going to get it for the longest time because it draws the least amount of energy.
00:02:52:19 - 00:03:15:17
George MacIntyre
So you get closer at eight hours if you're rolling the machine, particular rolling up, hills, or if you're doing loading work, loading trucks for example, that's going to actually burn the battery a little bit faster. So then it's going to be closer to four hours. We're also figuring in idle time with that. A backhoe is more of a utility type machine nowadays, not like it was 2030 years ago.
00:03:15:19 - 00:03:25:09
George MacIntyre
40 municipalities and utilities are interested in the electric backhoe, and the runtimes are actually, you know, 30 to 50% of the time it's idling.
00:03:25:09 - 00:03:37:19
Bryan Furnace
Yeah. So on this unit, is it like other electric units that are coming out when you're in idle, does the system kind of go quiet and you're conserving that charge or does this still have functions running that you're going to continue to draw that battery down?
00:03:38:00 - 00:03:40:23
George MacIntyre
I wouldn't say the battery draws zero, but it's near zero.
00:03:41:00 - 00:03:44:05
Bryan Furnace
Okay. So you're not wasting with a with a pump just running the pump.
00:03:44:05 - 00:04:02:05
George MacIntyre
Set standby mode. Or there's a little bit of movement of the pump at 25 minutes will go into a deep sleep. And then you're not drawing any energy at all. But okay, it's essentially near zero. There's a little bit of draw coming from the cluster, but a very small super just to keep that that running.
00:04:02:06 - 00:04:04:14
Bryan Furnace
Okay. What are your charging options for it.
00:04:04:14 - 00:04:24:17
George MacIntyre
So the nice thing about this machine is we did go with the automotive style charging system. So it's a 1772 plug level two charger that would charge this machine. So anywhere from like 208V to 240V is that range that you'd want to have coming out of the wall. And then 50 amps is what the charge would be.
00:04:24:17 - 00:04:29:07
Bryan Furnace
And roughly we go from near zero to a full charge roughly. What are you looking at time wise.
00:04:29:11 - 00:04:37:00
George MacIntyre
0 to 100% would be 7.4 hours. So it's an overnight charge 20 to 80%, 4.4 hours.
00:04:37:03 - 00:04:47:19
Bryan Furnace
Okay. So over the course of a lunch hour, roughly how much charge you could you gain back, assuming you were like at a municipality or something. The guys take lunch, and they throw it on the charger.
00:04:47:19 - 00:04:59:15
George MacIntyre
It would be something in the range like 15 to 20%. Okay, okay.
00:04:59:17 - 00:05:20:01
George MacIntyre
On this unit, we've gone to fully electrohydraulic for both the front end of the machine as well as the backhoe. So that gives us a lot more capabilities. So within the display screen, which is new, we have an eight-inch display screen, which is the same screen we're using in our wheel loaders, our compact track letters and skid steers well within that touch screen there's a lot more capability.
00:05:20:01 - 00:05:29:05
George MacIntyre
So we have different loader functions. One example would be like a height limit. So you're operating your power lines. You're able to make sure that loader doesn't go up above okay.
00:05:29:05 - 00:05:31:04
Bryan Furnace
So you can set up limits.
00:05:31:06 - 00:05:31:16
George MacIntyre
Right.
00:05:31:21 - 00:05:33:08
Bryan Furnace
Interesting. Okay.
00:05:33:09 - 00:05:41:20
George MacIntyre
Another new feature would be we have four corner multicolor strobe lights on here. So we have blue, white, green and amber okay.
00:05:41:22 - 00:05:46:15
Bryan Furnace
And so that's all in the module already. Or do you pick at the time you've you're building the machine.
00:05:46:18 - 00:06:03:21
George MacIntyre
It's already standard equipment on a unit. Yeah. And then within the display screen you can actually pick the colors if you want it. Four different colors on each one of the lights. You can do that. You can also select the patterns. And then with the white color if you wanted that on all the time to work as an extra set of work lights, you can do that as well.
00:06:03:21 - 00:06:04:22
George MacIntyre
Okay.
00:06:05:00 - 00:06:17:15
Bryan Furnace
And you said this is a traditional transmission setup. So we don't have anything like individual motors going to drive wheels or anything. It's essentially, you're applying that power to the transmission. Transmission from there forward is just like the diesel machine.
00:06:17:15 - 00:06:38:01
George MacIntyre
Correct. So one of the nice things about the way we had this set up is with from a control standpoint, we wanted it to be very similar to what we have set up for a pile control unit. So a customer gets out of 580 Super N or a 580 sprint wide track. They get into this model; they're not going to see a lot of differences from an operator control standpoint.
00:06:38:01 - 00:06:52:13
George MacIntyre
And that goes with the drive train as well. So we had the traditional transmission on there. It's going to act like it would with any power of transmission. So you don't have like any of these abrupt stops that you may have like an electric vehicle for example. Yeah.
00:06:52:13 - 00:06:54:10
Bryan Furnace
Okay. Any other standouts?
00:06:54:10 - 00:07:14:10
George MacIntyre
Another change that we made on this one is we do have a reversible fan, similar to what we have on our wheel loaders or our how it's set up into the sway screen. Again, trying to keep that operator interface the same between product lines with Case. So right below below here the hood. Here we have the reversible fan.
00:07:14:10 - 00:07:16:06
George MacIntyre
You can blow out that debris and dirt.
00:07:16:08 - 00:07:18:00
Bryan Furnace
And this is just cooling the battery stack.
00:07:18:01 - 00:07:41:15
George MacIntyre
It's cooling the battery stack. And actually we talk about the thermal management system. It is actually thermally managed and with different circuits. So we have different bottles of current fluids running through the systems. We have one dedicated to the batteries, another one dedicated to the battery management system and so on. And it's trying to keep those components at their optimal level.
00:07:41:17 - 00:07:58:17
George MacIntyre
And that'll actually be active whenever you have it plugged in. So so you have it plugged in overnight. It's going to keep those batteries at that optimal level. So if it's cold out like up here in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, at times if you have it plugged in then it's going to keep it at the optimal temperature.
00:07:58:19 - 00:08:08:04
Bryan Furnace
Is your hydraulic cooling up here as well. And it is it is it going to actively heat your hydraulic oil in those cold temperatures or is it really maintaining the battery system.
00:08:08:06 - 00:08:17:07
George MacIntyre
It's it's maintaining the hydraulics as well. So we have different circuits for the different systems of the unit as well as the HVAC for example.
00:08:17:09 - 00:08:32:10
Bryan Furnace
So something to consider if I leave this out on a jobsite in a cold climate overnight, not plugged in, it's going to actively use some of that battery energy to actively warm the components, to keep the batteries in the optimal range and the hydraulic temperature in the optimum.
00:08:32:10 - 00:08:45:22
George MacIntyre
Yeah, yeah, that that's where your extra burn is going to be on your battery is trying to keep it at the optimal level. Communication is.
00:08:46:00 - 00:09:05:23
George MacIntyre
The one other thing to talk about on the outside would be as far as the battery system itself. So we do have a low voltage system that actually gets cluster fired up basically. And then once the cluster is fired up and machines turned on, then the high voltage system is active and that will help keep the voltage system charged up.
00:09:06:02 - 00:09:16:15
George MacIntyre
Okay. But the nice thing about having that is if the low voltage batteries go dead, you can actually jump start the system and get going again. So that's relying 100% on it.
00:09:16:18 - 00:09:23:15
Bryan Furnace
Yeah. That was my next question is can you jumpstart this with another vehicle and can this be used to jumpstart other vehicles.
00:09:23:16 - 00:09:41:08
George MacIntyre
Yes. Yes you can. There's a jump start terminal inside the compartment where we have the battery disconnect. And that's where the low voltage batteries are as well. Okay. And that's on the other side of the unit. Gotcha.
00:09:41:10 - 00:10:01:16
George MacIntyre
And the one thing I would say is we put all the bells and whistles on this unit is standard equipment. All the extra features we have on backhoes are included in these model also comforts as an example. So for loading trucks that's going to turn your steering wheel will have the amount of turns to make that a go.
00:10:01:16 - 00:10:23:17
George MacIntyre
A little bit quicker for you. Yeah. From an operator comfort standpoint, it's really helpful. It also adds to productivity. Yeah. Other features such as heavy lift on a backhoe and power boost are standard on this as well. All the ride control for the front loader. So it's pretty much fully loaded. Really. The only optional items on this unit would be the front loader buckets.
00:10:23:17 - 00:10:42:01
George MacIntyre
So we have a four and one loader bucket like we have here with clamshell. Or you can do a standard loader bucket or a front hydraulic coupler where you could switch to different styles of buckets or have forks on there, and then on the rear on the backhoe, the only option that's available would be a hydraulic thumb or no thumb.
00:10:42:04 - 00:10:43:20
George MacIntyre
This one doesn't happen to have the thumb on it.
00:10:43:20 - 00:10:46:06
Bryan Furnace
But it is coming with the auxiliary hydraulics already plumbed.
00:10:46:11 - 00:10:58:19
George MacIntyre
Yep, fully plumbed for two-way auxiliary hydraulics on the back. So you have one way for a hammer, or you can switch it to two way if you have a thumb or some something else, like an auger that you want to run.
00:10:58:21 - 00:11:02:04
Bryan Furnace
Now, is that a physical valve or is that done through the screen?
00:11:02:05 - 00:11:25:12
George MacIntyre
It's a physical valve. Okay. The keypad switches that we borrowed off of our wheel loaders as well. Again, trying to keep from a quality standpoint use the same components from different product lines. So the keypad, there's a switch on there where you can switch between one way and two way. Gotcha. Okay. There's also you can go into the screen, and you can go in and make some more infinite adjustments and a lot of stuff okay.
00:11:25:12 - 00:11:33:17
George MacIntyre
So say you wanted to change the flow that's going out to the the hammer or the two way you can do that within the screen. Gotcha. Okay.
00:11:33:19 - 00:11:34:13
Bryan Furnace
All right. All right.
00:11:34:16 - 00:11:42:10
George MacIntyre
Same thing for the front. We have the three-spool valve that standard equipment. And again you can make those adjustments within the screen okay.
00:11:42:12 - 00:11:54:21
Bryan Furnace
And so the unit you were talking about behind you this is the battery management unit here. And so what is the function of this. What do we need to worry about rubbing up against things maintenance wise. What what's going on here.
00:11:54:22 - 00:12:03:02
George MacIntyre
This is what we were talking about before the two batteries are entered are actually, I would I would call, like, a motorcycle style 12-volt battery. So this.
00:12:03:02 - 00:12:04:04
Bryan Furnace
Is a 12-volt battery.
00:12:04:04 - 00:12:28:04
George MacIntyre
12-volt battery system. Yep. There's two of them in there. And then below here is the battery management system. One of our partner is partners is Mog. A lot of the high voltage components are coming through most during the aerospace industry, very advanced technology that they have. So they're one of our partners. And then our partner for the batteries is that put.
00:12:28:06 - 00:12:29:14
Bryan Furnace
Lithium-ion batteries.
00:12:29:16 - 00:12:31:16
George MacIntyre
Lithium-ion batteries. Yes.
00:12:31:18 - 00:12:35:13
Bryan Furnace
I guess if this is totally dead, what is that going to allow me to do?
00:12:35:15 - 00:12:55:15
George MacIntyre
You're talking about for the high voltage stuff, the high voltage. So the high voltage batteries you would need to remove the driveshaft, just like you would with the diesel engine, with our backhoes, it'd be the same procedure. The driveshafts would come off, and then you be able to move it. Okay. The other thing you could do, though, in the field is there's the option of using a generator.
00:12:55:15 - 00:13:11:03
George MacIntyre
Right. Or there are portable transmission of electric power that's available. So you can get electric power station that's portable right at the job site as well. Gotcha.
00:13:11:05 - 00:13:41:21
George MacIntyre
A lot of times the question will come up about the attachments. Yeah. So the nice thing is that we're fully compatible with all the attachments that we have on all over. And series backhoes are available today. We are using biodegradable oil on all of our EV products that that the hydraulic oils biodegrade. Okay. So when you're switching between attachments that are not biodegradable, you have to be a little bit careful of not contaminating the system.
00:13:41:22 - 00:14:00:17
Bryan Furnace
So let me ask you this. You guys are shipping it with biodegradable oil. Thinking about it from the customer side, can it use traditional hydraulic oil? So if I've got a whole fleet of machines, instead of having to stock biodegradable oil for this one machine and like you said, worrying about attachments, can it use traditional hydraulic?
00:14:00:18 - 00:14:08:00
George MacIntyre
Of course. So you'd have to drain all the biodegradable oil out and put fresh, non-biodegradable oil on there.
00:14:08:00 - 00:14:11:23
Bryan Furnace
But you can do that, okay. It's not going to hurt anything in the system. Correct. Perfect. Okay.
00:14:12:01 - 00:14:30:02
George MacIntyre
From an operational standpoint, one important thing I would point out is one of those areas where we have a little bit more capability with this unit because it, being electrohydraulic, is we do have sensitivity settings in there. So when you go to operate it, you can change the sensitivity settings on. But the loader in the backhoe. Yeah.
00:14:30:05 - 00:14:39:11
George MacIntyre
From less aggressive to aggressive. Right. When I got here this morning it was in moderate, I moved it to aggressive. But you're free to to move that to where you want to.
00:14:39:13 - 00:14:43:23
Bryan Furnace
Okay okay I do like that about all the all the new machines. All right.
00:14:44:01 - 00:15:01:13
George MacIntyre
One other thing to point out there too is you have two independent electric motors. I talked about that a little bit. Well, first of all, you can change those motor speeds. And basically there's four speeds or standby speed. And then within the switch there's three LED lights. So low medium.
00:15:01:13 - 00:15:11:15
Bryan Furnace
High. Now you said you could change the settings on the electric motors is that you're going to change both of them with those three LED lights. Or is it independent. You can change the two.
00:15:11:16 - 00:15:13:13
George MacIntyre
You can change them independent.
00:15:13:13 - 00:15:28:04
Bryan Furnace
So if I'm going for instance, to load into trucks, I've got an operator that's a little newer, a little slower. We could keep our drive electric motor down a little bit. So it's not quite as aggressive on the throttle, but you can keep your hydraulic motor spooled up so that you've got quick responsiveness on your loader arms.
00:15:28:07 - 00:15:37:01
George MacIntyre
Right. You're going to want to keep your hydraulics at the high level. So you had the fast speed and then the ground drive is controlled by your foot throttle.
00:15:37:03 - 00:15:43:14
Bryan Furnace
Oh okay. So we don't have a separate button on that I see. So on the button you're talking about what the LEDs. We're only adjusting the hydraulic.
00:15:43:14 - 00:15:45:15
George MacIntyre
Correct. It's for the hydraulic. Gotcha. Okay.
00:15:45:15 - 00:15:47:12
Bryan Furnace
I'm with you. Yeah. Interesting.
00:15:47:12 - 00:16:09:09
George MacIntyre
So with that pointed out, I would say that what operators are going to find when they operate this unit because we noticed from the other electric products that we run for, have out there on the market is when contractors first get these units. The operators a lot of times don't do the best job in managing the battery itself, meaning that they burn through the battery pretty quick.
00:16:09:13 - 00:16:41:10
George MacIntyre
There's a lot of advantages to the battery system. You have instantaneous torque throughout the RPM range, which you don't have with the diesel-powered engine. So what we've found is that after a week or two, after operating the unit every day, they're not burning through that battery so fast. So the reason I bring that up is just because you can set it to the highest and fastest setting, especially when you're running the backhoe, doesn't mean you will actually want to do that, because if you do it at a lower setting, say low or medium, you're going to get longer battery life.
00:16:41:14 - 00:16:50:18
George MacIntyre
What we found is after customers have the units, they adjust how they operate to save the battery so they can go longer that day.
00:16:50:20 - 00:17:08:13
Bryan Furnace
So let me flip something around on you. If you say we can adjust our flow settings for attachments, that's going to be within your screen, right? So let's say I'm running an attachment where I want a little more flow. So I dial that flow up. But on my three LED setting with my electric pump I leave that down.
00:17:08:15 - 00:17:14:19
Bryan Furnace
Is it going to prioritize flow going out to the attachment to maintain that hydraulic flow?
00:17:14:21 - 00:17:20:09
George MacIntyre
Yeah, it's going to prioritize trying to get that flow to the attachment at that level you have set in there.
00:17:20:09 - 00:17:35:00
Bryan Furnace
So on the motor speed with the LEDs. Again we're talking about the hydraulic side. I'm assuming that's kind of taking the place of the old jog dial where you're changing your engine RPM to operate the back arm and attachments. Is that kind of the equivalent of what we're doing there? Yeah.
00:17:35:00 - 00:17:36:05
George MacIntyre
Okay. Very equivalent.
00:17:36:07 - 00:17:41:07
Bryan Furnace
So naturally you're going to bump up to that next level if you're running a heavy-duty right attachment or something.
00:17:41:09 - 00:18:00:14
George MacIntyre
Right. So okay. Yeah. Think about it from a diesel power standpoint it be very similar with the diesel engine. The difference would be on the diesel powered 580 super end. For example, you have that pan dial that you would turn up the RPMs on a unit. Yeah. In this Case we don't have the hand throttle which has different settings.
00:18:00:14 - 00:18:12:14
George MacIntyre
It's actually set RPM levels that you're doing. So standby that RPM level and then low medium high up to your highest RPMs okay okay.
00:18:12:14 - 00:18:13:07
Bryan Furnace
That makes sense.
00:18:13:07 - 00:18:19:21
George MacIntyre
Yeah. It's not that much different than the hand dial. We just put pre-selected increments in there.
00:18:19:21 - 00:18:26:05
Bryan Furnace
Yeah okay I think it sounds more complicated talking about it than it does in the machine. Yeah.
00:18:26:05 - 00:18:31:17
George MacIntyre
You're absolutely right. Okay.
00:19:09:10 - 00:19:32:14
Bryan Furnace
When you're walking up to it, there's really not that big of a noticeable difference between the diesel counterpart and the electric variant. You're obviously going to notice things like the hydraulic tank is on the opposite side, there's no exhaust pipe as a result of the way the machine is laid out and the heaviness of the battery packs, you don't have a front counterweight, but outside of these subtle differences, it's just a 580 backhoe.
00:19:32:16 - 00:19:54:22
Bryan Furnace
And that's one of the things that I really have to say is a testament to the way Case implemented this technology. As we're in this transition period where the industry is used to diesel equipment and we are stuck in a rut and we really like our diesel stuff Case instead of going full bore electric went, no, no, we're just going to throw some electric drive motors in there and we're going to step into this realm.
00:19:55:00 - 00:20:15:20
Bryan Furnace
And so that's made it very easy for contractors to be able to get this machine. And their current mechanic can do 80 to 90% of the work needed to the machine without ever having to get into the actual high voltage side of the machine. Transmission problems. No problem. It's just a 580 transmission hydraulic pump issues. It's just a 580 hydraulic pump.
00:20:15:21 - 00:20:31:18
Bryan Furnace
All of the rest of the machine is pretty much the same as the diesel variant, which means transitioning to this electrical equipment will be substantially easier on contractors and municipalities.
00:20:31:20 - 00:20:54:20
Bryan Furnace
You have a very updated and refreshed cab. Instead of having buttons scattered all over the front, dash some over here on your side, you now have everything over here on a nice screen on your right-hand side, complete with soft touch buttons, complete with customization.
00:20:54:22 - 00:21:10:20
Bryan Furnace
And now let's talk about some of the aspects of running the machine. I do love the way that this review ended up coming out, because when I went on site, I started in the electric backhoe. And so you get in the backhoe and you run it as an operator who hasn't been in a diesel backhoe and probably 4 or 5 years.
00:21:10:22 - 00:21:35:04
Bryan Furnace
And I immediately start picking apart small things, like the way the transmission shifts and how loud the HVAC in the cab is, and just subtle things about the machine that I start to pick apart because, well, of course, it's got to be related to the fact that it's electric. It wasn't until I went and ran the diesel counterpart after the fact that I went, hold on a second, let me go jump back in that electric backhoe, for instance, the transmission shifting.
00:21:35:06 - 00:21:46:06
Bryan Furnace
When you initially get into the machine, the machine makes a big deal out of shifting the transmission and sounds like it's hunting and pecking for gears.
00:21:46:08 - 00:21:53:03
Bryan Furnace
You.
00:21:53:05 - 00:22:15:09
Bryan Furnace
But it's only because, first of all, the machine was warming up and it was cold. But secondly, and more importantly, you're in an electric machine. You don't have the rattle and the harsh vibrations going through the entire machine from the diesel engine. You don't have all of the sound from the diesel engine. And so of course, the transmission shifting is going to sound like it's a lot more dramatic.
00:22:15:11 - 00:22:26:04
Bryan Furnace
The HVAC fan when I turned it on, blew me away at how loud the HVAC fan was.
00:22:26:06 - 00:22:46:19
Bryan Furnace
But in reality, it's the exact same loudness as it is in the diesel counterpart. You just can't hear it over the diesel engine.
00:22:46:21 - 00:22:55:02
Bryan Furnace
My overall takeaway is this machine really excelled in two areas, specifically over its diesel counterpart. First and most obvious is sound.
00:22:55:07 - 00:23:06:12
Bryan Furnace
Now we'll say this is quiet. I mean, think about what it's like normally run in the back in on a backhoe, your diesel engines generally screaming, this is just super quiet.
00:23:06:14 - 00:23:26:23
Bryan Furnace
It is just so much more pleasant of an experience because you don't have all of this noise around you constantly. And as anyone who's run these machines for full 16-hour days knows, that's just mentally taxing. To have that much sound all the time banging your eardrums. It makes for much better communication. For my labor down in the hall.
00:23:27:02 - 00:24:05:13
Bryan Furnace
If I'm doing something that involves someone laying pipe, fixing water mains or something along those lines, now we have clear communication without me having to yell or idle down the machine, idle it back up to work, idle down the machine, idle it back up to work. Now it's all gone. I can be working just fine, and I can have a reasonable conversation with my labor standing 15ft away.
00:24:05:15 - 00:24:19:18
Bryan Furnace
The second and more impressive area where this machine excels is anything involving instantaneous power going uphill with a loaded bucket. You don't notice the lag and the bogging that you would notice in the diesel counterpart.
00:24:19:20 - 00:24:29:07
Bryan Furnace
So here's the hill climb. She is downshifting. We are now in second. No problem going up the hill.
00:24:29:09 - 00:24:45:13
Bryan Furnace
Obviously with an electric drive motor going into a pile, you have ample power from a creep. You don't have to run into the pile with your engine revved up because it's an electric motor. You have all of that torque and all of that power readily available to you as soon as you touch the pedal.
00:24:45:18 - 00:24:56:14
Bryan Furnace
It's got a ton of power. I mean, it's exactly what you'd expect. This thing. I am pushing through this with no problem. And you can see that is a massive bucket. So the performance is there.
00:24:56:16 - 00:25:10:02
Bryan Furnace
Also, when you're digging with the rear arm, if you're running in the hydraulic pump at the lowest setting, you still have all of the power you need, like you would if the engine were revved all the way up. So I'm currently digging.
00:25:10:04 - 00:25:14:05
Bryan Furnace
On the lowest setting for the hydraulic pump.
00:25:14:07 - 00:25:16:21
Bryan Furnace
Plenty of power. You got no issue with power.
00:25:16:21 - 00:25:17:13
Bryan Furnace
It's really.
00:25:17:13 - 00:25:19:14
Bryan Furnace
Just the speed.
00:25:19:16 - 00:25:36:14
Bryan Furnace
Of the movement of the arm. This thing's still got a ton of torque on that motor because it's electric, so you're not suffering from the bogging that you would have maybe on the diesel counterpart because you're at a low engine RPM. We've still got ample power. There's no sluggishness to the hydraulics.
00:25:36:19 - 00:25:54:02
Bryan Furnace
The fact that the hydraulics are completely independent of the drive motors means that I don't have to rev the engine up to get my hydraulics up to speed while clutching the engine, and then trying to gently lead off of that D clutch so that we can gently roll into the truck without slamming into the side of it. It's all gone.
00:25:54:04 - 00:26:12:06
Bryan Furnace
I just keep my foot on the brake and gently creep up to the truck while I am pulling back on my boom arms. And I have full hydraulic flow because they're two independent system. That doesn't sound like a lot. But again, when you get into these repetitive tasks, these are the small things that just make a huge difference over the course of a day.
00:26:12:06 - 00:26:22:05
Bryan Furnace
To us in the cab.
00:26:22:07 - 00:26:46:21
Bryan Furnace
Now let's talk about some of the downsides to this machine. And there aren't many. In all honesty, there aren't many because at the end of the day, it's a 580 backhoe that they've turned electric. But here's just a couple. I noticed the first one that you're going to notice right off the bat as you walk up to the machine, is both the hydraulic tank and the battery maintaining module are lower than the hydraulic and diesel tanks that we're used to on the diesel counterpart.
00:26:46:23 - 00:27:12:04
Bryan Furnace
Now, this is actually right in line with competitors, and you're only talking a difference in ground clearance of those items about 3 to 5in of difference. So it's not the end of the world. I don't suspect that I'm going to knock one of these modules off or really damage it just because of that 3-to-5-inch difference, but it is noticeable, and it is a drawback in my mind because as we all know in the industry, we love that ground clearance for going over some rugged terrain.
00:27:12:06 - 00:27:38:06
Bryan Furnace
Now, the area where I really had some slight frustration with this machine is the startup time. If you initially go to start this for the first time in the day, or if it's been sitting for 15 to 20 minutes, the machine has to prep the batteries, get them up to temperature, start all of the computers. If I had to guess, you're probably around 20s from the time you push the button to when the machine prompts you to push the brake to actually run the machine.
00:27:38:11 - 00:27:52:21
Bryan Furnace
Now, if the machine has been running this startup, time is substantially quicker, but it's still a little on the slow side when we're used to just being able to turn a key, let the engine kind of do its thing, give it a couple of seconds to build oil pressure, and then we can throw it in gear and move it.
00:27:52:22 - 00:28:17:20
Bryan Furnace
This feels a little sluggish, feels a little time consuming, and I would like to see some improvements on future iterations of the machine. Now, the final, and by far the biggest drawback to this machine is the price tag. And unfortunately with where we are in battery technology, electric equipment is unfortunately just going to be expensive. This machine is roughly double its diesel counterpart when it comes to the price tag.
00:28:17:22 - 00:28:34:15
Bryan Furnace
I know that's a tough pill to swallow, but like I said, with lithium-ion batteries being as expensive as they are, unfortunately the industry's just going to have to wait for the next leap in battery technology before we really see prices on this stuff start to come down.
00:28:34:17 - 00:28:55:04
Bryan Furnace
So overall, I can say this was an absolutely awesome machine to run. I had a great time in the machine, and it was 100% comfortable. I could see myself spending an entire day in this machine and not feeling the fatigue that you do from the diesel counterpart being one loud and two vibrating the snot out of you all day.
00:28:55:07 - 00:29:01:16
Bryan Furnace
So thank you again to the team for having us out. I hope this helps you and your business. We'll catch you on the next episode of The Dirt.
