Updating the fleet again. Have 3 544GTC's over 20k hours. Reliable and easy to work on. Dealer charges higher than list for parts. Had TC54H. Kept eating pinion bearings, ride control was worthless, transmission computer was possessed. Have 2 L70E's. Dealer sucks, parts outrageous in price, reliability so so, but so damned expensive for parts (assuming the dealer sends the right ones), and have yet to get more than 1 reman Volvo part that was remotely near the quality of the OEM. Have two 544J loaders that have been pretty reliable, but, when I got a 544K, with common rail injection, I lost road speed, torque, and horsepower vs the J's. So, the Komatsu guy has been pretty persistent on getting his foot in the door again, and I haven't had a new komatsu loader since 1988. Any opinions on a WA270? Reliability? Performance? Emission issues? Serviceability? Any other machines worthy of trying out, like Cat, Case, etc???
Look at Kawasaki or Hyundia you have a dealer Highway Equipment in your area.
There are a growing number of Hyundai's around here and so far all are happy! Mostly hl770 and 780's.
If you've got a Kawi dealer around I'd give one of those a try, quite, powerful and pretty damn reliable.
I don't think any manufacturer makes a machine that doesn't have some kind of issue. I kind of figure the top tier to be Cat, Komatsu, Deere and maybe Volvo in no particular order. Next tier down might be Kawasaki, Case/Hyundai, Doosan and maybe some of those Chinese made things. I've heard of emission and fuel issues on everyone's machines. On the whole they all seem to be getting better over time. Used to see them turned at around 6,000 hours and most now go twice that before a rebuild. From your initial post it sounds like you have a good handle on this anyway. Just make the best business decision you can with what you know. If you can negotiate better terms and maybe some extra warranty it might reduce the gamble of a new machine you haven't used in the past. Getting over 20K hours on a 544 Deere is quite an accomplishment!
As for the 544GTC's, all are over 20k hours. All on original transmissions. All took injectors around 12k hours, shortly followed by injection pump rebuilds. One took an engine at 19.5k hours because no one could see the separated balancer when they checked the oil level. Engine was immaculate inside, but, running with no balancer sheared the #3 main bearing cap off, and windowed the oil pan. Was driven on and off the lowboy under it's own power, with an empty crankcase. All three took a new engine to converter driveshaft around 15k hours. My 20,800 hour unit finally wore out the front pinion bearings just this week.
Personnaly i wouldn't buy a new loader now , i'm not sure of the new engine technology , i would consider a used machine CAT , VOLVO , KOMATSU year before 2011 max 5000 hours , particulary if you do the services yourself .
I have run komatsu loaders, and liked them. I havent run a wa270 but I have sat in one. Just from sitting in it, it was a very uncomfortable machine with a very odd cab layout. If you are looking for a loader in that size I would look at the kawasaki 70z7. It is a wonderful, comfortable, powerful, fuel efficent machine. It is the best loader in that size currently. I wouldnt buy any other loader in that size class. The only other loader that comes close to the kawasaki is the Doosan Dl250-3. That is a very good loader. Volvos are junk. i personally like Deere, komatsu's aren't bad, hyundia's are junk. Doosan and Kawasaki are the best.