Hello all, Here are a few photos I took of the 120 I'm thinking of purchasing and some observation I made. Not so obvious on the first photo, but all the glasses except for the window in the door have been replaced with plexi glass. The window on the left side behind the operator's seat is missing. There are no lights on the roof or on the boom. There are no wiper blades. The second photo shows a finished track roller. The roller was squealing like a pig when I move the excavator. It will have to be changed. The third photo shows the inside of the cab. The heater and the stereo work. No horn. The hour meter worked, it was at 6233 hrs. The blue arrow on the forth photo shows an inspection plate that can be removed to get a look at the teeth of the turret. I've read somewhere that there should only be grease in there and no oil. Well, I put a stick and there's close to an inch of hydraulic oil in the bottom. That seems to be a big problem. I've talked to the chief mechanic at the dealership and he told me there were leaking seals for the turret pump or something. Don't quote me exactly on this one because I did not quite understand what he was talking about. It's about a $1200 job. Before I would buy this machine, I would ask to get those seals changed ($1200), the track roller changed ($??) and the 2 front window replaced ($800). They're suppose to put the bucket on it this week. Oh yes, BTW it's a 3ft bucket. When that is done I will try to do some digging with it in their backyard. I'll let you know how it turns out. Richard
I've yet to see a 100 series Deere/Hitachi that doesn't have the fabric scrubbed off that trim panel on inside bottom of door. :tong The body panels look good. And the seat is in good shape, that's a chunk of change right there. Someone has added some steel to the undercarriage and around carbody, probably for forestry application. Hard to tell what that black spot on right boom cylinder is in pic 1, would that be the wiper ring for the cylinder. And someone has bent the piping for left boom cyl, just above that blue arrow. Not really a problem, but piping is bent. The oil inside the slew ring housing could be from a previous failure or could be present failure of seal in bottom of rotation gearbox. If you can get dealer to agree to fix the gearbox and failed roller, probably not a bad machine if it doesn't have any other issues.
Good eye. Yes that is a wiper ring. They're coming off on a few other cylinders too. This machine was used in forestry. Apparently they had some kind of grapple and saw on the end of the boom to cut trees. This is why it has so many dents. You'll also notice that the half inch plate in the front of the carriage is bent up in the picture with the blue arrow. Except for the slew ring and the roller, the rest of the mechanic and hydraulic seem ok. Cosmetically, there are lots of dents, scratches, broken windows and lights, and no wipers. All these features seem to have been ripped off the machine, probably from tree branches. They want $25000. If they throw in the repairs, I will seriously consider it. BUT guess what. Now that I'm looking, I've seen some more decent machines in the area that I will go look at. After all my research, I'm also leaning toward Hitchi excavator although there's one case that is in my budget and not far from where I live that I will go see. Decisions, decisions... Richard
You can find better for that price. Keep looking! If the price was a little better for that condition I would maybe consider it??
Yes, I will keep looking. I tried a Case 9020B this morning. Way too big for me. It was a 1992, with 9300 hrs. $19,900. I thought I would test it anyway to see how it would feel. Very sloppy, lots of loose in the pins. I also noticed that the inspection plate for the slew ring was missing. I asked the mechanic and he did not know why (that's what he said anyway). The excavator was in a small slope, so I turned it around so that I could check for oil in the housing on the low side and sure enough, lots of hydraulic oil. My brother also found a wooden stick with a dirty oily end. I guess it was used a some stick for checking the level of oil in there. don't know. I definitely would not buy that size machine because I would probably not be able to afford the maintenance, but it was still a good experience to see how an older and used machine felt like. Next on my list is a case 9010B. It looks a little smaller but I don't have enough experience to visualize it in my little head. I'm a little confused with this one because the decal on the machine on the picture reads CX130. When I asked the owner, he says that it's the wrong decal that was put on when it was repainted. When I checked the specs for the 9010B it has two top rollers for each track, yet I only see one on the picture in the advertisement. Go figure? Richard