G'day I'm in the market for a new machine (well not new). I'm looking at the above models and want to know which ones hold up the best over time. I understand its maintainence is the major key to its longevity but with the normal regular maintainence being done how do they go. My work involves alot of walking so which has the best undercarriage, how long should the trac gear last? Do either wear quicker than the others over the same sort of hours? Engine, any troubles? I know the b series case with the Isuzu had injector problems here in aus! What about fuel economy? Is it true the case could have softer pins than the others and therefore wear out quicker? I'm looking for something in the 5000-7000 hour mark. Cheers
Good day Jerilderie We will try to help answer your questions, first that of the undercarriage. Track chains - sprockets normally wear in unison these can wear out in as little as 3000 hours or last as long as 6000 hours. Wear rate depends on the abrasion factor of the ground conditions and how much traveling the machine makes and at what speed. From our information there is little difference in wear rates from different products unless there is some material defect. You can obtain the information how to measure track wear from excatech.com (Its free). I suggest you measure the wear before you commit to buy a used machine, indeed make a proper inspection it takes some time but it most likely enables you to judge what the machine will cost you in the short term. If you need an inspection protocol drop us a line. Regarding the engine that of the Volvo comes from Duetz we have good information on this product as far as we are aware its a good bet, not sure about the Isuzu. If we can help further please come back to us. Kind regards Uffex
For sure, with that many hours, how it was maintained and treated is far more critical than how it was designed. I would be looking for something that was dealer maintained at best. A unit that came out of a large fleet where machine maintenance was done according to a schedule, rather than fix on fail. A one operator machine would be good to find to. I do know the volvos are well built machines, but that says nothing about how it was treated after the sale. Lastly, i would take a look at some parts of the parts you expect to need. Hyd filter, Front glass, undercarriage, a drive motor, a hyd pump, engine rebuild kit. Price them out. Get an idea of parts value. Volvo here is 25% over cat for the same part. That could be just local to me. Seems to be a corporate decision on how they want to make their money. Some things to think about.
The 4HK1X series Isuzu in the 06 and newer hitachi hoes did have some problems. Even engine failures in the first ones. Usually around 3-5,000 hours. There was a computer fix for it though. Also I beleive but not certain that they may have changed the pistons a little bit. Injectors are also another area for concern.1500-3000 hours to a set depending on conditions. On the lower end if working in real cold weather. Polution junk on all of them fail so that's kind of a wash. Egr valves and coolers are the problem areas there. We have a 06 zaxis 270lc-3 and I do like the hoe. I have limited experience on other hoes so I don't have much to compare to as far a cycle times and such but to me it seems pretty quick. Like others said with a few hours on them who makes them kind of doesn't matter any more. Comes down to condition and where you'll get the best customer service for parts and repairs. Ryan