trying to locate serial no & model no tag on a Komatsu PC150LC-6. It is not at the base of the cab, boom side. Not even a trace. The attached pic is the only tag I found. Any help appreciated.
Does it have the Cummins clone engine or a genuine Komatsu engine? What you likely have is gray market machine that was stolen some time in the past. There isn't much reason to worry about that now as there are no records kept on used machinery that would identify who owned it in the past. As far as I can remember that model of machine was never made available to dealers through normal channels.
I bought it from Komatsu dealer in Casper WY. It was under a service contract since early 14 with the casper office. Prior to that it was at Komatsu in Salt Lake. Looks like in late 12 early 13 the Salt Lake dealer installed a new engine per the service records I received. But I have found no history prior to 2012. I have a bill of sale from Casper Komatsu with the serial no. But I don't know how they verified that the number matches the machine without a tag ? Which I can't find. It does have the 4BTA in it.
So what is the serial number that you have?
K32309 is what is on the bill of sale and service records. Just bothers me that I can't match that number anywhere on the machine.
The attached records show hours, serial No. and looks like engine replacement just over 4K hours.
I bought it as is from the dealer. One thing that does not set well with me is they listed it as having 5900hrs. When it arrived it had the E02 code showing, so I could not read the hours. With your help I cleared the code and the hours read as they should. But it showed 6,214 not 5,900 as listed on bill of sale.
It's a 2001 model unit. They weren't available in this country in 2001. The dealer I was working for in 2003 brought in 3 of them and the fuel pumps all had to be reset. The Cummins clone did not have the same torque characteristics as the 95 series Komatsu engines and the machines fell on their face when used. Komatsu ruined the hot rod excavator of its time by installing that motor. I would guess everyone that owned the machine was using that serial number with no tag. Not to worry, no one will ever be able to lay claim to it and you have paper work saying you bought it legally. What I don't understand is a dealer having it in their inventory without a stamping or a tag. None that I've worked for in the past would have touched that machine.
Exactly, doesn't make much sense. I also found out someone had replaced the boom/bushings once before. The bushings are gone again but came out hard. The bushing bore was nicked by a torch before I got it. Must be they didn't care to grease that pin. Other than the nicks the bore seems ok. Just never in all my years seen that pin and bushings replaced twice in 6200 hrs.
At that age it wouldn't be surprising for the machine to have more that twice that amount of hours.
Is there any way to verify that or confirm hours if it has the original digital hour meter or can that be easily bypassed ? Thanks
should be stamped between the boom cylinders. could be K***** or could be the full s/n KMT**************
Some of those machines had an analog meter and later ones got the hour meter in the monitor panel. There was a big problem with the monitor panels early in that sunshine radiation would burn the liquid crystal display and make it unreadable. The fix was another monitor panel and the hour meter started over at zero. Later on in that series Komatsu provides a way to take a new monitor and set the hour meter to actual hours and then it could not be reset again. The computer was apparently accessible to factory people with the specified software but that was never made available to even the dealers as far as I know. I doubt that the computer is original also so to answer your question, not there is no way that I know of to confirm total operating hours on that machine. As far as stamped serial numbers go, I have never seen a stamped number on the frame of any Komatsu excavator of that vintage. I seem to recall some Dash 8 and higher machines with the number stamped under the usual serial number tag location. Only machine serial numbers starting with an "A" were made for North American consumption in that era. All other numbers were gray market.
Thank you John. You nailed it when you said the computer was most likely changed. I should have been more precise. If it was the original brain I would think a tech could plug in and confirm hours. Just a thought. I have seen a lot of those 150,s in the 2000 ish vintage with 4500-8000 hours for sale. Atleast that is what is being claimed. Over the years I have leased, purchased or put on RPO millions in equipment. But that was for work. This is for personal use. Work related was never an issue as the equipment was between new and never older than 3 years.