The R57 PRO is the largest machine in the catalogue and goes well beyond backyard work: foundations for houses and industrial buildings, basements, pools and septic tanks, long runs of sewer and water main trenches, drainage, topsoil stripping and loading soil straight into a tipper truck. With a max. digging reach of 6,160 mm it digs a lot from a single position, goes down to 3,785 mm and lifts material to 4,080 mm when dumping, that is, over the sides of a truck, not just to the side onto a heap. The 1,880 mm dozer blade stabilises it while digging and regrades the access road at the end of the job, with no change of equipment.
Compared with the smaller mini excavators in the range, two things set it apart: the cab and the hydraulics. The cab is enclosed, with air conditioning, armrest-mounted joysticks and a heated air-suspension seat, so the machine can be kept working in July and in February alike. The hydraulics run on a variable-displacement piston pump, 149.6 litres per minute at 22.5 MPa, and an eight-section load-sensing control valve, which means the boom, swing and travel can work simultaneously without one movement slowing the other. This is also where the 32 kN max. digging force comes from, enough to tackle compacted clay and gravelly soil. The engine is a Kubota V2607 diesel, four cylinders, 2.6 litres, water-cooled, EPA4/Euro 5 certified, with 35 kW at 2,200 rpm and a rated fuel consumption of 9.72 litres per hour.
This is the machine for those who take on contract work, not one-day jobs: builders digging foundations and pads, water and sewer network crews, large farms with roads, ponds and yards to maintain, and plant hire companies, for whom a machine with a cab can be hired out all year round, not just in the warm season. At 5.7 tonnes it no longer fits on a car trailer; it is moved on a flatbed or loaded with ramps, so it pays off where it stays on the same site for weeks or where jobs are frequent enough for the moves to pay for themselves. On rubber tracks the ground pressure stays at 35.4 kPa, and it climbs ramps and slopes of up to 35% on its own tracks, with two travel speeds, up to 3.8 km/h in high speed.
Standard equipment includes the quick coupler with a 600 mm, 0.175 m³ bucket and the hydraulic thumb on the arm, which lets you pick up stones, logs, pipes or rubble without anyone working by hand next to the machine. The quick coupler lets you change buckets without tools and later fit buckets of other widths or a ditching bucket for trenches and slopes, while the dozer blade is factory-fitted.
Standard equipment
- Kubota V2607 diesel engine, 4 cylinders, 2.6 litres, water-cooled, EPA4/Euro 5 certified, 35 kW
- Enclosed cab with air conditioning, armrest-mounted joysticks and a heated air-suspension seat
- Quick coupler, hydraulic thumb and 600 mm (0.175 m³) bucket as standard
- Variable-displacement piston pump, 149.6 l/min at 22.5 MPa, with an 8-section load-sensing control valve
- 1,880 mm dozer blade and rubber tracks, ground pressure of 35.4 kPa
- Two-speed travel, up to 3.8 km/h, and 35% gradeability
