Avant Thread!

Treetopflyer

Treetopflyer

Been here much more than a while
Location
Coastal N.J
Anyone have experience with this unit ! Pros/cons vs. Other mini loaders?
I come from a mostly ditch witch stand on mini skid style loaders back round and we are demoing an Avant 528 right now with power rotate grab and we are liking it so far. I was quoted a 530 as well and we are leaning into that.. The 530 has 2 speed, top mph near 12 and 10 percent more torque and little more lift capacity than this 528. So far I'm impressed more and more as we use vs. Our old 755 with bmg.. they are different tools with different ways doing very similar work end of the day feeding chipper loading logs etc. The telescpic boom has been super for many tasks , really liking that anyway. if anyone has even any input on any Avant they're ran or run still , I'm interested. Thanks for your time !
Love
TTF
 
I picked up a 635 last year. Now that we have it, I don’t want to work without it. Super turf friendly and picks up more than it seems it should. Some good Avant FB groups too.
 
Just get yourself a 254T/G1200 giant and be done with it. No paper thin plastic panels to worry about. The joystick with power rotation is very intuitive on the Giant. Far superior to the Avant IMO


I own both a giant 254T /G1200 and an Avant 860I. We love our giant and use it everyday. The big Avant is amazing on the right Job.
 
We have had an Avant 528 for a year. It is an amazing piece of equipment and what it can do and lift has really blown me away. So far I have only broken 1 plastic panel and that was from operator error (me) and a major unexpected impact to make it happen. I certainly wish it didn’t have such thin plastic on it but so far it has held up ok. It is currently in the shop for its first repair which was a blown hydraulic hose from the hose rubbing on a bolt head. The big lesson learned there was that none of the shops in Portland could make a hydraulic hose to fit that machine so it had be special ordered from Avant and is being shipped across the country overnight. Crossing my fingers that this repair bill isn’t too painful.

I could see slightly more living capacity and torque being a good thing but additional speed seems like a bad idea. The lack of suspension on these things makes speed a bad idea. I’m not especially tall and I have clobbered myself on the ceiling a time or two when hitting a hidden bump at too high of speed.

My only regret was not buying a slightly larger machine. If I could go back and do it again I would probably buy a 600 series machine instead of a 528 just for more lifting capacity. At the time of purchase I thought that access was going to be more of an issue than it has been.
 
No experience with an Avant but I do have a question as I don't think it will highjack your thread.

How is the visibility of the grapple on that machine? I drove a buddy's Vermeer 850 (rebranded multione) and I had to hang out of the side of the machine to see what I was grabbing. Far different than the visibility on my Vermeer s600 miniskid.

Attached is a pic I took from the operator's seat. The cylinder to extend the boom really interferes with your line of sight. It's extended in this pic, and visibility is worse when it is retracted. He has a Ryan's grapple with power rotate FWIW.

2315b412ec09d8b1b81bc513f3d9fb45.jpg


Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
 
Another Thing to mention in regards to the Avent is the powder coat green paint is horrible. It's literally so thin you can chip it off with your fingernail. We love the machine but there are some shortcomings

The giant powder coat paint is far superior.
 
Jehinten said:
No experience with an Avant but I do have a question as I don't think it will highjack your thread.

How is the visibility of the grapple on that machine? I drove a buddy's Vermeer 850 (rebranded multione) and I had to hang out of the side of the machine to see what I was grabbing. Far different than the visibility on my Vermeer s600 miniskid.

Attached is a pic I took from the operator's seat. The cylinder to extend the boom really interferes with your line of sight. It's extended in this pic, and visibility is worse when it is retracted. He has a Ryan's grapple with power rotate FWIW.

2315b412ec09d8b1b81bc513f3d9fb45.jpg


Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Visibility is much better in the avant.

Visibility is best on the Giant. With the Giant you sit on the back so you can articulate the front and And have total visibility of the grapple and what you're picking up.
 
Avants offset boom does help with visibility over the multione/vemeer.

I think multione is going through a midlife identity crisis.
 

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Jehinten said:
No experience with an Avant but I do have a question as I don't think it will highjack your thread.

How is the visibility of the grapple on that machine? I drove a buddy's Vermeer 850 (rebranded multione) and I had to hang out of the side of the machine to see what I was grabbing. Far different than the visibility on my Vermeer s600 miniskid.

Attached is a pic I took from the operator's seat. The cylinder to extend the boom really interferes with your line of sight. It's extended in this pic, and visibility is worse when it is retracted. He has a Ryan's grapple with power rotate FWIW.

2315b412ec09d8b1b81bc513f3d9fb45.jpg


Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
If it’s a dangle power rotator (cannot see from your photo) try and get into the habit of inclining the head down, like a crane.
Then it’s a lot easier.

Having used and owned MO and Avants, The visibility difference due to the offset boom is negligible.
 
Mick Dempsey said:
If it’s a dangle power rotator (cannot see from your photo) try and get into the habit of inclining the head down, like a crane.
Then it’s a lot easier.

Having used and owned MO and Avants, The visibility difference due to the offset boom is negligible.
Click to expand...
It is, and I often do that on my miniskid. I only ran this one for a few minutes and noticed the visibility issues.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
 
Sounds like Avant users are very happy . Sounds like helmstein smitten with the giant.
Helmstein said:
Just get yourself a 254T/G1200 giant and be done with it. No paper thin plastic panels to worry about. The joystick with power rotation is very intuitive on the Giant. Far superior to the Avant IMO


I own both a giant 254T /G1200 and an Avant 860I. We love our giant and use it everyday. The big Avant is amazing on the right Job.
Click to expand...
I have a giant demo coming as well again... Demoed 1 in '21 I believe and didn't love it.. it seemed like it was tippy on logs it should have no problem.. this avant got some ass on her. I've found I like staying with the load in front compared to riding on back like traditional wheel loader and the two pedals on foot forward reverse vs shifting on handle if I remember correctly with gaint... leaves me able to do other hand things while back and forth foot things happens simultaneously if that makes any bit of sense..
 
Another part of the Avant that is super is the extreme low weight position especially with weights and heavy tires. Also people have laughed at me on here (of course I don’t care lol), but I use a slight modified grapple bucket to manage branches and it’s sooo much more versatile than the typical grapple branch manager
 
Not sure if you want picture of the Avant with modified grapple but, I’ll see if I can attach some (hay bale one is just me goofing off and demonstrating stability capabilities;) log is heavy 1500lb give or take a bit (my estimate) hard maple, and last is 10” trunk of spruce tree with branches stuck in grapple teeth (easily fed into larger chipper, can feed sideways too, just back up beside chipper and articulate as you drive forward easy peeszy (also amazing for gravel, wood chips, collecting small rankings no tarp needed) etcA169072E-F7C8-4353-B2DF-BDBB9D252C21.jpeg0FF68FC2-E312-45CB-8B49-FA82022C12ED.jpeg717E1A35-08B3-4A71-8339-2B44E87440C0.jpeg
 
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