I'm starting to see lots of Shantui dealerships and people buying them. Asheville NC has a dealer and is promoting hard. They seems to have some hystat dozers that look a lot like a d5k and d6k. They are the largest producer of bulldozers in the world? Someone said Komatsu owns 80% of them. They also claim to make undercarriage for most oem. Cummins engines? That's a plus. Considering hydrostatic dozers....wouldn't it be just like excavators where they all start buying pumps from same companies as CAT and Deere? Kawasaki pumps etc? At some levels the difference would be in details like the cab and asthetics? I know that parts availability is key to keeping your machine up and running. And mechanic familiarity. The machine needs to be in the software list of a mechanica scan computer. He needs to be able to call a dealer and order parts fast. Idk? If they are building machines out of generic common parts this is gonna put a hurt on Cat and Deere. We all want to be patriotic and buy American. But, most of our American brand produce their machines overseas. We also have to save money and be competitive. When you order parts for your business and Amazon has the part at 30% the price of your local napa.....something is wrong. I can drive two older vehicles and park one of it breaks and wait an extra day to have a part shipped at a savings of 70% compared to buying part at local parts store. Ultimately I get to afford two vehicles instead of one. The crash of 2008 caused a lot of people to dig deep into do-it-yourself projects. YouTube videos showing how to fix your Ford truck or whatever has sparked an info war on tech tips. People are figuring out who makes what part for who. Information at fingertips is killing the old style of business. I know that I'm less likely to buy engine oil with marketing and name brand now because I can go online and figure out who makes oil for who and buy the "specs" regardless of name brand. Saving money. Being competitive. The price of earthmoving doesn't seem to be going up in comparison to the cost of living. Insurance is killing us. Liability. The Shantui Dozer seems to be cutting in on this. I know that there higher Komatsu style dozers won't be appealing but the smaller hydrostatic dozers will be selling like hot cakes. They probably use standard pumps and cummins engines and the same undercarriage as Cat or Deere. The name sucks. I'd say most people will pair over the name Shantui. Not a good badge for the customers to see. Hopefully Cat and Deere will find a way to limit the import? GPS systems and grade control are bolt on or stick on. I'm guessing Cat and Deere will have premium built in packages. I've never operated the Shantui. Maybe they suck so bad that no one in their right mind would buy? Thoughts?
Nope, parts support will kill them if quality doesn't first.
they tried to sell them in Canada years ago and failed hard... jaust like the sany up here cant give them away noooo support no sale
I like the looks of the SD22 http://en.shantui.com/product/8156.htm Looks like they copied a tractor from 40 years ago . Engine looks like old school big cam Cummins . From what I can tell they even offer them with Hydrostatic , mechanical , and hydrodynamic drive . Assume hydrodynamic is with a torque convertor & power shift transmission . As for parts go's ......... Them boys can slam out parts in the blink of the eye . I'm color blind when it comes to equipment brands , bring them on .
Kind of like Komatsu around here, lost favor pretty quick as to product support, parts then the fact quality control was crap sank resale. Biggest issue they will face besides their branding will be the EPA, I wonder how many of their machines will not make that grade?
Doesn't Mitsubishi make the smaller Cat dozers? D5K and down , maybe even the D6K? Komatsu has come along way in product support and quality from the early 80s. We have a local dealer selling Hyundai excavators , he seems to be kicking ass. I've run them they are decent machines as well. Cummins power in the ones I've run.
If they're cheap enough buy two, one for parts . Sure look a lot like Komatsu. I'd sure be skeptical of them but then again I'd rather have an older Cat. Just what I'm familiar with. But what do I know, I'm just a steering wheel holder these days! Haha.
Check out the YouTube videos on these machines. Amazing. I'm sure a customer would be ok in the cummins engine parts and undercarriage would be universal right? Pumps would be universal. Computer system and the rest of the Dozer would be a risk.
The D6K is built in France in Cat's Grenoble plant. Not sure on the smaller ones, but I think production may have been "reshored". Very few D3's over here.