anyone own one of these machines I’m looking at buying one one for some home projects it does have an off set boom. I’m also somewhat concerned if it’s a grey market machine most because of parts availability does anybody know how to tell if it is grey market? Thanks
Serial # should tell you.
All BSR model Cats I’ve done inspections on were gray market machines.
If the Serial Number prefix of the machine you are looking at is 9PR then it is a grey-market Japanese-built machine. There is no equivalent to that model built for the world market. Parts & Service information is available, but not much of it is in English. Parts Manuals usually have the Part Number in English but the description in Japanese. The 313B CR was built in Japan for both the local market (AEX prefix) and the non-Japanese market (BAS prefix). An AEX machine found outside Japan would obviously be classed as a grey market machine. Parts & Service information for the BAS-prefix machine is readily available in English and will work for both AEX & BAS-prefix machines.
Neither machine serial number was sold in the US as a domestic market machine. Some Cat dealers here will deny having parts coverage and indeed many of the parts systems in the US will not list the machine at all. Gray market machines will most of the time have a different cab shell that will not be available in the US. The offset boom also requires a safety system that prevents the bucket from being able to hit the cab shell. It is a computer controlled system with no support in the US from Cat dealers or anyone else. If you run the machine with the system bypassed, as most are, and someone gets hurt you will be in violation of safety standards and it is considered a willful infraction making the owner subject to civil and criminal penalty. There is a reason most dealers of any make will not touch these machines.