I have an opportunity to get an early 1990's Link Belt 2800 excavator. I haven't been to see it yet. I've not seen much on these forums about Link Belt so I'm wondering if they are good machines and/or if there is anything unique that I should be aware of.
Not many around here either. I've ran one newer one, pretty much the same as any other hoe.. See if they have oil sample tests ..... if they have a place to dig , try it out I ran one in the early 80's .... It had the link belt controls.... I think the swing and bucket are on one control, and the boom and stick on the other control ... We had 6 of them on a waterline job.... Only pain back then was lack of parts... couldn't go to bobbys hose shop for new hose, because bobby didn't have metric hose or fittings... We had a 5400 ... linkbelt had come out and cut holes all over the sheet metal...trying to keep it from overheating... We rented a 7400 back in the 80's . a monster .. I didn't see it hauled in, but was told it was 6 or 7 trucks. I ran it for 1 day .... slow but moved alot of dirt....
The Link Belt 2800 in the early 90's was about the time Case and Sumutoma bought into them. The Case machine were 9010,9020,9030,9040,9050and 9060. I think the 9040 is the same as the 2800. We sold quite a few 9040s and 9030 size machines. They were a very good machine. Only problem is they had a number of cylinder changes and parts are hard to get. The seals are no problems, if not from Linkbelt or Case, Hercules Seals will have them. It's a problem if the gland, Rod or barrel is damaged.They are hard to find and expensive to manufacture at a machine shop. Check with your linkbelt dealer about parts availability. If it is a 1991 or newer the Case 90 series were exactly the same machine except the motor. They may have some parts .
I ran a 2800 for years,I am guessing that it was a mid to late 80s machine,as mentioned above it was a Sumitomo product.As with most of the Sumitomo excavators that I have run it was an outstanding machine.It seemed to do everything well.I think I changed a couple of waterpumps on it but aside from that the Mitsubishi engine kept ticking them off.The owner was not big on maintainance,seems like we removed a link in the tracks to keep it going but it still ran good. I did have to remove the computer on it and resolder some connections but it ran just great after that.It was one of those machines that you remember for a long time,it was just a sweet machine to run.Ron G
I own a 2800Q same size as a 9040 Case, love the machine, picked 3 seperation chambers of a semi trailer that weighed 15,000 lbs each, put them in the hole a little heavy but did it did it, has a 1.5 yard bucket on it. Great on fuel the only thing I did to it was put on a catwalk. All kinds of parts if needed, blew one hose had it that afternoon. digger
There are a lot of 2800's around here. They are very good like all other Link-belt machines.
Thanks to everyone for the info.
Hey Countrylife, not sure where you are in FL, I'm in Jacksonville and there is a company here that sells, services and has parts for Link Belt. If I were you and it ran good, I would get it. I ran a 2800Q up north and just like other Link Belts it ran very well.
EGS, how's it going? I was a member of the 139 when I lived in Milwaukee until I moved to FL in '97 and I still have my card. How are things up there? Work is pretty slow here in FL and I've thought about making the move back(if it wasn't for the cold).
Link Belt makes a great no nonsense machine. Lot of power there.