I came across the FarmCraft101 youtube channel a little ways back and a video occasionally makes it to my feed. He revives one to make it a solid running machine again. The fellow has a lot of skill and I have a huge appreciation for folks that solve problems that go beyond just buying parts off the shelf. Old machines come with the challenge of obsoletion so it's always motivating to see people get through those types of issues. Not to mention, it also bring to light the resources you need to fix machines of that size (ie. smaller excavators to make lighter work of the big ones lol). Anyways I watched every minute of it the other night. PS - Make sure you watch it with your wife so she can ask "how much is left of the video" 11 times.
Fairly good video showing why it's not a good idea financially to fix up old iron. He should have replaced some of the hydraulic hoses where the wire was showing and rusted. It's also not a common machine. I'm not sure someone would pay $30K for a 40+ year old Case/Poclain excavator. It has a bizarre bucket linkage that wouldn't provide the highest bucket force. It might have a larger cylinder to compensate though. Removing the brazing to weld the fitting may not have been necessary if the brazing was thick enough. He could have made a sleeve with a slot to fit over the line to fix the fuel line. His welding there was pretty redneck.
basically, if you already have it you try to fix it as best you can. You don't buy and look to fixing up old orphans like that.
Not into these "can I get this started/running/fixed videos" on YT however fast forwarded to the end and at least this guy was honest with his hours, the fact he makes money off the video and none of what he did really makes sense for anyone to do.
If a person has a use for a machine then it might make a little more sense to fix an older machine. Would still want to start with something in fair condition rather than something in very poor condition.
While probably not the best use of money to do something like this I think there is something satisfying to keeping an old unit running instead of just discarding it like everything else. Another benefit with a repair series like this is for anyone with a machine like this there is a tutorial on how to fix just about anything. It's nice to see what someone did for obsolete parts etc. It'd be boring watching people have a dealership deliver brand new machines to people and see walkarounds.
I remember when those were brand new . I remember why they went to the scrap heap .
That was the whole premise of the experiment. I think he went into knowing well that it was no a good idea. It was more so for content as the primary purpose, and the bonus was ending up with a good working machine. I will agree - they do get old. In the "car enthusiast" circles it has become a meat swinging contest to see who can rebuild the most far-gone car. I always appreciate peoples' on-the-fly solutions... was definitely what drew me to the video.
His videos are pretty good i think. I subscribed to his channel and watched some of the large excavator videos as the came out. I get into some dumb projects like this myself so can relate. Some work out well and some not so well. When things work out not so well for me i pull out a saying i’ve coined- “education is never free”.
Cool but a waste of money to me personally. If I dopped my coffee mug and it broke into a dozen pieces, I'm not glueing it back together so I can keep using it.
That analogy is a bit of a stretch lol, but I get it.
LOL......how about this one then. My wife's Jeep has 310K miles on it and needs a transmission overhaul. The Jeep is worth $5K by the book, the transmission installed is over $8K. Aint gonna happen.
My understanding has always been that Case offers the least long term support and parts availability for older machines compared to Deere and CAT.
In my world the projects that I got into that turned out not to be a good idea it wasn't quite so clear going into it. One example was a Miller Pipe Pro 304 diesel engine driven welder I bought. Made power when I bought it so I figured go for it. Nice Kubota D1005 engine, 2500 hours, for $2k? What I didn't know at the time is that Miller engine driven welders make the best rodent houses. Miller for some idiotic reason doesn't consider this in their design. This was an inverter welder so all electronics and pretty much trash. I wound up ripping the welder guts out of it and installing a generator head and it makes a very nice diesel generator. But a total looser of a project. I'm not one to fix a piece of garbage just well enough to pass it along to the next sucker.
So know manufacturer's are supposed to make equipment rodent proof. Did you do anything to prevent rodents getting into it since Miller makes the best rodent houses? Maybe the owners of the equipment should take some responsibility to protect it from rodents and the weather if they aren't using it all the time. What about stored vehicles, it is the manufacturers fault that rodents get into it. Unless you have a sealed box rodents can and will get in. If equipment has to be made rodent proof how much extra is that going to cost??
Deere isn't very good for parts support on older machines. From what I've seen regarding backhoes Case seems to have better parts support than Deere. Deere has obsoleted some stuff from the 90's.
I've had fairly good luck with Case, Deere, and IH with parts for older equipment, never owned any Cat. You have to be reasonable with your expectations, no mfg is going to stock everything for older equipment and prices may be much higher than aftermarket. That said, I have a few pieces of Case construction equipment from the 80's-90's and Case still has probably 75% of the parts available, however these were popular models and Cummins powered which helps. I've watched several of Farmcraft101's videos over the years and they are pretty good. I don't know him personally but he lives not too far from me.
i did make it rodent proof and it was very simple to do on a welder. Other equipment certainly would not be so practical to do so. That of course wasn’t the point of my post. Point is sometimes you don’t know until you’re in deep.
It's common on Lincoln SA200's that have been sitting to have to remove the end cap and the cover over the main brushes to check for rodent nests.
Came across his videos looking for info about messing with track springs. Pretty good videos, and I can't stand most youtube slop. My repair:
Pressed it back together in the track frame using the tensioner itself to provide the force--worked good. But it was nice to farmcraft go first messing with the death spring.
I cant speak to the old Poclain engineered excavators but ive been able to get just about everything ive needed from Case for their first and second generation Sumitomo built excavators that came right after the Poclain era. I currently run three Case excavators from the early to mid 90s and have had two of them within a few years of new. Ive rebuilt those two machines almost entirely more than once, less a few hard parts like the boom, carbody frame, and undercarriage frame. The third one I purchased for future parts but it works so im using it until the better condition one needs something from it. I always heard good things about CAT support until I ended up with three CAT/Mitsubishi machines and tried to get support. Never heard much great about Deere support more than a few generations old. I just pickup up a 1995 Hitachi EX550 (same as Deere) that doesn't need anything now but ill find out how supportive they are when it breaks down.
I was watching his videos about that old Case/Poclain. Probably one of the reasons I got into that old Cat 215B which had been sitting for like 10-15 years only a few kilometers away from me. I think his videos are good. He seems to be straightforward and honest. Ofc if one is to calculate some modest cost per hour worked none or few such project makes any sense. But he makes money from Youtube so his calculations are different ofc. And I am of the opinion that we are really throwing away too much stuff that could have been repaired, so I really like it when people have the time to fix up stuff even if it might not make much sense strictly econimically speaking.