I have narrowed down my purchase to one of these two, anyone run both? Thoughts? All the specs are pretty close between the two but real world experience can be quite different. Both dealers are the same distance away for service and parts. There are two cats I am looking at first: 2003 with 9000hrs, aux. lines, progressive thumb, dig and cleanup buckets(manual quick wedge), bucket pin bushings in stick a little loose, undercarriage 40-50%. The second is 2007 and has 5000hrs, standard thumb, aux. lines, dig and cleanup bucket (manual quick wedge), undercarriage 60%. The Komatsu PC130-7 is a 2008 and has 5000hrs, aux. lines, new undercarriage, would get a new standard thumb installed, engine preheater, pin grabber hydraulic quick coupler, 36” dig bucket. Price on the 2008 Komatsu is highest, 2007 Cat $5000 less, 2003 cat $15000 less. Both cats are as is sales so a mechanical inspection would be added to the price. The Komatsu deal would include return or exchange under major component failure for a certain amount of hrs. What deal jumps at you!!!
Is the price for the Komatsu with the new thumb installed? If so try and talk them down some. A few thousand more for new undercarriage and some sort of warranty would be the most appealing to me assuming everything else is in similar condition.
Not my money- so it’s easy - get the Komatsu! New undercarriage, some type of warranty and the hydraulic quick change are well worth the extra dollars. If you change buckets very often the hydraulic quick change will definitely save you some aggravation and time.
Prices are with everything mentioned except delivery but that is similar for all three. Is the pin grabber coupler harder to find used buckets and other attachments? I see a lot of the manual wedge style available. Would 9000 hrs scare anyone away if it passed a mech. Inspection?
Any more thoughts are appreciated
It seems like your looking for someone to recommend the Cat. 9000 hours could pass a mechanical inspection and something could wrong 25 hours later. It could happen at 5000 hours too but having a warranty or exchange option limits an expensive repair.
I am not really set on the Cat but more about saving some cash if it will still do the job and last. Obviously the undercarriage will need to be done on the oldest cat in the near future which narrows the price gap. I quess my question for the 9000hr macine is when does it start to need everything? By that I mean pump rebuild, engine rebuild, final drives, then all the small stuff is worn too so the Nickle and dime parts keep dragging you down. What hrs do you guys find that a 10-13t machine starts hitting this dilemma (10000, 15000, 20000)?
How long a machine lasts depends on the care it received in the hours currently on the hour meter. I've looked at plenty of 8,000 hour machines with lots of problems and in need of expensive repairs. I've looked at 12,000 hour machines all original with few problems. If you want a general rule of thumb, about the best I can say is anything over 8,000 hours can have expensive issues come up at any time. Nickel and dime stuff usually happens as soon as the warranty is gone on a new machine. One other thought is that an engine rebuild isn't done a lot as exchanges, if available, will have a warranty. Pumps in general get replaced instead of rebuilt. Some final drives are worth rebuilding and some are better to replace with new depending on the age and use of the machine. Maybe look into the cost and availability of replacement components to help with your decision.
Thanks, if anyone else has some insight or thoughts it is appreciated.