I am thinking of buying my first excavator for the storm clean-up and some other jobs as well. I have found a 1995 Cat 312 with 7400 hours. It is a local individual who has owned it for the past few years. It looks like a real honest machine but all my experience is with dozers so I don't really know what to look for. Could it be a gray market machine, if so how do I check. Is there any known issues with this model and year machine? Thanks
i have a 1994 312 with 2500 hrs . its been a good machine but i recently had a final drive go bad . it appears this may be an issue with this machine . look under my thread "broken 312" for the replies i got from some of the fellas "in the know". what is the asking price ?, tom
He is asking $19k which seemed cheap to me. He has just been diagnosed with cancer and is selling out. I actually read your post and the replies last night trying to find some info. Did you get it repaired yet?
no, its not fixed yet , my local cat dealer wants to do a credit check on me b4 i can access their info online , and i dont dig people lookin into my info just to have computer access to info , so im still hopin someone here will step up to the plate and guide me to where the final drive info might be .
I have been lusting for a 312 or 315 and checking prices for aaawhile. $28K and up for machines with 7000-10,000 hrs. are the best I've found.
i paid 36 for mine , 2250 hrs with a hydraulic thumb , quick coupler and a FOUR FOOT WIDE BUCKET!(TO BIG)
That's what I thought on the price. It seemed to cheap like I needed to be looking for what was wrong or what I was missing. I'm going back to look at it tomorrow. We will see.
I could be wrong on this, But if he has the devils virus(cancer) I'd say they are worried about other things than getting top dollar for used equipment. Several situations produce good deals for buyers, divorce, repo, terminal sickness, death and remaining family either doesn't know true value or just wants/needs quick cash. At $19K and 7300hrs.(I Think) you have room for recovery even if something is wrong, and I hope there's not. You could ALMOST get that much out of it if you scraped it. Best of luck.