Happy holidays boys! So I got a mini excavator for a really good deal at auction in the 4 ton class, and have become addicted to the other excavators they are getting. The 2008 320D class is really sticking out to me, growing up I envied this model and seems like it holds value pretty good probably due to the lack of emissions requirements. My goal would be to find something to refurbish over winter at the farm, replace seals, attach a thumb and give a nice paint job. The work for the 320D would be cleaning up a lot of encroaching trees around the farm, digs a pond then maybe in a couple years sell again. Would have to pay to low boy it to the farm for about 2500. Price I'm thinking of is no more than 45-50k. What do you think, would it hold it value over a couple years?
Never seen a seat worn-out like that in 5000hrs.
^^^Yep....also take a look at travel pedals for wear. Hours likely not true. Does not look good to me, I would keep looking. I do believe a 320D is inherently an excellent machine.
Yeah. That’s like a 10,000 hr machine.
don't buy a big machine to put a thumb on it. you are going upside down right there. buy it the way you want it, and fix wear parts with your extra $$.
Bear in mind that to replace an hour meter with one that reads zero hours only requires about 10 minutes work. Not suggesting that the current owners did that but considering the condition of the rest of the machine it’s likely someone did, even if it was to replace a meter that was broken.
Regardless of the hours, those are beautiful machines in my opinion. The thumb idea is ****, would cost way more than you think. Unless you could build or modify a thumb to suit and pray that it’s mostly plumbed for a thumb already. Under carriage and swivel group being very important. If that machine could be had for 20k minus, I’d be interested.
I think you should be able to pull actual hours out of the machine control if you have access to ET. I also agree. That is a 10-15000 hour machine.
It has aux hydraulics.
Cat D model excavators were the best they have made IMO. I've owned C's, D's an F and now a Next Gen. The D's are the best, still have a 321DL. As far as that machine goes I wouldn't touch it unless I could run it.
Our 320DL is the most reliable piece of equipment we have. It starts un-aided well below 0 F, track chains run around 5000 hours. We bought ours from Cat Rental Store and it has over 10000 hours on it I'll get the cost per hour when I get back home if I remember. 4.5 gallons per hour fuel.
Adding a thumb to a machine that already had the aux hydraulics is a easy way to add value, you can pickup a chinese one from auction from $2-3k and a few hours to install it. I wouldn't go close to something of that age without looking it over well and running it or someone qualified to look it over. I would guess 10,000 hard hours or 15,000+ of normal hours. I recently sold my 08 Volvo 210 with a hair under 10,000 hours and it didn't look even a fraction as bad as that one, seat didn't have a single tear or wear mark and outside looked way better and I did a ton of house demolitions with it. Never owned a Cat but those years for equipment in general were great. New enough to be nice to run and be productive, not new enough to have emissions or too much electronic BS. As far as if it will hold it's value for a few years, technically yes. If you buy at a reasonable price and add a thumb 3-4 years later with 1000 hours more you might break even or only lose a few grand. That is if you don't overpay or spend a fortune in repairs because it's a giant POS. You can drop $10k in repairs on a machine like that in the blink of an eye and it won't get you a extra penny in resale value. I got $10k more for my Volvo then I bought it for after owning it for 9 years and putting about 2500 hours on it, I added a thumb but sold a twist bucket I got with it which was a wash, but even when I bought it I know I got a absolute steal of a deal. Equipment prices up here in Canada are strong.
No doubt - I recently spent that much on our 321DL. Replaced the A/C compressor, dryer, new fan clutch, ran the overhead and a new ECM. Just shy of $10K. Had the dealer do it so paid a premium however we put it on our Cat card at 0% interest for 24 months. Why not use their money?
And you will work that 10K back out of it in very little time. The total cost per hour for maintenance on ours is $4.57. It has 10650 hours on it now. It does look considerably better in every way than the one in @Fordman 's photo though. We are close to needing undercarriage on it though.
No doubt - already have. Take the hours it's earned with no monthly payment and it's paid for itself.
I’d be interested, would definitely look it over.
I agree, D series are probably the best. C series is a close second. D Series have the option to display hours on the monitor- Go to setting, display setup, indicated item, password (fff2), indicated item- select service hr meter. Pictures are from my 321DL. I have to load the remaining pictures in the flowing post as I can only load 4 pictures at a time, but as you can see my conventional meter is within a tenth of the monitor. I would say my hours are correct.