There are several 2020 Cat 320GC machines for sale in the Houston area. The seller is a California company. The machines, according to the serial number tags, were made in China and are advertised as Tier 3 emissions machines. I have only seen the ads on Machinery Trader, not in person. Can anyone shed any light on this scenario? Are they grey market? The ads are written in English and Spanish, so I'm thinking they came through Mexico? We are looking for a 50,000 pound machine, and the ads caught my eye.
I assembled & commissioned four 345GC excavators late last year. They were built in China and originally shipped to the Middle East where they sat in a dealer stock for a few months. The customer was based on the Caribbean so did not need TIER 4, so the machines were bought by the local dealer from the ME dealer and shipped over. They were rated EPA TIER 3 but did not have any specific emissions equipment installed like a TIER 4 machine would have had. Somewhere I have photos of them if you want me to post a couple up. They are not grey market AFAIK. All the parts & Service info for them is available on SIS.
IMHO they are a bit on the light side for a supposedly 45-ton machine, probably coming in at around 40 tons. They are certainly not comparable with 345's I've been around in the past. I have no idea if the 320GC model is similarly light compared to a 320D but it might pay you to check.
Nige, These machines are a little expensive for my use, but I was perplexed how they got here to the good ole USA, or if it was a scam of sorts. I've been looking for Tier 3 and Tier 2 machines, and good ones seem to be in short supply. They are kinda lightweight; 43560# according to Cat's online brochure. The engine is a Perkins 4.4L. I looked at a couple more of the ads and found a photo of the emissions tag:
We currently have a 336 GC and a 345 GC parked right next to each other, they actually appear to share undercarriage and track frame so I'd say it's not a true 345D alternative. The 320GCs in my experience are built a little lighter and have less power with less features, they haven't been very popular compared to the 320s and 323s. Wouldn't it be highly illegal to sell them in the US?
That's exactly what I said when I first saw a 345GC. It appears to be the physical equivalent of something like a 339 in my eyes. Based on the highlighted part of the engine data plate I would seriously question whether it was legal to sell it (as opposed to the machine, but what good is one without the other?) in the US, but that's only my opinion. If the machines came out of Cat's China facility they had to be imported into the US somehow, so maybe that issue was resolved at the time they were imported. I'd be asking some serious questions of the seller before parting with cash for one though.
I spoke with the dealer. The machines are not currently in Houston or even the US; they are in Asia, and are sold FOB. The dealer readily admits that the machines are not legal to import to the US. That was the end of our conversation.
Now it all makes sense.......