Oops, I did it again. I found a cool electric vehicle online while browsing China’s largest shopping platform, and I had to get one. The only problem is I somehow ended up with a container full of them this time. This is the story of how a pile of awesome electric construction equipment ended up in my yard.
Earlier this year, I was cruising through Alibaba, looking at all the electric construction equipment. My parents have a small ranch in Florida, and we were looking for some type of tractor or loader for some general around-the-property use. Road Roller
If you know me, you’ll know I’m pretty big into EVs as work vehicles due to the lower operating cost, near-zero maintenance, and a whole host of other reasons. The biggest problem, though, is that electric tractors and heavy machinery are extremely expensive.
Machines like Monarch’s electric tractor are priced at nearly US $100,000. There are cheaper alternatives like the Solectrac with a front loader for closer to US $35,000, but that’s still more than I was looking to spend for backyard machinery, even if it’s a fairly large 10-acre backyard.
I also decided a wheel loader was a better direction than a pure tractor since we don’t need the crazy torque of a tractor. We aren’t plowing fields but rather doing more general and diverse heavy-lift jobs. That means the extreme versatility of an articulating wheel loader would be better for us. With a wheel loader, you get something that can function like a tractor for light jobs but also has a bucket for moving dirt and can work as a forklift, post driller, excavator, etc.
Other diesel-powered loaders of the size I was looking for seem to start at close to US $45,000, with electric models being basically non-existent until you get into the massive machines that are used by construction companies and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So that’s how I ended up turning to China, as I have in the past, to find cool electric vehicles that I can’t find in the West.
I found a couple of interesting machines, one rated for 880 pounds (400 kg) of lifting capacity and another larger version rated for 1,440 pounds (650 kg) of lifting capacity. They were priced at roughly $5,000 and $8,000 respectively, though I knew those prices wouldn’t stick. The “real” price on all of these Alibaba machines is always much higher. My Chinese electric mini-truck was advertised at $2,000, but it cost me around $8,000 in total to land it in my driveway. The 400% markup was almost identical on my electric boat, which started at just over $1,000 but ended up costing me closer to $4,000 with all of the shipping, customs, etc.
Ocean freight has come down a bit since I got those, so I was hoping to get out of this for a bit less than 4x the advertised price. But even if not, it would still be much less than the cost of an equivalent machine in the US.
I was starting to fret about deciding between the smaller and larger loaders since the smaller would probably be sufficient, but that big boy was looking mighty enticing. Ultimately, the factory made the decision for me. Unlike the things I’ve bought in the past, they wouldn’t sell a single unit. They only sold products by the container. Gulp.
If I wanted one of the kids, I was going to have to take the whole family.
I’ve never imported a full container of weird things before. I’ve always bought my odd Chinese vehicles by the unit. This was going to be a bigger show than I was expecting when I first got into it.
Finally, I decided I would bite the bullet and get a container of them with the hope of just selling the extras. It took some convincing with the wife, but we’ve been together long enough for her to know that twinkle in my eye when she sees it. It’s worked out well enough in the past (most of the time), so what’s one more gamble?
It was quite a gamble, let me tell you. The process took months. Many. Frustrating. Months.
The fun part was spec’ing my machines, of which I set myself up with three smaller units and one big boy, which tightly filled a 20-foot container. I also figured that if I’m already sending a container, I might as well fill up the empty air space with some more goodies. To do that, I added in some accessories like pallet forks, augers, excavator arms, etc.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
From there, it turned into a longer and more drawn-out process than I had expected. The manufacturing time ballooned. The customs paperwork was confusing and seemingly endless. I had to figure out my own logistics for what to do once the container got to the port in Miami. It’s not like you can just ask a friend with a truck to grab your 20,000-pound container. I had to somehow get that big container several hundred miles inland to the family’s ranch.
I also discovered that there was going to be a major unloading problem due to us not having a loading dock on the ranch. There wouldn’t be a way to get the loaders out unless they would be okay with a nearly 5-foot drop driving out the back of a container chassis truck. (They would not.)
Plus, with the amount it would cost me to get a container chassis truck to deliver the container, wait while I unload the machines, then return the container to the port, I could just about buy the whole freaking container myself. And so that’s what I did.
That actually solved the delivery issue since I didn’t have to figure out how to get the machines out of a container sitting so high up on the back of a truck. Instead, I just had the whole container dropped on the property so that I could drive them right out the door onto the ground.
And that’s how I did it, though it did require one more added expense of a crane to lower the container. You can see all the details in the unboxing and testing video I made.
That was unloading day, which happened many long months after I started this whole thing. How many months, exactly? Well, I wrote the original article where I found the machines back in January, and now it’s November. You do the math.
The good news is that the machines were finally here! Unloading wasn’t a cakewalk but went decently well. The machines could have been secured better but were mostly fine. Upon first cracking open the container door, one machine was slightly askew with a tire six inches up the container wall, but it was sitting there happily, at least.
I’m guessing somewhere along the journey, a bump to the container bounced one machine up, and the tire caught on the wall. Fortunately, it seemed fine, and I just wiggled the steering wheel to drop the tire back down.
I drove the machines out and managed to drag the attachments out, as well. Once I got the various attachments to the lip of the container with muscle power, I used lifting straps and the pallet fork attachment on one of the loaders to carry them out. Each weighs several hundred pounds, so it was a good time to have a loader.
My first tests with the machines were on some fresh mulch, and boy, was it fun!
You know how you played with those Tonka trucks in the sandbox as a kid? It’s the exact same fun feeling when you have your own life-sized versions, even if they’re mini-machines themselves.
Wielding a third of a cubic yard of mulch over your head with just the slight flick of your wrist is a fun feeling!
Next, I wanted to try out some of the attachments. I started with the digger attachment since an excavator was the next machine on my list that I wanted.
Mini-excavators cost around $15,000-$25,000 for an imported diesel-powered machine. Electric mini-excavators are rare but can run closer to $75,000-$100,000.
If I could turn my electric loader into an electric excavator for less than $2,000, that’d be a huge score! I knew it wouldn’t match the capabilities of a dedicated excavator, but if I could dig a hole several feet deep, I’d call that a success.
The digger attachment mounts in place of the loader’s bucket, and it’s easy to swap on since I made sure to spec the machine with a hydraulic quick hitch to release and mount attachments directly from the cab. You don’t even have to get out of your chair. Well, at least not for the manual tools like the buckets, pallet forks, etc. In the case of the digger, it has a hydraulic feature for curling the digger bucket, so I had to hop out and manually connect the hydraulic lines.
From there, it was time to dig a hole. And by golly, it works! It only has a dig depth of around 3-4 feet (approximately 1 meter), but that’s enough for a lot of tasks like planting trees, digging trenches, etc. It won’t dig down 6-10 feet (2-3 meters) like a larger dedicated excavator, but I’m not digging a basement here.
For most everyday tasks that you’d use a shovel for, you’re probably not digging more than 4 feet deep. And so this is basically a powered shovel that saves a lot of back-breaking labor. It’s going to make planting trees on the property a lot easier from now on, that’s for sure!
Next, I wanted to try the auger. It’s essentially a large drill that can be used for putting in fence posts, mailboxes, trees, or other tasks where you’d want to drill a big, deep hole in the world beneath you.
And again, the dang thing worked perfectly. It mounts just like the digger and is hydraulically powered. In less than a minute, I had a clean, deep hole that was perfect for a fence post.
The entire process was super quiet, too. In fact, my dad and I used the machines for a pile of tasks, such as propping back up the little roof over our well that blew over in the last hurricane. It’s a few hundred pounds and nearly 10 feet (3 meters) tall, so the larger loader with the forks was great for hoisting it into place.
Carrying other things like telephone poles, tree branches, water cisterns, and just about everything else was suddenly much more convenient.
We could even pair the loaders with my electric mini-truck for our own mini work site.
Man, this is getting more and more like a backyard childhood sandbox.
The charging process is surprisingly similar to an electric bike. They don’t require an electric vehicle charging station but rather just have their own charging brick. You plug one end into a 110 V AC outlet and the other into the loader.
Charging reportedly takes around 6-7 hours from empty, though I avoided running them totally empty since it’s not great for the SLA batteries.
Oh, right, the batteries. So, I would have loved to have lithium-ion batteries here for the longer lifespan, but there were a couple of downsides.
For one, the huge 9 kWh and 14.4 kWh SLA packs on the smaller and larger machines help serve as ballast in the rear, increasing the load rating that each machine can lift. Second, those big packs would have been even more expensive if they were lithium-ion batteries.
Another advantage of AGM SLA batteries is you can find them from probably a hundred different suppliers in the US. When these packs finally crap out one day, I won’t have to wonder where to get replacements. I can just get any big 12 V bricks and string them together. It’s only slightly more complicated (and heavier) than changing a car battery.
This is a great story. And it's a perfect idea to sell these smaller electric vehicles in the US. I wish you all the best in your new venture.
As it stands, these things weren’t cheap. With all in for the four loaders, shipping, customs, transportation, and the attachments, I figure I’ve got nearly $50,000 worth of equipment in that container. This is why I’m going to have to sell three of those things, even though it’s fun to have what looks like my own construction company with all of these machines hanging around.
Speaking of that, though, this whole process has led me to realize that there really should be a company in the US for this kind of stuff. Electric mini-construction vehicles like these are so useful for small businesses, hobby farms, wineries, and other users that don’t need a massive Caterpillar backhoe or John Deere machine. For many individuals and small operators, a 5-ton and $100,000 piece of equipment is simply overkill. Smaller machines like these are more useful and more accessible for many folks.
And so that’s what I’m working on now. I’m getting set up to offer these things in the US and be able to support them so people don’t have to take a risk ordering something from halfway around the world before being left out to dry on a machine with no support or warranty. If you want to learn more about it, check out my new site, Nesher Equipment. I’m going to start by selling three of these machines since I never planned on keeping them… and can’t really afford to hang onto four loaders when we only need one for use on our property.
One day, I believe that most construction equipment will be electric. For now, that day still seems pretty far down the road, at least in the US. But maybe I can help some of us get there just a bit sooner.
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Micah Toll is a personal electric vehicle enthusiast, battery nerd, and author of the Amazon #1 bestselling books DIY Lithium Batteries, DIY Solar Power, The Ultimate DIY Ebike Guide and The Electric Bike Manifesto.
The e-bikes that make up Micah’s current daily drivers are the $999 Lectric XP 2.0, the $1,095 Ride1Up Roadster V2, the $1,199 Rad Power Bikes RadMission, and the $3,299 Priority Current. But it’s a pretty evolving list these days.
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