Hi, I'm looking at used backhoes and came across one advertised as coming with two front buckets. The standard one and a larger material bucket. I wasn't getting a good vibe from the seller, sometimes it's hard to tell if you are being fed a line or if the person is genuine. After I had tested it out I asked if he ever had the extra bucket on he said no, I then asked "It does fit right?" He then said he never had it on. Then said he had to go and left. So I grabbed my tape measure and measured the vertical center to center distance of the mounting pins. It was about 19.5" on the machine (2000 Case 580SM), on the extra bucket it was 15.75" or so. Am I wrong that means the bucket wont fit? The upper arms look like they may pivot but then I think that would throw everything off. I didn't measure the horizontal pin distance, should have. Here is a picture of what I measured: The machine has approximately 6600 hours on it. The back seems OK considering the hours, here is a video of the top swing pin/bushing play. About 1/8-3/16 I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgDjTLkwHFo The front has a fair bit of slop in the pins. It's missing one front wheel lug bolt/nut (odd). The window mechanism to hold it closed on the drivers door is broken. A little rusty around the valve solenoid on the underside, floors look OK just some surface rust, only one sign of a leak at a hose joint on the underside, nothing around the hoe valve stack. Drove fine in all gears and stopped OK. I only had a pile of top soil to play with but it picked it up no problem. I could drive into the pile in 4x4 and watch the front wheel spin. Rear tires are gone. I ran it for about 45min, enough time to expose any problems? Asking price is fairly low, 22k. Thanks! Some more pictures.
One thing that caught my attention was the next to last picture. I'm assuming that's the transmission or hyd. spin on filter. Looks very rusty making me wonder when it was last changed. As for the slop in the pins and bushings at the back. I'd be pricing new pins and bushings and at least get the price dropped enough to pay for the parts. If replaced at this point you may get lucky and not have any damage to housings, but if let go you will be looking at welding and line-boring.
Personaly, I would walk away. I have machines come to my shop like that all of the time. From what I am seeing, in the pictures, this hoe hasent been maintained at all. The u- joints are dry, the hyd filter looks to be the original from the factory, most of the pivot points that can be seen in the pictures have dried grease from the past but nothing fresh, some show no signes of grease what so ever. If the hyd filter looks like that what does the hyd oil look like ? Just saying that there appears to be some underling issues that wont be seen while opperating this machine for 45 mins
Regarding your question about the spare bucket it seems strange that the centre distance indicated on your photo would not be the same if the 2nd bucket was actually designed for the machine. The different distance would alter the bucket tilt geometry. The other bucket may still fit because it's the distance across the lift/tilt arms and the pin diameters that will determine if it'll fit. Shame you didn't measure them. I'm like other posters. This machine appears to have not seen grease for a long time, neither have critical filters been changed. To me it screams "Money Pit". Walk away - better still, RUN - and don't look back whatever you do. There will be others and they WILL be in better condtion than this POS.
OK thanks guys, you confirmed what I was thinking. Yeah I saw the filters too, he claimed he did a service when he bought it 200 hours ago (and less than a year ago), sure doesn't look like that to me. Funny I looked at a 2003 580M the same day with 2600 hours, the front was nice and tight but the back had the same amount of movement in the swing pivot. It did have fresh filters, but the underside showed similar rust and the hood had a brush paint job with obvious rust under it(who are they trying to fool?). He had also installed an aftermarket trans cooler as the factory one was leaking. Asking price was 37k, dropped to 34k when I got there (private seller). I figured I should look at something with much lower hours to see the difference. Little surprised by the condition for 2600 hours. Again thanks.
Keep looking, you'll find a better deal and a better unit. If it look like _____, and smells like ______, chances are it is