Guys, Are having resently sold the old Caterpillar I'm looking for a replacement. Machines are a little thin on the ground in New Zealand but a couple of SH120-3's have turned up. Has anybody had much experience of these machines, are they any good and are there things to look out for? Any tips are greatly appricated.
There is one operating on my site drilling boreholes. The owner has experienced a lot of fuel problems with it but this could be down to dirty diesel or filters etc. I operated a 25 tonner, a 20 tonner and a 35 tonner. the 20 tonner had over 10,000 hours and it was still performing well. The owner has since bought caterpillar machines but he still works the 35 tonner. In my opinion they are good value for money but they would be a step down from a cat.
way ahead of a cat easier on fuel cheaper to buy parts from and they are jap built like hitachi kobelco and daewoo so easily fixed and almost bulletproof, anyone that compares a cat to a jap machine shouldnt talk about machinery, cat is now built in china and design their machinery to breakdown so they can sell all the spareparts that they can possibly manufacture i should know i had 30 pussys at one stage and i would never have a cat again , fair enough they are comfy to sit in but thats it lowsy on diesel and lowsy at everything else thats a typical cat and to drive the nail home on the whole cat issue if they were any good why did mc cormicks go bust i know why they went bust im a witness and creditor to them now to get back to sumitomo the sh120-3 would be a similar machine to the ex120-5 age wise with a similar pump engine set up the only thing i would worry about would be the track chains and pads, i prefer 800mm pads on a 12-13 ton machine unless im looking for low ground pressure the chains on some sh120-ex120 to come from japan were lighter than normal they wore alot quicker than say a berco d4d chain but with the age of thus machine i would be surprised if the machine has origional chains on it so i wouldnt worry about that as for the fuel problems my advice would be firstly a new fuel line (not a big job takes 10 mins to change, and itll cost ya a fiver) then after the new line is in tyhen and only then put on a new filter ,then check the banjo bolts for dirt then tighten them up (oner could be slightly loose and drawing air) then just before fitting the fuel line to the filter housing blow back into it and the diesel should flow freely again, its no harm to open the bottom of the tank once every 2 weeks to let out water and sedament the biggest problem with any machine is they are not being serviced thats typical of a machine thats having fuel problems ,its not the machines fault its the driver/owner and thats how machinery gets abused if i were buying and i had a choice it would be a sumitomo or a hitachi or a doosan daewoo or kobelco before anything else
I've been driving a SH120-1 for a guy for a couple of years, he is a hard man on gear but even though it's a rough machine it still goes well and gives very little trouble.
I have alot of time for Sumitomo gear. We currently have a PAX Sumitomo SH120-4. Absolutely Brilliant machine. Has close to 4000Hours on it. As i've said previous about this machine...it would out dig our SH210-5 or our EC240CL Volvo any day of the week with the right operator. Previous to that we had a SH120-3 which for 3 years was faultless until it was written off under a bridge. Speaking with our Dealer a couple of other firms have had a few SH120-3/4's with upwards of 17,000Hours with minimal trouble.
Thanks guys. I hear what you're saying about caterpillar. I don't think the next machine will be a cat, although what I will say is that old 312 could shift more dirt than any modern hitachi, easy...