Wain Roy vs Werk Brau mechanical quick couplers on mini excavators

I'm looking at buying a new Takeuchi TB240 mini excavator with a mechanical quick coupler. Their standard option is a Wain Roy, but they can also get a Werk Brau pin grabber for an additional $1200, plus the buckets are extra. My question is what are the pros and cons of each setup? My first impression of a Wain Roy is that since the grabber is inside the bucket that will decrease bucket volume which would add up cycle after cycle. And on top of that the buckets just look small to begin with but I don't know if that's an optical illusion because the grabber is inside the bucket instead of mounted up top. On the other hand I would think the bucket breakout force would be greater with the Wain Roy because it's mounted closer to the bucket, decreasing the leverage working against the hydraulics. Am I wrong in the way I'm thinking? I'd appreciate some opinions from people with knowledge and experience working with both these couplers.

The Wain Roy is simple and keeps the bucket pin geometry close to OEM so no breakout force is lost, that’s where the benefits end afaic. It will get loose and wiggley in no time. I’ve had them and I feel on the minis the buckets are undersized and they loosen up too fast. I do have a pin grabber now on a Tak 260 and wouldn’t have it any other way. 1600 hours and it’s tight, the buckets can be put on backwards, and I don’t seem to be short on power. You do need to be aware that the buckets will stick out more and can now hit the boom cylinder guard or possibly the cab when the booms moved all the way to the left. I have a friend that has a Werk Brau pin grabber coupler on a 240 and he loves it.

Thanks for the reply. I was watching a video of a brand new, never before used mini with a wain roy setup and the bucket looked a little wiggly. I like the idea of keeping as much bucket breakout force as possible for digging stumps and rock, but I'm leaning towards the pin grabber for overall performance and satisfaction. I think it would be worth the extra cost. It would drive me nuts if the buckets got sloppy fast.

I had a 12,000 lb. excavator with the wain roy coupler. Didn't stay tight no matter what I did. My 18,000 has a hydraulic pin grabber. Works great and easy to make buckets fit as the pin just needs to be in a set area. I would take a wainroy over no quick attach but barely.

A pin grabber also lets you run the buckets backwards if needed. That come in handy sometimes depending on what you are doing.

I've run the bucket backwards a lot more than you think you would. Digging under utilities is easier. Used the five foot ditch bucket as a work platform on the side of a building backwards.

I would run no coupler over wain roy, sure it would be more of a pain switching buckets, but at least the dahm things would be tight. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a wedge coupler to get rid of my wain roy, I hate the thing so much. Again this winter I welded in plates to get rid of the slope about 3x to get it good, within 50 hours it's loose again and some shims fell out. Granted I am fairly hard on it tearing out concrete, frost ripping, etc but it's just an awful design.

I have had the WB mechanical coupler on 2 TB153's over the years. It is a good coupler. As with everyone else, don't even think about the WR coupler. Spend the money, get the WB. WB buckets are excellent and worth the money. My TB257 comes from the factory with a Strickland hyd coupler. They could have done a better job routing the hydraulics, seems to work alright.

If you don't switch buckets often regular pin on buckets aren't bad. The trick is to have a smaller pin to slip in the crowd bracket and bucket. Pick it up and raise the bucket till the main pin lines up. Makes it a lot easier as your alignment is close and you can wiggle the bucket easier. I would spent the money on the pin grabber, you'll be happier.

As a die hard wain Roy guy I hate pin grabbers I am to cheap to have a hydralic one nor do I want the weight of a hydralic one and to hell with needing a wrench to change buckets As far as shining them just weld a bead or top of the buckets were the coupler pocket sits and that does pretty good at tightening them up yea they get a little sloppy but I have seen pin grabbers just as bad so pick your poison if you dont own wain Roy that's a great reason not to get one You not loosing capacity unless the bucket your being offered is smaller the biggest negative is when dirt runs over the top of your bucket fine dust settles into the pin and makes it snug to get out once in a while

I have 2 Yanmar’s with pin grabber, be lost without it

My CX55B has a WB pin grabber. I use hydraulic cylinder rod for pins and have adapters to use Case backhoe attachments. The lock pin fits the jaw to release, or i use my pliers handle.

I have the Wain Roy my mini Takeuchi only because they didn't offer a hydraulic coupler for my little machine. I've put 800hrs on it and change buckets fairly often. I bought it with 2 buckets and made 2 more myself. Now that I have 4 to choose from I really want a hydraulic one. I can change the buckets fast with the WR but still have to get off the machine. The WR I have stays tight because there is an adjustable spacer at the front hook you can tighten up as it wears. If I were to buy this machine again I would get it with no buckets or coupler from Takeuchi and order a coupler and set of buckets from Europe for it.

Late to the thread but afaik WB quick couplers are a licensed Doherty (New Zealand brand) attachment design built under WB. Doherty build and design some of the best quick couplers around

I have a TB240 and TB153FR with TAG Wain Roy with 12,18,24, 48" buckets, ripper, breaker and pallet forks. You need a lot of buckets. The system works well, but not perfect. A little shake of the bucket and sometimes the pin will fall out nicely or I need to use the sledge hammer depending on the bucket. Would be cool to try a hydraulic set up. I also would love to be able to turn the bucket forward.

PeterG said: I have a TB240 and TB153FR with TAG Wain Roy with 12,18,24, 48" buckets, ripper, breaker and pallet forks. You need a lot of buckets. The system works well, but not perfect. A little shake of the bucket and sometimes the pin will fall out nicely or I need to use the sledge hammer depending on the bucket. Would be cool to try a hydraulic set up. I also would love to be able to turn the bucket forward. Click to expand... Do you know if a TAG and a Wain-Roy are interchangeable?

Shimmy1 said: Do you know if a TAG and a Wain-Roy are interchangeable? Click to expand... If you have a wain Roy style coupler every manufacturer I have run across has been interchangeable but there are different category of coupler based off size of machine

All you need to do is check the dia. of your bucket pin. This should tell you if the attachment will fit. In some cases different size buckets will work. For instance, my TB240 coupler is the same size as my bigger TB153FR. Therefore, at times I will use the bigger TB153FR machine buckets on the TB240. My 12" digging bucket often used on the TB240 is often the one for the TB153fr instead of my smaller TB240 12" bucket. This depends often on the weight and balance of the material I may be lifting and moving, the type of soil I'm digging in, or grading, backfilling, etc.

I have had several Wain Roy manual quick connects on JD 310 and 410 backhoes. I always liked them, used them for 1000's of hours. They can get a little sloppy, but nothing like the TAG brand. I hate TAG! I work part time on pipelines for Michels, and seems like all the rentals and some of the owned mini hoes have "TAG". Sloppiest set up I have ever seen, so much play it is dangerous...even with "hundreds" of hours, not "thousands". It pisses me off they are still in business....junk! Besides Wain Roy, another one I saw that looked nice and had good reviews was "Amulet". They looked pretty expensive but a nice coupler.

I have no love for anything from TAG. I think they meet the price point for rental companies and so that is why you see them around. Taki sells a lot of machines to rental companies and I suspect that is why Taki offers Tag from the OEM. They also offer Strickland hyd couplers and buckets if you want a better (more expensive) set up.