Hi to everyone on this great site,,,I have put my feelers out to purchase either a Caterpillar 980B or 966C ) not really fussed which one) anyway i have had lots of emails from Shangai in China offering me Cat 966C's ,however they are not the same looking as the 966C i operated in the 70's..look completely different...In saying that has anyone have knowledge of what these chinese Caterpillar loaders are like... going on to my second question, i live in West Australia and wonder how difficult it would be to import a loader if i see what i like from overseas....i have read where a used machine needs to be cleaned nearly to the point of washing the paint off,, no gas in the aircond, certificate for this and that, hidden costs such as port fees, unloading, daily storage fee ,the list goes on..,,,But people import all the time so this is where i get confused ,surely cant be that hard... thanks for any help, appreciate it...
Don't get involved, they are not what they appear to be. They can be assembled from parts machines, just plain junk, knock offs, stolen, not the sellers...pick a bad theme. There is no rule of law in China, contracts are not enforceable, most of the time the Chinese government is involved and they will not allow you to challenge them in their court system. You have NO recourse if the deal goes bad or you do not receive the machine you bought or if you do not receive anything.
Sound advice
chinese loaders Good thanks for that, thought as much but decided to get other peoples opinions,,, made my mind up now
Japan, I would say yes and send you a couple contacts I know are truly honorable, though almost all are or they don't last long there. China is beyond the wild west, have you heard of the farmers putting melamine powder in milk to stretch it, killed dozens of Chinese babies, and they put plastic pellets in the rice to stretch it, and some of it ends up being exported. Machines are no different, if you can't go there or have a reliable agent inspect and follow the machine right onto the ship, and the same with the forwarding company handling the export, you're almost guaranteed to be cheated or stuck somehow. In this case let the used machinery dealers take the risk, buy a used machine locally and maybe even pay your CAT dealer to have a tech inspect it and give you the complete (if recorded) history on that machine's serial number.
just a follow up, i think i read somewhere a bloke bought a loader from china and when it arrived it wasnt the one he ordered,, then of course he cant just send it back,
Our emissions issues here are a pain, one guy a few years back had never imported before and thought he was in tall clover, bought a whole slew of used excavators in Japan... made port in the gulf, set them on the dock, customs inspected, informed him none of the engines were legal. He had to pay to send all the machines back, and then took a bath reselling them. Hard lesson. Anyway, hope you find a good loader!
Swantrax over in Hazelmere brings used machines in from Japan. He may be worth a call. Has his own quarantine set up as well.
reply to chinese loaders ..Good thanks for that info, will look into it,, i have heard the name Swantrax but not looked them up...
David Jones is the man.