As you all might be aware, I am in the market for a used excavator, about a 30-40K machine. As I learn more about what dealers are in my area and trying to sort out which machines I will have the best luck in being able to make repairs myself, I learned that John Deere and Hitachi did a merger for North American manufacturing in 1988. Does this meant that Hitachi machines made after 1990 are actually John Deere machines painted orange? Can someone fill me in on the merger and what that means for support of a 1993 machine? I now have my eye on a 1993 Hitachi EX200-2. The tags in the machine say Hitachi Construction Machinery Japan. Thanks
John Deere excavators are Hitachi machines with Deere engines as opposed to the Isuzu engines Hitachi machines use. Some Deere excavators, mostly the reduced tailswing models, also used Isuzu engines.
So, can one assume that at any Deere/Hitachi dealer, parts should be available...
Some of the Hitachi's , especially in the 90's could have been designed for other countries. They are called grey market excavators. They were not designed for North America. They are really virtually the same usually some safety features are different. I have a 1990 EX120 which is a JD 490D with a different engine. I have always been able to get parts. FWD
I forgot to add that he JD 690E which was made well into the 90's was the last total JD designed and manufactured excavator. FWD
The 690E was a Linde design with all Linde hydraulic components. Most if not all of the John Deere excavators sold today have the Isuzu engine. Hitachi has always done very well at supporting their machines for parts. Sometimes the dealer networks fall down in service.
If the machine is gray market getting parts can be hard.Dealers by us don't try to hard to get hard to find parts .We needed a track adjuster ,they said ,can't get it .Found one in Canada.Lot of other times it took six + weeks to get parts.
I have a Hitachi EX120 that apparently is grey market since everything on it is written in Japanese. Can you tell me where in Canada you were able to get parts? Apparently there are no Hitachi dealers in the US.
I looked online for someone that sold used parts .Just happened to find him by luck and he had what I needed new.
I'd say that is an inaccurate statement. There is a Pape dealer in Sac. Dealer support for gray market hitachi's is spotty at best, but that's true of most gray market equipment. Deere excavators from 120-450 conventional tail swing still use Deere engines. 650 and 850 use the 15.9L Isuzu same as the Hitachi models. Just guessing, but probably has everything to do with Deere's biggest engine being 13.5L. Smaller ones use Yanmar and are built by Airman for Deeretachi.
Most of the smaller Deere's used John Deere engines. I know the 450D's used Isuzu and I think it was a 6WG block like the 650D and 850D used. Not sure if anything smaller than the 450D used Isuzu or John Deere though. When the ZX5 series came out the 470's got the smaller 6UZ Isuzu. I know the smaller 4HK and 6HK Isuzus had a some problems with cracking pistons. Isuzu did have a couple piston revisions to rectify the issue. Rarely did the cracked pistons seem to cause major problems though. We usually found them when doing a head gasket or during a rebuild.
I'm pretty sure the 135 and 225 short radius Deere machines used Isuzu diesels, basically a Hitachi painted Deere colors
92U you're right about the 450D having an Isuzu. C and G have Deere 6125 and 6135 receptively.