Hello, I'm new to the forum with zero experience with heavy equipment. My son-in-law is asking me to finance a Catepillar 315L. I believe it is a 1996 model with 3800 hours on it. It has a new paint job with new CAT stickers. None of that means anything as far as the condition. I will appreciate any advice especially about questions to ask and what to look for. We are driving to check it out this weekend. They are asking $34,000. Thanks HD
Well, there are a lot variables in this situation obviously. First off 3800 hrs is extremely low for 20 year old machine so I wouldn't count on that being the "true" hrs. If your son-in-law has done his homework and feels this machine is the one and if you going to be the bank I would think the best money spent would be to have the dealer come out with you and do an inspection. It can be a quick 1-2 hr cycle times, general operating condition check or pay a bit more and cut open a few filters and really get an idea of its condition. :my2c
Money well spent to have a Cat mechanic check out the machine. Better to spend a few hundred bucks to check out the machine than $34,000 to find out it needs a bunch more $$$ thrown at it.
It usually helps if you have two machines to look at. Younger machines with higher hours can be better if the maintenance is better and they have been on soft work (and they might be in a similar price bracket to older lower hour machines) Take a video or still camera with you to take lots of pictures. Sometimes the mechanics doing the independent inspection do not turn up at the same time as you, so you can have pictures of critical areas if the mechanic rings you up after they have done their inspection to talk about critical areas. Make a checklist - track shoes, rollers, idlers, sprockets, track motors, (look for splay, cracks in track frame) slew area, slew motor, slewing action, hydraulic system, engine and cooling system, external hoses, boom pins wear, cab and controls, air filtration etc, hydraulic rams - rods for surface damage or straightness, upper body chassis for cracks, grease zerks/ greasing system.(A/C if it has it), cab rust. Write down the Machines Serial number, engine number to check Cat records, if the plates are still on the machine. (Check Police- stolen property list, financial records if your area does that)
If you know the history of the machine you should be fine , by history I mean is it a local machine ,are the owners well known in the community ? If not the best thing is hiring a cat dealer to do a full inspection like many have suggested . They will be able to tell the hours on machine by the computer not the replaceable hour meter . They will also be able to tell you all the repairs they have done to it and any warranty repairs done by any dealer . It's money well spent !
More Questions and Comments Hey, Thanks to everyone for the replies. I will take the advice and get a CAT mechanic. I have a couple of more questions: 1) The track hoe is located about 3.5 hours from here. Should I just google a dealer CAT dealer close to the equipment location? It's a small town. So, I'm guessing the heavy equipment community is a small group of people. They may all know each other. 2) After I registered to heavyequipmentforums, I just clicked on the start a thread icon. That put this in the "General Equipment" category. After my registration was activated, I searched for CAT 315L. There are quite a few discussions on the "Excavator" forum. Should I ask the moderator to move my topic to the Excavator category? 3) During other research, I located CAT 315 CL, DL, etc. Are there any significant differences from the L model? It sounds like the L model is more basic. 4) I found some other 315Ls for sell (see the below link). The equipment listed there definitely supports big ben and Hanco's concerns about true hours. Plus, the equipment is much more expensive and has a lot more hours. The CAT that we are looking at has very low hours, a substantially lower price, and a new paint job. That combinations raises red flags for me. http://www.machineryzone.com/used/crawler-excavator/1/3049/caterpillar/315l.html Thanks for everyone's time and advice. HD
If neither you nor your SIL are experts in heavy equipment then contracting the services of someone who does is problaby the difference between keeping your shirt and losing it. The "20 gallon/DuPont" overhaul plus a sticker kit is the oldest trick in the book to make an old tired machine look presentable. An expert will see right through it, an amateur will simply see the shiny new paintwork and ignore what's underneath it. The 3800 hours maybe has a digit missing from it somewhere, as in 13800 hours, or even 30800 hours ......... If based on the price and the hour meter reading supplied by the advertiser it sounds too good to be true (compared to other similar machines on the market) then it probably is ...... If you give a good idea of where the machine is located then maybe one of our HEF members may know a good independent mechanic/technician in that particular area who may be able to do just as good a job as a Cat dealer for a more attractive price. Just thinking about it, isn't Willie59 in Knoxville..? I'm sure he must know somebody trustworthy.
The CAT is located in Mt Vernon, IL. There is another 315L located in Brandon, Mississippi that I am looking at. It has 10,753 hours on it. Should I even consider one with that many hours? Anyone know a good CAT mechanic in either of those areas.
Here's a link to the Brandon equipment: http://www.machineryzone.com/used/crawler-excavator/7195932/caterpillar-315l.html
Here's a link to the CAT that we are considering: http://evansville.craigslist.org/hvo/5492167766.html Thanks
Those hours should not frighten you at all so long as you are aware that components may need rebuilding at some point. In a recent thread I opened people's eyes a bit when I stated that our dozers were given a life of 80,000 hours and haul trucks 120,000. Hours alone won't kill a machine, bad maintenance and/or bad operation will kill it a sight quicker. Your original machine allegedly has 3800 hours on it. Who knows, the true number could be 18,000..? Would you feel better or worse about it knowing that..?
3rd photo from the left of the track sprocket "Made in Spain". That's aftermarket not OEM. Therefore that excavator has had undercarriage work done on it. Not exactly usual at 3800 hours..... draw your own conclusions. Did the seller give a Serial Number for the excavator..?
I emailed and asked for it. He hasn't gotten back to me yet.
that 1 at brandon equipment is trashed and the under carriage looks done. i would try and get a better deal on the other one.
Ok Thanks. It turns out my son-in-law has worked on several pieces of heavy equipment (front-loader, Track hoes, Back Hoes, etc). He recognized the components that Plebeian listed in his post. If we end up getting the Illinois one, I would like to update this thread from time-to-time regarding any repairs or maintenance.
L just means long undercarriage. Nothing to do with the features other than the U/C is slightly longer than non L. Most are L, in fact I believe every HEX sold in western Canada is standard "L"
Well, I punted on a used excavator and went with a new Link-Belt X3. Actually, it is a demo with 110 hours on it. Thanks for everyone's time.
That check to your sil just got much much larger then I guess...
No doubt. LOL