If you can buy it cheap because of all those hours. Whatever cheap is? It's a big business rotating out a old machine. Would it be good enough for around the farm use or would it be an albatross around your neck you'd have to fix all the time? Dealers 45 mi away. Did they make a lot of these? Will getting parts be any problem?
6000 hours are a lot of hours on a mini excavator. That being said, if the company has their own full time service shop to maintain all their equipment with records they can show you, that may be a huge plus. What price are they asking and what buckets come with it, and can you post several images of the machine? Nothing wrong the brand or model.
It's a Richie Brothers auction a couple hours away. Everything works but you don't know how well out on a job. I don't mind fixing if the starting price is good. I'm interested in either one but prefer the one with the 23" bucket and hydraulic coupler. The one with the breaker and 17" bucket could be handy with all the rock around here but only has a manual coupler. I have a bad back and gray hair and I bet a hydraulic coupler could be real nice. I have 0 experience on these machines but know tight from loose. The tracks look torn up. It would be nice to have a thumb. I have several Cat machines and the dealer is 22 miles away. Bobcat is 25 miles. 2 years and 600 hrs on a oil change is not impressive.
Did you talk to the consignees? If Ritchie Brothers won’t give you their contact info, it took me two seconds to find a number for Henkels & McCoy for the one machine. Call and ask to talk to a mechanic or shop foreman. I try to track down a maintenance guy or mechanic before bidding on a piece of equipment. A few times I’ve been steered away by what they told me. It’s still possible you’ll get lied to. I wouldn’t be scared of the hours.
With that being GIF'd - Ordered a hydraulic QC for our new 305 since our older 305 has a manual which works OK but is time consuming and greasy to swap out attachments. The hydraulic QC even on a mini is money well spent IMO.
So simple silly ... call them! Run Forest Run...lol. Would it be possible to run the bucket backwards on these or any QC?
forget about it. If you want a thumb, buy a machine with a thumb. Don't settle, don't hurry.
What's up with the fuel and oil filter change dates? The last time they were changed was 2 years ago?
That's over 2 times the oil change of 250 hrs. Is that a deal breaker? I would think yes (what else is going on, and shows a lack of respect for the equipment). I want the hydraulic coupler. Is the pin graber type the only one that lets you flip the bucket? It also has a front blade that angles. I think that would be very handy. Or is it? I have a lot of steep hills and it should help with benching I imagine. I was looking at the tilt cab on the JD 50g. Looks a lot easyer to fix. Sure looks packed in on the Yanmar.
that oil change is not huge. I am running a 9400 hour JD 120 that had a much worse treatment while I was gone from the company for 6 years. It still runs. Not having the thumb, that is huge. Just wait for the right thing.
Yes that long of time between oil changes is a big deal. It's a red flag showing the overall lack of maintenance and how the previous owner cared for the machine. The new 305 I just bought has the angle blade. The blade is useful for backfilling trenches and cleaning up but not a deal breaker IMO. This machine also has the hydro QC. However I'm not sure what all it would entail to run the hydro lines for a QC on a machine that didn't them. That's a question for one of the wrenches on the board.
Could be 500 hour intervals between recommended oil changes. Thing looks fairly clean. But it wouldn’t be the first time something’s been dolled up for a sale. My feeling is that if it’s at an auction it’s there because the owners don’t really want to sell it locally and have to possibly hear about issues with it later. Usually it’s at an auction for a reason. Not saying you can’t find good stuff at auctions, but you really need to do some research on it. You can add an aftermarket thumb to anything after the fact, as long as the machine has auxiliary 2 way plumbing. I’m not sure that after the early 2000’s there were any minis made with out auxiliary plumbing. Be patient and find something that fits your needs. If you’re close to the auction yard go check it out and make some calls.
In my experience when you see a couple of red flags it's best to move on.
June of 2023 My 2013 Hitachi didn't. Was an "optional" item I guess.
I don't like the one that the service guy wrote the time of day on the filter. It's well known that changing the filters towards the end of the day when your tired at ( 5pm ) is likely to be poorly done. Best to find a machine that has had all the filters changed in the morning.
From personal experience: a smaller machine with a breaker bar or plate compactor on it will have a LOT of missing bolts. One of the attachments that came with my 50ZTS is a plate compactor, and it's cool for putting in posts, but man, that machine took me all summer to fine and replace all the missing stuff. it had 6 or 7 of the 10 bolts for the carriage rotation drive MISSING. the fuel pump had broken both it's tiny bolts, most of the body panels were missing their bolts/screws. Everything including the operator seems to get beat to hell using those attachments. So... before you buy it and put it into service... pull the plates and panels and do a thorough inspection.
I watched this guy on farmcraft101 rebuilding and replacing the swivel joint on a older Yanma vio-50 with all the panels and seat off. It looked very difficult to work on. Possibly the vio-55 is better. I sure like the layout and accessibility of the older caterpillar 305 and many other machines a lot better. You have to get a pretty new Cat to have the tilt cab. I'm sold on getting a hydraulic coupler. I'm going to be popping things back and forth between attachments enough that I don't want to be crawling around outside the machine and wrestling them at my age. I definitely want a thumb at some point. I've seen some of the 305 machines that seem to have the mount already in place for one to add later without welding. I can see me also wanting a progressive thumb to be able to reach out and set things in place with a bucket fully uncurled which doesn't come on most machines. The idea of taking your time and not compromising so you can get something that's going to be a good fit for you over the long haul is certainly a good one. A pre 2015 Caterpillar 305 has no emission controls. What are you guys think is it worth getting an old machine just to get away from the controls? I won't be putting many hours on a machine and I'm hoping to do the repairs myself for the most part. I have an old cat 225 so the controls need to stay Cat. I'm not sure if the John Deere minis ever came without a switch for the controls. Since I'm looking for a less expensive high-hour machine I want to plan ahead for all that cussing and swearing I'll do working on it.
The other thing to consider is that it's usually the junk machines that go to auction first....
Here's a few pics of my '18 305E I was running today trying to find a water main. It has a non-progressive thumb which works well with us. This machine also has a manual QC. When I bought the machine I had the dealer put the thumb and QC on. It already had the aux. hydros so they just added the splitter valve.
What about the 305.5E CR? Can you add a hydraulic coupler with out breaking the bank?
I still can't get over how there's places that are digable year round. It's been below 0* here, hit a section on my way home that was -35*
CM1995 When they went to add your thumb was it like plug and play? Just order the bracket, extra long pin and hydraulic fittings and bolt on? What about control in the cab for the thumb? Does it work as if the machine came with a thumb? Is it pretty natural to operate? I like the curved part on the jaws of your thumb. On the end there's a straight section. Is that for a special reason? I see some thumbs that are basically straight for the whole length of the jaw and I don't understand why. The important thing for me will be picking up limestone rocks. I think I would want jaws shaped into a big gentle curve that went all the way to a tip that ended between the teeth of the bucket. With large teeth cut into them going down the length of the jaws to catch on square objects. I have large sheets and cubes of limestone to move. Hopefully without breaking too many...lol I want to put in some trails through some fairly steep side hills. I was thinking the angled blade would help to bench them in easier, while keeping them narrow. Of course I don't even have experience working with a straight blade. For those of you that have a angled blade do you really think it's worth it?
977 the dealer put the thumb on the 2018 when I bought it out of their long term rental fleet. They put the manual QC and thumb on it. Basically got a new front end on a used machine as the QC requires longer pins. The rocker switch on the joystick runs the thumb and it's very intuitive. The thumb is the standard mini-ex thumb that's been on all the Cat mini's I've operated. It works well for all sorts of material from pipe to chunks of concrete. We also run a hammer and a plate tamp on both 305's so all one has to do is change the work tool in the monitor for the correct flow. To switch between thumb and other hydraulic attachments just turn the valve on the stick. The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned on the angle blade. I don't know exactly how much more the angle blade is since the new 305 spec'd the way we wanted pretty much all come with an angle blade. What I do like about the angle blade is main frame for lack of a better term is longer than the straight blade on our '18 which makes the '24 more stable. If you are building trails/roads on slopes I use the hoe to clear and level out then the blade just for back dragging. An angle blade would be nice but not a deal breaker by any means IMO.
I have on on our mini and not too excited about it. Best feature for me is angling it out of the way to dig around obstructions or pipes. I don't cast dozer with it doing backfill, I move the bulk of the dirt with the 42" bucket anyway.
I've been kicking around lots of ideas and machines. Thanks so much for the help and ideas! The goal is to spare my bad back. Also my hearing is damaged from a life working mostly in power plants and in heavy industry, so quietish would be nice. Here's a surprise, with the gift of a loss of hearing you can gain a hypersensitivity to noise. Nice, eah... what? Believe this (I didn't) hearing aids can reduce the ringing in your ears... by a lot. My theories so far. Rubber tracks are the smoothest riding and quietest. I will use these for starters even though I have lots of rock ( even sharp broken rock) that can wear them out fast. Hydraulic coupling, expensive upfront, but my back is so spent... a thumb. The newer Cats are prepared to add a thumb later. Since I will go used and 10+ years older and I also have a lot of experience working on big heavy machines, a 30...6...7...8 may be a good choice for me. They don't go down a trail so well but I'm pretty sure I must do better on digging out rock. I'm mostly out in the open and also I have an old rock truck with sides 12' off the ground that may be used once in a while. This 2012 308E CR is nice looking at $30,000. Cheaper by $10k than most crappy looking machines. It seems to work fine now but... What do you all think of 7,500 hrs? I may only put 200 hrs a year on. I hate working on crappy looking machines?
308's are great sized machines, in a perfect world I would have on in our line up. That one appears to have a hydro QC and aux. lines for a thumb. As with any piece of used iron it's condition, hours, maintenance history and age. Go try it out, get it hot and take oil samples. Do you know the history on the machine?
Cat 977, I found the machine online at the dealer in Holland Mi. From the images, the machine looks like it's been very well cared for and cleaned up. However, to me 7,500 hours is way, way too many hours without service records, and it needs a thumb and additional buckets, which can add up quite a bit on a 9 ton machine. I would tread very carefully with this dealer.