Any reviews comments suggestions? Are these decent machines or a waste of money? this will be my first purchased excavator found a nice one for 20k. thanks WScott
I have an EL240B Just my opinion, it must be a very good machine for that money, seems kinda high for the age BUT...... if it is in very good condition, then it's a great deal. Parts aren't cheap, especially OEM Cat parts, and if you need them to do the work, more money if it's ready to work and you can get quite a few hours out of it with no repairs then you're in pretty good shape. Just an example, I spent about 25 G's having them redo my undercarriage and a few other "minor" things inspect it thoroughly, or take someone knowledgeable....money well spent again just my opinion OH, I think they are pretty damn decent machines. I have no complaints, not to electronically complicated to work on either
Thanks, Yea I know all about CAT prices. lol Ive been in business quite awhile. Own CATs, Case, etc. Just havent ever purchased a excavator. Usually rent or lease them. Thought it might be nice to own a mid size one. Come in handy. Anyone else own a e120b?
No one??? On my own I guess
A little late, but.. here's my noob advice: I bought one two years ago. Dealed down to 18500. The worst part is how much you'll pay for a service manual. I've chipped a pad or two on rocks, dropped a small tree between the boom and the cab, swiveled into big trees. Neglected a top roller and a couple lower rollers wearing flat from not turning, lost teeth because the shanks need built up.. I had an oil pressure sensor go, but overall, it's in great shape and really strong. I might suggest getting a look at the final drive fluids (as, another machine I bought threw up all its drive bearings all over the field months after I extracted fluid full of shavings and ignored it), the swing oil gearbox oil, etc to make sure there are no metal shavings. I might take off the plates behind the final drive sprocket motors to check for rusty pipes there. You can inspect the turntable gears too, and check that nobody pumped so much grease into the front or rear turntable zerks that it blew the seal out. Good luck. If you're just using it around your own property, it's great. If you want to do jobs with it, in my opinion, they're useless without a good friend with a very large dump truck, CDL, and 20 ton trailer. Nobody wants to pay you an extra $500 to get the machine to and from them, and they don't want you to leave giant pile of dirt all over the place.
In my experience talking to plenty of guys who come in with them they haven't had any major complaints about reliability or parts wearing prematurely. Parts are pretty much all made and fairly plentiful. Obviously being an older machine your going to have to be aware of your major systems (hyd pumps, swing and travel motors) for any lack of maintenance from the previous owners. When your calling up cat for parts make sure you take full advantage of the classic line, carries all the same perks of warranty as a regular new and still made by cat but usually half or even less than half the price. Overall it's up to you. If you take care of her she takes care of you.