I know the smaller Cat loaders are made in Japan or somewhere overseas, what years and models did that start? I would like to get a larger loader like a 953 or 963 but the newer hydros scare the hell out of me and the Asian builds I want to avoid. Am I looking too old to do any good by considering this? Reason I ask is I saw a Komatsu D65 and a 977L sitting side by side with a D57S and a 955K, very few and subtle differences.
Hi Dave Caterpillar and Mitsubishi heavy industrys set up a joint venture in 1967 to build cat machines for the southern hemisphere and local market. They,re still building them there ! Dozers D3 to D7, loaders 931 to 977L. Well its all the current models now but that was the lineup when I left the dealer here in 86 !! All there gear came down here; got 3 myself ! 2x 6D and a 4E. But we also got D4-D6 from USA and UK. Is a few minor differences from US made stuff; mainly electrical like starters and alternators. A lot of stuff sits in japan and does very little hours. Was a few clever people buying them cheap in the late 90s and selling them here; but the rest off the world discovered them too and suddenly we had to pay the 'new' market rates. Bare in mind in those days one of our pacific pesos, $, only bought 50 cents US, bit better now we get 75 cents !:drinkup cheers mate Merv
Thanks Merv, good information to think on. I did not realize it went back so far.
I wouldn't sweat the asian build. Japan is about the polar opposite of china, excellent build quality.
Some of the loaders were built in Japan. The 953's were built in Japan, the US and France. My BBX 953C was built in France, along with my CS433E. Take a look at this site - http://www.ironrecord.com/ It has good information on Cat equipment. Personally I am not afraid of Japanese built Cat equipment, my D5G is one of the most reliable tractors I have.
I wouldn't be afraid of one either, we have owned about 10 Japan made cats over the years and they were fine. This is my opinion but I do have a lot of expierence with both hydro and power shift, and I would take a hydro anyday, to work on and fix or run.