Any words of wisdom before I go look at a 1998, Kobelco SK60LC- 2400hrs- priced at $21,000? Anything special to look for? Thanks, Greg
big questions i would start by finding out if the hour meter has rolled over, and if not, then why is ther so little hours. 2400 hrs in 12 years? thats 200 a year. sounds fishy unless its on a farm. but i would also look at the hydro pump, i know those older kobelcos had pump issues and id check to see if shes worn out. also check the rotex bearing out cus if thats shot then the machine is basically scrap
Papa, Forgive my asking but- What is a rotex bearing? The "swing" bearing? ------------ I looked at this hoe over the weekend. I too, was suspicious of the hours until I looked at it. The guy that owns it was a money only partner and the other partner was to run the underground electric operations. It didn't pan out so he bought out his partner and ended up with the hoe. He claims to not really know anything about it- and I sort of believe him. They bought it 5 years ago and only put about 50 hours on it. It was a repo when they bought it. This hoe has the -either way- offset boom. That was a new deal to me but looked pretty handy. But I wonder if it throws the balance off when digging. It also has the front, fixed, 2 position blade. It has metal tracks- all in excellent condition. It was sitting in a building in the middle of a giant concrete parking lot so I didn't actually dig with it. I seemed to have plenty of power. and no pump noise. The good- It was extremely tight and clean. There was not 1 drop of oil under it. I imagine that might change once it starts getting used. The boom cylinder had just enough leakage to make it moist. All the others were dry. Its life had been mostly under roof. The bad- The exhaust from the manidold to the muffler was gone so it was sort of loud but the motor sounded OK to me. The bottom front glass was gone. Some of the heater/ac controls were stiff and would not move but I didn't try to force them. There are no books with it. The bucket teeth had an ugly job of bolts/welds instead of the pins they should have. I wonder what they shafts look like with the teeth off. - I am still thinking that this would make a good farm hoe for me and that about $1,500 should get it in excellent condition.(Plus about $600 to get it hauled- a little under 300 miles) What do you all think. Thanks, Greg
If it has an offset boom then it is a gray market machine. The cylinder should be easily repaired, but your local dealer may have a tough time getting you the correct seal kit. There's a user on here, MR. KOBELCO that can probably get you anything you need from Kobelco. Just make sure you have the serial number to give him. The SK60 is a great little machine. The swing gearbox and final drives will fail prematurely if not properly serviced. Try and post the serial number here. It will start with "LE" $21,000 sounds a little high. I would use the fact that it is gray market as a bargaining chip!
Serial # LEJ-0481
I made the deal at $19,000. I should get it delivered Saturday. The local Kobelco dealer told me this was a US serial #. He said parts would not be a problem. Any words of wisdom now that I have bought it? Thanks, Greg
Get the service and operators manuals for it. Study them and become very familiar with. Check and replace all the filters you can. Grease the entire unit. Check oil and water everyday. Treat it like your baby.
I called to order the operators manual and shop manual. No Luck --now they tell me it is a gray market machine. Final Drive, you were right in you above post. The Kobelco dealer has the electronic parts manual for it but cannot order the exact oper manual or shop manual. I told him to send me the closest thing he had. He assured me that they can get parts and if need be he can go straight it Isuzu to get engine parts. Hopefully this will be the case. Greg
The reason there is so much trouble with grey market machines and parts can be told in one work LAWYERS the gray market machines have things on them not made for the US market and also in some times they lack some of the safety items the US demands not to mention the emissions
Well that's the companies excuse, but the differences in build and safety are minor and often relate to the safety decals not being in English. I've bought imported units, lightly used, gray market machines for years and yet to have any customs agent question a shipment so for the US government it's not an issue at the border. They're worried about guns,drugs, and aliens. I bought a Kobelco unit in Ohio several years ago from a gray market dealer, and we had a pump seal problem, and Kobelco USA refused to sell us the part. We ended up importing the part from Kobelco in England. We have had the same BS from Hanix and Cat so we get parts from overseas dealers with no problems. The reason gray market units are so cheap is that many Asian countries allow their users to deduct the total cost of the machine in one year so the used markets are flooded with almost new machines while the new machine markets in Asia are strong. I've bought Mitsibishi and Kubota units with less than 500 hrs. for less that half the cost of the same unit here. So let the free market dictate the sales, and the MFG's ought to forget failed protectionist policies and sell parts to anyone. They might also lower the often too high prices they charge for US machines if they want US sales. I also notice that US sold machines have more electronics than overseas machines which I regard as a negative. Give me a plain jane machine that I can fix, wiithout buying overpriced chips, not a machine loaded up with electronic gizmos.
kobelco not bad machine
i want to buy kobelco sk300 is it good or not
I've had the chance to run this SK60 for a while. I think I will really like it. The offset boom will likely come in handy. The extra weight on the boom, from the offset apparatus, is not bad. I have been digging some limestone that has soft places in it and it will really sink and dig without as much trouble as a regular stick. It does require a soft touch so it doesn't get the "jerks" when the machine is not on absolutely flat footing- but I can deal with that. Now my worst trouble is that I ran the fuel down to about 1/4 tank and it picked up gunk out of the tank. I changed the filter and it fired up and ran with no bleeding(mainly because I could not find the bleeder on the pump). It ran good for about 1/2 hour them it would start missing. I have bled the #4 cylinder injector about 20 times and it still will not run long before it has to be done again. I guess I will have to clean the lines out to the filter from the tank. There was some junk that came out of the tank drain but I have seen a lot worse out of farm tractors. I have an operator's manual ordered but don't have it yet. Can anyone describe - so I can understand- where the bleeder is located on the injector pump? Thanks, Greg
Kobelco fuel problem First I'd drain the fuel tank and flush clean with fresh diesel. Lot's of crud in older diesels if they're not used daily. Also with the heat of this summer it's real easy to get diesel algae from off-road fuel dealers unless they do a real high volume. In the summer I run street diesel as it's lot's less likely to be contaminated. Then clean the primary and replace the secondary filters. Check for a plug right beside the incoming line to the injector body. Loosen it 1/2 to 3/4 turn and see if bubbles come out when you crank. if so close and bleed each cylinder right at the injector nut for bubbles for a couple of cranks. If it runs even half way well, let it run at a medium idle for 15-20 min. as it works the last of the air from the lines. Ren ointhead
Gotta agree with laketreefarm, I removed my tank, pressure washed it and dried it with a rag on a stick. If you do that , take a look inside to see what its like inside, Ive heard of rags being found at the bottom. You can also get the tank coated inside by companies, thats my plan for the winter as well as repacing the fuel line, its old and cracked.
:usa Help for a Newbie here, is this machine similar to a Komatsu PC60-7E? Looking at an '02 with just under 2000 hrs. on the clock. Undercarraige and interior seem to bear out the hours. Problem is, can't seem to find any info anywhere about this model machine. Anyone familiar with this model help me out? Thanx guys. jimmy
Profit, No help here- I have no idea. You are correct- there is not much info on the web about Kobelco excavators that I have found. Greg
LakeTreeFarm, As far as I can tell there is only 1 filter on this machine. There may be a screen somewhere but I have no idea where it might be. The only thing near the inlet on the pump is a bolt that about a 8mm wrench would fit. It also has a straight screwdriver slot and a lock nut that a 17mm wrench fits. Would this be the bleeder? It is a 4 cyl Isuzu. I changed the fuel filter again last night and started to crack the above mentioned bolt open but the lock nut was pretty tight and I did not want to force it. This makes the 2nd filter I have changed and both times i just bleed off at the 1st an 4th injectors. It bleeds out without much cranking and runs good. However I did not work it after changing the filter last night. It sure is a lot easier to bleed than the Massey Ferguson(Perkins) tractors I have done. Before I clean the tank-I hope to get by changing the filter a couple of times until I run the fuel out. I just have put about 35gal of fuel in it. Am I thinkin' right? Thanks, Greg
Kobelco fuel problem The nut with the locknut is probably the bleeder for the main line going into the injector block. Spray some WD on it and let sit overnight then break the locknut loose with little hammer taps on the handle of the box wrench. Follow the fuel line from the tank to the filter, through the fuel pump to the injector to make sure there are no "hidden filters". Also remove the end of incoming line from the fuel pump and look into the opening..you may find a small brass screen filter in the inlet to the fuel pump. Some Isuzu engines have this prescreen on them. I'd toss it and install an in-line glass filter bowel with large brass prescreen with a drain on the bottom before the fuel pump. This will catch water, crud and larger debris before it clogs your paper filter and allows you early warning of crap in your fuel. Every machine we got has 2 filters and we've got filters on our fuel tanks as well. Lot's of crappy fuel out their.
http://www.kobelcoamerica.com/partscatalog/Pages/partscatalog.aspx The parts catalogue is online. The difference is obviously the offset boom and it will more than likely have a different cab. Undercarriage is the same as US model. Main hydraulic components are the same. Engine is easily supported. Now, time for a tangent off of an earlier post in this thread about gray market equipment... I ran a Kobelco dealership when the real hard crack down happened with Kobelco gray iron and here's what happened. On two occasions people were killed on jobsites. In one case the machine was a Kobelco SK50UR. This machine was never intended for the US market (and if you are over 5'8" and 180lbs you'll be challenged to get into the cab and operate the machine, the cab is tiny!). None of the decals were in English and it lacked any safety features that we require. Once the lawyers became involved they sued everybody! The dealer that sold parts to the customer, the company that sold the machine, the broker, Kobelco America and Kobe Steel in Japan. Anyone and everyone that could be named in the lawsuit was. And they won..big time. This was the last of being able to help customers with gray iron. We dubbed the UR series of Kobelco, U R *****d There was a never a US version of these, so the SK30UR, SK50UR and SK75UR owners were left with a blacklisted machine. We were all issued letters stating that if we sold parts to gray market machines our dealership would be revoked. This is a tough topic I've had to deal with for 15+ years. People that don't understand the entire situation usually throw accusations of how everyone is trying to screw them out of money. The fact is that every country has different safety regulations and they are in place to protect you. Safety first, right? Would you (anyone reading) be OK with being responsible for a dealership being shut down because you bought parts for a gray market machine from them? It's usually not a matter of not wanting to help. It's the risk a dealer takes if they do. Importing of gray market equipment put a lot of small dealerships out of business. The days of sales, service and parts support from a local dealer have decreased steadily and I don't see it changing. What really sucks is that people continue to import these machines and fool people into buying them. They are the ones that I have a problem with. Now there are plenty of people that deal with gray iron that represent it for what it is. But I've seen a lot more that do the opposite. Knowingly bring in gray iron and misrepresent it. I've known people who've bought machines that later found it was gray go back to the person that bought it from and demand for them to take it back. That never works. And if you want to take legal action, you'll most likely hit a dead end. Like I said, it's a tough topic. I can easily make an argument about escalating costs for the consumer driving them to buy gray iron. I don't work for a dealership any longer, so thankfully I don't have to deal with this much. But I do have a lot of knowledge about it from a dealers perspective and from a buyers perspective. Sorry for the long post. I've seen many threads about gray iron and usually bite my tongue. I figured I'd share my experiences with you all and hopefully what I've typed can help someone in the future.
I wonder where my machine originated from. All the labels have English. It is the normal yellow/gray color and the cab is plenty big for me- 5' 11" 230lbs. The seat is perfect for me. The seat could probably accommodate a 6' 6" guy- Might not accommodate someone much fatter than me. The serial number is LEJ-0481 - the "J" is what throws off the exact match. I was able to get an operator manual for a regular SK60LE and so far I have found it to be an exact match. However it does not contain info about the offset boom. The closest dealer has the electronic version of the parts book but cannot order the exact oper. manual for it. NAPA has been able to get all the replacement filters using the Kobelco #s. I don't think the bucket is a Kobelco because the tooth holders insert from the sides- not the top. I am certainly satisfied with this machine for the farming/ playing I will use it for. I do appreciate the info y'all have given me. Maybe I won't be asking so many questions. Thanks, Greg
hi Greg in KY, the " J " in the serial number signifies that it is a japanese built unit. your machine checks out as being a fully supported machine in this the north american market. it is NOT a grey market unit. i ran the serial number in kobelcos warranty system and it shows to be a 1998. i'll e-mail you the pdf file. the kobelco dealer whom sold it was based in the states. kobelco does sell offset booms here in na but they are not as popular and thus are generally special ordered machines. they are widely used in europe and asia for their versatility and larger units are not usually required due to space restraints and longer working seasons. year-round. adam.
laketreefarm what is name and web address of dealer in ohio you talked about that sells gray market machines?