an Avant mini loader…

…in Southern Norway…

small, heavy and tough…

Being an articulated all wheel hydrostatic drive machine, it can maneuver with precision in very tight spots, which is one of its main advantages around here. We've got lots of tight spots and narrow paths for it.

At the time we bought our Avant it was still a bit under-developed as farm-machine. Consequently we took what seemed to be the strongest and most capable version and got it rigged up with the largest/widest tires to enhance its ability to work on soft, muddy, ground – still an Avant's weakest point but ours is quite good.

We then added special tire-chains into the mix to improve traction on icy and slippery surfaces, which meant the wheel-base had to be extended to provide space for the chains between the wheels and the body. As a result our Avant is as wide as they come: over 120 cm. Sure helps on stability and it's still narrow enough to get around.

We also bought what was the newest digging-unit for it at the time – a Backhoe 220, so we could use the Avant in all kinds of construction and ground work and to fix drainage-problems in our fields and pastures. This digging-unit has turned out to be a very good investment over the years.

Our Avant may be small, but with the right equipment and handling it can dig clean-cut ditches to a depth of around 220cm and pull up quite heavy rocks from down there when necessary. All it needs is a somewhat solid surface to work from, or the tractor on standby near by to pull it out if it sinks into the mud and lose traction.

A 105 cm wide multi purpose straight edge bucket is the most used attachment, and this is used as a bucket, dozer blade, for ground-leveling and for digging wide paths and prepare ground for gravel-based farm-roads. We can get lots done with this bucket alone.

A heavy duty silage fork with grapple, completes the range of attachments so far. This fork is at times used to portion out silage, but it is also a very useful tool for picking up and transporting rocks and for digging and tearing up tree-roots. The Avant's articulation, swing-speed and weight is used to add quite some force in all directions, which helps to tear off roots when their main parts are held firmly by the haudralic grapple.

additionally…

An Avant with bucket attached is just the right equipment when it is necessary to replace light-bulbs around the farm-yard. Better and quicker than a ladder for reaching the top of our many 4-5 meter high light-poles. We're getting lazy around here…

If our Avant had been of the somewhat stronger versions available today, we had probably used it even more. Nevertheless, our Avant is better suited than our tractor for most jobs, so it is sharing the daily workload with the Gator. The tractor is standing by just in case the smaller machines get stuck somewhere or are simply too small for a job, which doesn't happen too often.

sincerely 

Hageland 28.jun.2008
last rev: 29.jun.2008