Im looking for an excavator to clear off land, build a pond, and some general maintenance around the farm. Im looking for an older machine in the 30 to 40k dollar range.. Ive looked at a komatsu pc210, deere 690e, and a cat 320. They all have around the same hours (6000) and within my limits on price. Keep in mind this machine will not be used daily. But i dont want to buy junk either. So im asking for your advice. What would you stay away from? What problems do i need to be aware of? Is there another brand or size i need to look at? Thanks.
Look at what you have a good dealer for in your area. Whatever you get, make sure you can get parts easily.
What mitch said, there is no deal or bargain on any machine you can't access parts or have anyone that knows how to fix it, especially on an older machine. Every area is different as far as what brand sells high or which brands sell lower in price, it usually has to do with dealers and the support of those machines, the poor support brands have lower resale values, as for age, hours and condition will also play into the price. As they say go hunting for machines in your price range, then before buying anything, go find the dealer and talk to both the service and parts department and see what they tell you, if they don't know anything or will give you any advice, pass on buying that brand and move onto the next brand. I've been told to go buy a certain brand and model and in my area, it might as well be a boat anchor, there is no parts they'd ever get ordered right and it would take months to get anyone who'd ever figure out how to fix it from my dealer who handles that brand, so to steer you in a direction based on my area is pointless. I would however try to stay as new as possible no matter what brand or model you get. As for those you have listed, I'd go for the komatsu myself, based on my dealers network, then deere or a case. As for what to look for, if you've never owned or ran an excavator, go to someone locally that has and have them do a prebuy inspection for you, its worth it to have a repair based opinion on any machine, like someone from the dealership like a mechanic there go and run the machine and do some testing of its components for pressures and get an overall opinion of the machine you'd like to buy, if they won't do that, hunt up another brand of machine to buy and dealer to deal with. Just my two cents worth.
Make a note to self that the Link Belt, Case and JCB excavators are all the same machine except for engine. I have never been a Komatsu fan. Good machine I guess, but anytime I have to hunt down special hydraulic fittings that are "dealer only" I`m done. The Cat could be broke in half and a blown engine and somebody somewhere will pay top dollar because it says Cat on it. Naturaly my opinion is biased for having worked them for a little over 12 years is the bright orange of Hitachi. Best bet as has been said, buy what you can easily get service for. They all break and will need parts at some point. Also check common parts prices and compare accordingly. Have fun shopping.
Hitachi and deere are the same except for the engine, komatsu runs a slightly different flare end compared to the 37 degree JIC flare most common in the states, any hydraulic supply house has komatsu flare as some refer to it, don't quote me on it, but I was thinking it was 32 degree flare, but I'd have to check on that to be sure. As for case and link belt and jcb, also sumatoma or however its spelled are the same as well, llink belt runs and sumotoma run isusu engine or however its spelled, I own two of them, great engines, fuel efficient and tremendous reliability, case runs cummins engines and I think jcb runs a perkins of sorts. Hitachi also runs the isusu engine but deere runs their own, which the older one's had cold starting issues, I"m not sure which engine the e series deere had in it but its something to keep in mind if your planning on running in colder weather. Cummins should be good to zero or slightly below, and the isusu will start without either far colder than most humans can function at, I've started and moved mine at 20-30 below before and if you have good batteries, they'll start right up, an all around great engine in my opinion. The komatsu engine's I've owned and been around cold weather starting was never a problem on any of them, some call them cummins built for komatsu, spec's, so basically they are cummins. Link belt and case run the sumotoma machines, so most likely will have british pipe thread fittings on quite a few things, again most hydraulic supply places will have them, along with metric fittings and whatever else you find on them, there are several different kinds of metric fittings depending on what country they were made for, so if you don't have good parts availability or a good hose supply shop near you, bear this in mind, even a simple hydraulic hose blown can be a hassle on days. I got so fed up with it, I now own my own hose machines, bulk hose and ends to fit my machines on hand at all times. Deere and hitachi run the flat faced ends on a lot of things, some are metric others not, just depends on the hose and age of the machine.
Thanks for everyones help. I still havent made a decision on what to buy. But now i know that parts and dealer suppport is an imporatnt factor.