Hey guys. I'm looking at buying a Komatsu PC150-5 with a mechanical thumb. It has about 11k hours. No leaks or welds that I know of. Sprockets and rollers appear to be in good condition. Guy is asking $22k. This is my first excavator and will be used for farm work, ponds, stumps, etc. Any problem areas or recommendations on things to look for? Seem like an ok price? Thanks in advance for any feedback.
check the final drives good (track motors) they had a high failure rate in the older machines in that weight class.maybe do an oil sample
Other than an external visual inspection and oil sample, how else can I inspect the drives?
I don't know that they have a high failure rate over any other machine of that vintage. They are rare and parts are generally only available through a Komatsu dealer. The biggest thing to check is to travel the machine in a straight line and see if it drifts off line one way or the other. I generally like to run them at least 50 feet or so and longer is better. You also should do a cycle time on the boom as well. Stretch the stick all the way out and put the bucket in the full dump position. Set it down on the ground, put the engine at max idle and the the monitor in the HO mode. Use a stop watch and time how long it takes to raise the boom all the way to the stop. It should be less than 4.5 seconds. If it won't walk straight or the boom cycle time is way slow you should have a knowledgable mechanic look it over to give you an idea of the costs to make it right. Good Luck!
Ok thanks. I can check all that when I look at it again this weekend.
Good advice. I work for a Komatsu dealer here in so cal and have a couple customers still using pc120 and 150-5s. They don't put a lot of hour on them but they've proven to be good machines.
What are you considering a lot of hours? This machine has about 11k hours, but I will prob only use it 30-40hrs a month.
The two I've worked on have 6k hours or so each with nothing done but the by-the-book PMs done by us. I have experience on a lot of makes of equipment, Komatsu is right on par as far as quality with the best of them, where they lack is product support. As long as you have a good dealer near you that can get you good quality used parts when you need them or even new parts that machine will be great for you. The tests john c explained will tell you how the pumps are doing and oil samples will tell you weather you need to change the hydraulic oil or not. I'd change all the oils if it were me just so you can start fresh on the intervals.