Hello I have a chance to buy a 1080 B nice machine but it has been sitting for several years , I think I can buy it right but am wondering if I should , I wathced a 215 cat sell for 14 K ,and I am watching a 225 cat now , I am looking for a machine to clear trees and clean ditches on my farm land , are the cases slow some say they are some say otherwise, some say the 215 is slow ?? how about the 225 ?? I am not stuck on any brand just something that would work good for me . Thanks Bryan
Price and condition will dictate what to buy, dependant on what oil samples of Hydraulics, Engine, and Planetaries reveals. If a unit has been sitting for some time you can have mouse eaten wires to whatever wrong. As someone else said " Buy Once ,Cry once." If you buy too cheap it may be more expensive in the end. Simon C
I don't know how parts support is for a Case 1080B. I think most older machines are slow compared to newer machines. Might want to have the engine fully checked out on a Cat 225. They used a 3208 which wasn't the best in an excavator application. I'm not sure but newer 225's may have used a better/different engine. Some thought 3208's were OK in a truck application. Might help if you told us your budget.
I ran a 1080B for over 5000 hours. The 504 is a solid engine, pumps were just a tandem gear pump. It probably has a leveler, the cylinders will more than likely be trashed. It was kind of a poor design, the base was held into the track frame by 4 - 1/2" bolts. It was fine if it wasn't getting beat to death. You just had to make sure you were parallel wuth the tracks if tilting to minimize stresses. They just used V-packing, we replaced it a few times, they were basically an upsidedown hoist cylinder. We did have some issues with the counter-balance valves getting stuck, that was interesting. We had issues with the bolts holding the swing gear machinery to the upper structure, bigger bolts and welded some square stock to prevent movement fixed that. Replaced the swing bearing, rails, bottom rollers, and sprockets. Had a machine shop do the sprockets, at the time you just bought a "rim", the old ring of teeth was cut off and the new one welded back on. The brakes were decent, as long as they were used properly. You had to manually set the brakes to dig, and you HAD to remember to release them before trying to move. If you didn't, you would stick the pads together, and have to pull the drive motor from the gear case, disassemble the brake assembly, and beat them apart. I got my ass chewed upside down and inside out the first time it happened, then when Dad did it the first time I felt better lol. They were a hot SOB to run in the summer. Radiator was on the right side, so if you had to swing left while working you were always swinging into that heat stream. Ours was a pretty good leaker. Never really got it dry, even after replacing every single o-ring on the adapters that are screwed into the control valve. Between the main spool valves, the leveler cylinders, and the swivel, probably put at least a gallon a day into it.
As far as speed, the old 1080B is not the fastest, but I never minded it too much. If digging deep, the boom is a little slow, they all had Fast Hoist, but never worked for long, crappy wiring. If it's not a 2-speed, your max travel speed will be about 1 mph. The 225 is probably a better machine, except for the turd 3208. Too bad you couldn't drop a 250 hp 6BT into one, you might have a winner there.
From personal experience Cat seems to have superior parts support for older machines than CNH does. Anything 25+ years old in CNH really seems to be hit or miss with availabilty for things other than your typical wear parts like bearings, seals, clutch/brake discs etc.
Sounds like a lot of reasons why a 1080B wouldn't be a good choice for an older used excavator. I don't know how Hitachi is for parts on older excavators but the UH series from the 80's set the bar as far as excavators go. Problem is that most were probably ran into the ground and not worth trying to fix up.
Meh. It was almost 15 years old when we got it, and had been abused. All in all, it was a decent machine for it's vintage. Way better than the Link Belts and Deere's of the mid 80s. I've never ran a 225, but I have ran a 215. I didn't think the Cat had anything on our old 1080B.
I thought the JD690's weren't too bad but the 890 was a dog. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of JD parts are obsolete though. Don't see many of the early Link Belt hydraulic excavators. Link Belt were big in cable excavators and were behind the 8 ball when hydraulic excavators took over. I don't think Cat 215's were very popular. Never seen them here. In a used machine I wouldn't go older than the mid 80's (90's would be better) and would get something that was popular and still has parts support. Hitachi, Cat, JD, maybe Komatsu.