I am probably buying a CTL this month and need some advice ASAP. Been looking hard at the Volvo 125 or 135 and can get what appears to be a great deal on a 135, around 70K. However, I spent about a hour with a friend who had a Volvo 85 and he had so many issues, Volvo bought it back. He previously had a Takauchi (sp?) and expected the Volvo to be as good, but ended up hating it. Does anyone on here have any experience with the Volvos, good or bad? We have had Volvo excavators and love them, as did my friend. I don't want to make a mistake I'll regret. My friends complaints were many, but mainly unresponsive controls, jerky, rough ride, impossible to carry a good grade, no visibility when dumping into a truck, poor starting in cold weather, cheaply built, etc. etc. Thanks for any advice or opinions.
We just bought a new T770 Bobcat. We ran Case, Cat, Kubota, and the Bobcat. The Bobcat was the best machine for us. We got it for under $70,000. Everyone one here though will say the dealer will decide what brand to get.
Having good luck with Volvo excavators has zero relation to the SSL or CTL's. The SSL and CTL's are actually made by JCB and branded by Volvo. There have been a huge amount of these machines going through Iron Planet lately. I have not looked to see what they have gone for but I would guess that somewhere around half of the 70K you were quoted for one. I cant speak to how they run or what ownership is like. The Volvo dealer here doesn't carry them, but if they ever bring one in, I plan on running one just to see what they are like. The cab seems nice when you sit in them.
Here is one of the 135's without a cab and some hours on it. http://www.ironplanet.com/for-sale/...125&hitprm=c=2269,pstart=20,sm=1,sort=ad+desc There are some cabbed models that sold in Canada for around 30K Canadian dollars with some hours on them.
Shimmy, KSSS, Thanks for the responses. Volvo is possibly offering me a 5 year bumper to bumper warranty on the unit. That certainly eases some of my concerns. What do you think?
That certainly helps and adds value to the machine. Does the warranty transfer to a different owner? If it did you it would certainly increase the resale of the machine. I would demo it and if you like running it, and it does what you want it to do, I would perhaps consider it. Just realize that it if your paying a comparable amount to other more popular machines, your resale will be considerably worse than those machines. If you getting the Volvo at a discounted price, than it would hurt less at trade in time (seems everyone forgets the good price they got 4 years prior when they bought the machine, and concentrate only on the poor trade value they are currently presented with).
Not sure about the warranty transfer. I have told my salesman I definitely want to demo one before I buy. If it does what I want it to do I may buy it.
I spent some time in the volvo 135 in my opinion it was terrible terrible visibility especially when loading trucks but to see the front of bucket properly you need to lean right forward in seat and I'm 6 foot tall also badly balance the rhs of unit is considerably heavier I think due to the single boom but driving across soft ground the rhs just went down twice as far also the controls are just vague no feel and the ride is terrible I'd consider cat ,bobcat or terex but only terex if the application suited the undercarriage and forget the rest
Aussie bobcat and all, thanks for all the info. Your info pretty much sums up what I have learned from many sources. Largely in part from the info I got from PAfarmer, I have decided to purchase a Cat 289D with just about every option available. It should be delivered sometime this week. Over the last 20+ years I have purchased many Cat machines and their service has always been great.Thanks again for all the help.