Obviously a lot rides how how the machine was taken care of. but I’ve been in the market for a wheel loader to shuffle rock away from my crusher. And I have been looking hard at 980G cat losers in the early 2000’s, my problem is a lot of these are any where between 20 to 40 thousand hours. all my machines have hire hours but nothing like that. This loader would be used maybe 600 hours a year and that would be a big maybe an I crazy for thinking about purchasing a machine with that many hours on them? Or are these machines still good for some easier Hours then running in a pit all day everyday? Any input would be great thanks
Its all about maintenance from the beginning. I have a buddy that has a 500 Komatsu loader with 34,000 hrs on it. You would never know it. everything works on it. Its a 1999, comfortable to operate with tight pins and bushings. He got it from a place that has a great maintenance program. I believe he is the second owner.
Lots of big loaders around with high hours We just picked up a third 980g at 22,000 hours that feeds the crusher 12 hours a day The one feeding the washplant all day has 28,000 and loading trucks is 31,000 I don't expect any special trouble out of any of them They are quite affordable to buy and fairly simple to maintain One of the big things besides engine and tranny is if the center pin is to hogged out that it needs to be split and bored runs around 10 thousand bucket pins and links are pretty straightforward to overhaul cylinders are simple a set of new tires is around 20 thousand so tire condition is something to look at
980G’s are solid work horses. As you say million variables. If closer to 40,000 you would think an engine and trans has been done at some point if under 30,000 it could be all original. They are built to be rebuilt and every part can still be replaced no problem. If it breaks it can be fixed ! Find one you figure is solid and get your Cat dealer to do a TA2 inspection. 600 hrs a year is a semi retirement job for this loader so it doesn’t need to be new.
Usually drive trains get rebuild in two time frames. Twelve to fifteen thousand and over twenty thousand hours. If you are looking at a forty thousand hour unit, you should be asking those kinds of questions in addition to what you can see, hear, smell and feel when you are inspecting the unit.
Thanks for the reply’s, I went ahead and paid the trucking to have it shipped into our site to use for a couple days so I should get a pretty good read on it from there. It should be here by Wednesday so we will see. thanks again
Well like others have said getting some information on what has been done over the years would go a long way for making a educated decision. And if you have or are an experienced operator running it for a couple days should give you a good feel for how it has been maintained. I lean more towards the older machines like 966C+D's but that is just because I like to stay away from the computer stuff. But we had at least three 980G loaders at the quarry and if basic maintenance was done and a decent operator was in the seat they were good machines. If I was to fault them at all the main thing I had problems with was pretty minor but could cause lots of problems, that was the grease lines to the boom and bucket linkage. A good operator and dedicated service person would catch and fix those problems before they caused any real damage. Just remembered one other thing, check the bolts on the bottom of the bottom center pin. At least one of ours tended to break them or back them out. It probably did need to be split and linebored but never really got sloppy to where you could feel it operating and every time I worked on it I would make it a point to check them and replace as needed. A couple times I did pop the bottom plate off and true up in the lathe to get it to fit better.
IMHO a 980G should be rebuildable ad infinitum provided that the front & rear chassis and the lift arms are in good shape. Everything else is bolt-on. 40k hours is up there but the basics of the machine ought stil lto be good at that point.
Rebuilding is a matter of economics and not of engineering. Have a sit down with a banker and tell him you want to finance $300,000 on a rebuild of a 980G for 60 months and let me know when the banker stops laughing.
I ran several 980Gs and 980Hs with 30k+ on them. Several of them had strange habits/quirks (fuel system air leak, no 3rd or 4th gear, RPM loss and engine cut-out from loading trucks without enough throttle, bad rear trunnion) but I blame those defects more on bad maintenance prioritization by the previous owner. If everything checks out during an inspection and demo operation, I wouldn't think twice about buying a 20-30k+ 980G. It's all about how the machine has been cared for.