Anyone have good experience with Cat 385 or Hitachi 800? Looking to purchase used mass excavator. Seems like the older Cat 385 the booms are all cracked...
What are you shopping based on, and where are you looking? I know at one time Mi Cat had a slug of them around. I think I saw a 385B set up as a mass ex over in GR a few weeks ago at MI Cat, it seemed to be in decent shape, but I also wasnt going over it with a fine tooth comb either.
The cat Will fill The bucket slightly faster but it Will also break Your heart with hoses blowing ,ram seals blowing , boom cracking, hydraulic oil overheating , starving itself of fuel because of solenoid problems , track ajusters failing , final drives failing , And cat engineers comeing out telling you Your machine has broken down And it took them a day And a half To figure this out , then they have To spend a week diagnosing The problem that The Are unable To fix. The hitachi /deere ex800 zx850 is more reliable simple To fix amd easier To locate parts for spurios And genuine parts Are readily available however is slightly slower To fill The bucket than The cat , only difference is when Your sitting in Your nice comfy cat seat waiting on a mechanic To Come fix another break down , Your hitachi Will keep on digging!
We use our 385c in rock full time with a 7 yd spade. It is not a mass excavator and has the standard boom and 11 foot stick. It handles it well and is a quite reliable machine and unlike eires experience, if by chance it goes down our dealer is quick to respond and make neccesary repairs. Had a couple minor boom cracks, but nothing major or causing down time. Mind you our hitachi split the boom clean in two. At the end of the day they're both good machines and I'd go with whichever one has better support in your area.