Hello,

Thank you all for your feedback.
Although brushless do sound tempting ( I have seen the 48v scooter motors on ebay for very cheap) they also sound pretty daunting, and the software side may be a bit too far out of our knowledge base.
Mechanically we can hold our own, as so far we are a team of mechanical design engineers and machinists, but we do not have mush of a clue regarding electronics! We deal with pneumatics on a day to day basis, and when we struggle so much getting to grips with hydraulics, we kick our selves for wanting a crusher rather than flipper/ axe bot.

The NPC T64's sound too good to be true! I will have to take a look.
How long do the US imports generally take?

I think our plan will be to assemble a test chassis for the drive train first, both to ensure the components work together adn so that we can get our hands on the components, as I expect CAD is hot or miss?
As I say I will start a build thread very shortly, when we have some more details decided and post some of our thinking so far.
In terms of the hydraulics we have looked at some all in one units, used mainly for power steering systems but so far they have not seemed all that suitable. We are aiming for 6 tons of pressure at the end of the tip based on some penetration tests we performed. If this becomes unfeasible or falls out of our budget then it can be amended, but I figure we may as well start with the best of intentions.
I will certainly take a look at some of the lifter kits. if nothing else they may be useful for a test rig.
I am also toying with the idea of using the same motor throughout the robot, to minimise the amount of spares needed, as we will need 2 for the drive, one for the pump (potentially if we cannot find a suitable all in one unit) and one for the electronic arm.
Thank you all again for your advice!