I have a choice between a 2004 cat 312CL 7,100 hours and a 2005 Kobelco sk115 6,600 hours. Both are in good shape but I know nothing about Kobelco. I do know that I see many Kobelco excavators on construction sites along the I-35 corridor and down around Houston. What are your thoughts?
We had a 320cl and a sk115. Both good machines. Over 12000hrs when traded. We have got away from cat, mostly for price, but we have several kobelco machines from a rubber Track, up to a 485 that some teenagers decided to burn a couple of years ago. Guess it depends how far you have to go for parts and service
You wont beat that Cat for parts and service. Its a no-brainer to me as a service tech.
Well we have been a Kobelco dealer since they cam into this country and there service and parts are on par with anybody and better than many. Next thing for the most part price is much better also.
We're lucky here, we are only 60 miles away from all the major brand dealers
Kobelco is a great machine we have a 210, 220, and a 260. Parts easy to get and service is excellent as well with our dealer. Never had a CAT and with the cost difference I don't see how we ever would although I would like try try a CAT just to see what all the fuss is about
It MUST be a regional thing.
I have run several new Cat machines over the past 10 years as well as Kobelco. I have always leaned toward Kobelco for their smooth motions and quick cycle times.
It definitely is. Our Cat dealer absolutely blows if you're a small company, they just don't care about you and your little company. This is from personal experience. Also the price point of a similar machine to a 115,the 314, is laughable at best, at least it was when I was looking to buy 13 or so years ago. I have had my Kobelco 115SRDZ with a long stick and extra counterweight for roughly 5000 hours now and have been very happy with it. I have been the primary operator of it since I have owned it. I have run a hammer on it now and then and have used the blade for very light grading of loose materials but mostly used the blade for leveling the machine, serviced it regularly, changed the fluid in the finals more often than I had to, and I've had a solenoid and a couple hoses go on it.....
Funny we just has a demo with a new Cat verses the Kobelco and ALL the operators preferred the Kobelco said it was much smother the cab was nicer among other things.
I'm referring to dealer support. It has been awful here for years.
Beings you work for a Cat dealer, naturally you will strongly support Cat.
LMAO. Tell you what ……..how bout you grab a few beers and spend the weekend going through all of my posts and quote 1 where I said I'm a Cat employed tech. If you find one, I'll give you a virtual BJ. If you don't, you give me one...…...deal?
Then that's a dealer problem not a machine problem
It's all good guys. I've said before, machine brands are like sports teams. I have yet to operate a loader that impresses me like a Volvo, but other guys would jump up and tell me I don't deserve to be an operator because they suck. I was always a champion fan, then switched to Volvo with the buyout. I like the power in the circle and the visibility for fine grading. I guess service goes with the region. We get great service and support from Cat, Volvo, Link belt and Kobelco. But I think one thing that makes them look out for us, is that we get them to do most of the repairs, even on stuff that's 10 years old.
I would agree, but without good product support it doesn't matter...……...as is my point.
The best machine brand is the one that you can make money with. As far as preferences go I remember the saying about lawyers. The man who acts as his own attorney has a fool for a client.
Just another Ford/Chevy question and never ending debate. Screw that. They both are quality machines, go from there. Which in your area has the better service/parts support, that's all that matters. When it comes to the machines themselves they're both good, both have strong points and both have quirks that some operator will critique. It's all about your local area and nothing more
No offense meant, from your statement I assumed you work for Cat, I guess I should have researched your posts first. Sounds like a deal I'd lose on so I'll pass.
Honestly, I had the same impression when I first read the post. Once I went back and re-read the post I can see where I made the error in assumption as well. Let's just say the post was vague and not clear, open for interpretation on our end. No harm, no foul, but I will add the sexual challenge doesn't belong here, let's not make a habit of throwing that language around here.
Fair enough! My apologies.
I love how fast Kobelco excavators are.
We have both a 320 and a 94 mark 3 200 kobelco they are the same year with the kobelco having more hours it has cost us a lot less to keep up and running vs the cat. The hydraulics are stronger on the kobelcos we have as well as faster for shovel logging.
Thank you all for the responses. My shop supervisor, the operator and I intend to go look at the Kobelco as soon as it arrives at the retailer. We are going to use this machine to demo substandard houses. Currently we do about 40-50 a year with a rental machine. With this machine we hope to do 75-100. Trashman
After looking real hard at the Kobelco we opted for the Cat. The Kobelco was just plain worn out. from the undercarriage all the way to the broken glass in the cab. It was just going to require more money than we wanted to spend to get it into decent shape. I thank you all for your recommendations. Trashman.
LOL! I purchased 2 SK200's new in for the company. Moved them both out into the field and gave it a couple days. I went out to one of the jobs. One of our better hands was on the machine. He asks me if I had ran this machine. I said no "just in the dealer yard. He was amazed at how fast it was. It turned out that for instance at the time it had the fastest swing speed in the industry for that class. When I went to work there, the company relied on one manufacturer. Which was fine. The local dealer was enchanted with us and by and large we were with them. However something changed in the parts supply stream. We couldn't get parts all of a sudden. I walked out to the shop one day and 4 backhoes were in there waiting for the same needle bearing to arrive. (axle through case) I decided that all of a sudden the basket, in which the company had historically put all the eggs in developed a large hole! Started buying excavators by 2's and auctioning the prior machines. As mentioned above, I agree that Cat has a superior parts chain and they are not that mentioned above company I had the poor experience with. We purchased 8 in 2 years they included Link Belt, MDI Yutani, Kobelco and Hitachi. We viewed these machines as 20,000 hour units and they didn't let us down. The Linkbelts had a throttle advance motor issue and rather then pay 600 dollars multiple times to replace them. We switched them to old school cable control, problem solved. Having purchased them new and getting that first "goodness" out of them and maintaining them properly, I would have to state they were all good units at that juncture. I never again let us be held hostage by a parts stream or dealer failing that would stop multiple units simultaneously and impair our ability to prosecute our customers projects in a timely fashion.
Regardless of what's been said above, IMHO...…….you wont be sorry.
We have plenty of Cat equipment as well as John Deere, and they hold up fine. The Cat dealer thinks their parts and service are gold and John Deere cant keep a tech, but other than that they are good dealers. Kobelco is something that is not sold in large numbers West of I-35.
Agreed. My opinions are solely based on new 'apples to apples' comparisons. Once you step into used equipment, it's hard to hold these comparisons as each machine lives a very different life.