Decided I’m going to buy an excavator for around my farm, mainly got some building/ bin/ concrete demolition and cleanup. My trucker can haul up to a 70,000 lb unit, so size wise I’m looking anywhere in the 120 to 270 range. Brands I’m looking at are Deere / Hitachi and Komatsu due to being more common. (Maybe a mistake, trying to stay away from Cat) My question is how old/ what models would you go back to as far as finding parts to fix it years down the road? I can see this unit here for the next 10 or 20 years, so parts availability in the future does come into play. Searching thru these forums, I’ve already seen mention of parts scarcity for some models. The machines I have been looking at are anywhere from 15 to 30 years old. Thanks for any help. ps. I’m trying to stay with mechanical injected engines too, otherwise I’d go even newer.
Good decision. You want simplicity, I don’t blame you, but one thing to think about is fuel burn. The savings a common rail system will give you over 20 years will buy a lot of parts.
Might I ask why.? The one thing Cat has going for them, even the older models, is availability of parts.
I’d agree. I have a B series Cat excavator, build date of 1997. 9 times out of 10 my dealer can have any common part I need in my hands in 15 minutes. A few times I had to wait a day for parts to be brought in from another warehouse. For a machine pushing 30 years old, that’s exceptional. I don’t know what you have locally for dealer support but at least in my area I’d be looking at a C or D series Cat if I were in your position.
Deere/hitachi have been very reliable for us. We found Komatsu parts to be excessively expensive here… Hitachi‘s (ZX 120/ZX135) with the Isuzu engine were extremely good on fuel. Very smooth hydraulics…really liked the 135. Good for trail building in steep ground as tail doesn’t interfere with cut bank or adjacent timber. The Hitachi’s did tend to run hot in our situation (7000’ elevation. Seemed a small cooling package… Our primary excavator for the last 7 years has been a Hyundai 210-7. As we work in remote locations with terrible clay mud/steep access roads (ie. typical service truck cannot access) simplicity is important… The Hyundai 210: Cummins 5.9l 12 valve, mechanical injection, Kawasaki pumps…lots of ’off the shelf parts’ pretty thick plate has been used on boom/stick (1/2” on boom upper plate) Drawbacks: hydraulics not as ‘smooth’ as Hitachi/Deere/Cat. Swing is a bit abrupt (can compensate with some practice) Travel is a bit crude: ie “on/off”. I always load myself on Lowbed or warn driver about this… But, really large cooling package (radiator/intercooler). Never runs hot at high elevation even when ‘hogging‘ overburden with 66” 2 yard cleanup bucket. For bonus points: rodent proof (big deal for us as machines spend winter on mountain) 7 years in bush and no mice/pack rats!
My buddy has a Cat 311 (1990?) and any parts have been readily available. He did have the Main pump rebuilt locally. I was quite impressed with the speed & smoothness of the hydraulics of this older machine.…
You could be limiting yourself if you leave Cat off your list and maybe Case/Linkbelt.
I guess I shouldn’t rule Cats out, just dealing with parts prices years ago sure turned me against them. Probably Deere yellow iron parts prices anymore would be the same. Right now, my preferences would be a Deere 120c or d, or a cat 312 c or d. I’ve got a Komatsu pc35 I’m working on right now, and have some pilot hydr. lines leaking some. Never been around Komatsu, so it’s a new experience learning they have their own hydr. fittings. I make my own hoses, so a jic fitting I can buy for $3, the same basic size fitting but Komatsu jis is like $18. But the bad part is the fitting that goes to the pilot valves, has a rubber boot, and the hose actually moves back and forth in the fitting, I guess acts like a valve or something. Never seen anything like that before, and have no hope of obtaining a fitting like that except buy the complete hose from Komatsu. Looks to me like if Im going to replace one pilot valve hose, I had better replace the whole bundle of 5 hoses going to the joystick all at the same time. Two bundles of 5 hoses each of special Komatsu only hoses, I’m scared to even think what that may cost. This deal alone sure makes me want to stay away from another Komatsu machine.
Cat/Case/Link Belt/ Hyundai or Kobelco are not entirely of the list if a good machine came up at the right price. About the only thing I see around here are Deeres or Cats. Looking at machinery trader, not a whole lot more than that for several hundred miles. Gives me pause when looking at the other brands, and there’s only a couple of that model in the entire US for sale. (With the exception of Cat)
As an all around farm machine for my farm, I’d dearly love to have a nice Cat 307/308. If I ever found a good one of those I liked, I might skip finding a bigger hoe.
X2. OP have you priced similar age replacement parts from Deere or Kommie? Might be surprised how expensive they are as well.
I dunno, but surely you need to determine what type of jobs the hoe will be required to do. Once you have figured that out it will then dictate the size of machine you require, not the other way round. Or am I missing something..?