I'm also looking to get a mini-ex this spring. Use will be personal, lot of misc work around my place including lifting, so a thumb is a must. I've got bobcat/kubota dealers near me and currently an S650 skid steer. But I think an mini-ex would be a better tool for some of the things I'm going to do this year. So I'm looking for something in the 6k-9k lbs range. Looking for something used. Will be doing all the maintenance/repair work myself. Are there any specific brands/models/years that stand out above the rest? Anything I should run away from? I may go look at a Kubota kx71 & Bobcat 334 this weekend. Do these have any of the Def/Doc/Dpf like the newer skid steers?
Newer models can have a DOC, and or a DPF. Pretty hard to find SCR on a mini ex since I cant think of one that makes over 75 hp. The 334 was a decent excavator back in its day. I am not sure how they have faired as they aged. I would consider Taki as well. Really solid excavators.
I've got an older Kubota U35 that I have for around the house. Its been a really reliable machine. Its pretty smooth as well. The main thing I dont like about it is all of the hydraulic fitting ends are metric, and the ones going into the valve block are metric o ring with a live swivel on the hose... Lets just say around here it's pretty much impossible to find those fittings on a Saturday when you have a blown hose. I dont know if the newer machines are the same way.
Kubota kx121-3 or a 35D deere.
I’m a big fan of the Deere 35d... I’ve got a gray market version and the thing is solid considering the hours.
Ran one to over 6000 hours with no major repairs. I am still mad my boss sold it and got a kubota u55-4 i hate that thing.
Any idea what year or years this came to pass...I intend to buy an excavator in the next couple of years, but would like to avoid the added equipment, and have no desire to get into the whole delete emission equipment fiasco.
Taki, JD, Kubota and I'd throw a Yanmar in there as well. I bought my first excavator once. lol. Don't get too hung up on the brand. Honestly, anything mainstream is going to be pretty good. What I believe is much more important is how, and how often it's been maintained. Not a big fan of bobcat, mainly because of the propriotary coupler/hard to get other buckets/attachments w/o changing the lugging. Not a huge fan of CAT minis either. You pay for the stickers
Different OEM's use different strategies. So there is no single year that applies to every make. Generally speaking, I don't find DOC a big deal. I would prefer not to have a DPF though. As you start looking at machines that interest you, you will need to investigate what emissions are in use on that particular machine for the year your looking at.
Not sure of all the details but when I was getting my mini ex I looked at the new Sany's for a bit and basically there were cut offs on engine HP that governed what emissions stuff was required. The Sany 35 mini did not have DPF or SCR/DEF as it was below 30hp ( I believe) which was the first threshold. As HP goes up more stuff is required. First DPF then combo of DPF and SCR/DEF. I want to say Kubota was the same way but didnt look at those. This could be a WA state thing or overall not sure. Im still an amateur in the heavy equipment field.
Just got back from the dealer. Hard to find any private machines. They had a 2006 KX71-3, 3200hrs, seemed to be in decent shape, for $16500. I think that's a decent price for that yr/hrs. Also looked at a newer KX040, and that was just way too big. KX018 are way tiny. Hard to tell the size of some of these machine until you are standing next to them. KX033-4 was a good size, but being almost new, it was bit more than I wanted to spend. Anyway, the KX71-3 is a definite maybe might work. When temps warm back up a bit, I'll go take it for a test ride.
Thanks guys...I don't want to steal this thread from phil314, but appreciate the responses.