Is there a big job going where someone went around and bought up all the used ADT's in the western US? I'm looking for some newer Cat or Volvo 25t trucks and there isn't squat available all the sudden.
They all went where the work is, which ain't this side of the Rockies, yeah? There are some older machines available for sale or rent though.....
Yeah there are older ones around. I'm looking for under 3000hr machines. Already have NC's last 2 725's on rent and may buy them but we haven't been overly impressed with the 2 we own.
I can tell you where there are a lot of belly dump trucks...... The are working the Eagle Ford shale drilling in South TX. I see trucks from all over Texas and even OK, LA and Kansas down here hauling road base for roads and drill pads.
I'm strictly a sideline guy, heck they won't even let me guard the water bucket, but from what I hear, the big dealer rental outfits have been renting so cheap it doesn't make much sense to buy new. So if that's true for the years after the big collapse, then there are probably very few low hour used machines around the Northwest at all, let alone good units for sale. I specialize in tracked dumps and parts thereof and almost all of them that were out West are now either Southeast or up in Canada, just no work here. In a former life about fifteen years ago before I was asked to take my lunch bucket and leave lol, I ran some Moxy trucks and now and then a Volvo... It was like going from a Ford gas truck with a 5+2 to an air ride Kenworth with a 3406 CAT and a 15 speed.
Driving by a job site this mourning and saw that this one might be available.
Pretty soft landing it looks like, still if I had been driving that I would need a change of underwear!
There are A lot more rock trucks in Canada now being used for road construction. Its a lot easier to find a rock truck operator than a scraper man. If you can drive a Car you can drive a rock truck.
looks like it just came from RB auction with that fine 50 cent rebuild paint job and after market decals nice clean fenders looks like the first load not even scratched up yet
Yep, that looks like a real low hour paint job, "" hay boss, I think I might be close to finding where that clunk noise was coming from!!! ""
Some one probably just rebuilt the hitch and forgot to put the lock bolts in the retainer plate, looks like hitch pulled out.
LOL, I wonder if I could get it for half off?
Half the work is done to put a scraper hitch on it and make a pull type lol
I hope the operator had his seat belt on tight when it let go. Makes me wonder if the steering column is intact.
Why is the tailgate is up
Wagner Equipment, CAT dealer in CO, has one used 725 with 2800 hours. Asking $265k could probably get it for a little less. Also have a few 730s avail too
We've pretty much decided to go with new ones just trying to decide on the 2 Cats we have on rent or a couple new Volvos.
deeretracks, I don't know how many pieces of heavy equipment you have purchased over the years but I always find this kind of situation to be true. once you really start looking for a piece of equipment within a criteria given to me by someone above my pay grade I always have trouble finding it... I go back to them and say "there is very little available" or "this is all that is available" and then they usually go off and buy something that is totally outside their own criteria, LOL......TIO
Deeretracks, all that I can say is wow! just did a quick search for Volvo, cat, and deere 25 ton trucks in the west newer than 2010 I found zero! that is really bad. don't be afraid of late model deere trucks after being around all of these three trucks I would put Volvo at #1, deere at #2 and cat at #3 in regards to truck quality, drivability and dealer support, IMHO......TIO
I think Texas is where all the artic. trucks have gone. Lots of work here, and every job seems to have several artics. in use.
Thanks for the advice. We are pretty familiar with all the different trucks available. We usually have 3-5 of various makes on rent every summer. I never really have liked the Deere trucks, I've been working on them since the old B30B Bell days and was JD certified on the early D series machines. We have mixed opinions on the 700 series Cats. We have 2 that are 1 yr apart, 1 has been a great truck and the other one is a complete lemon. I have my proposal inhand for the new Cats, just waiting on Volvo to sharpen their pencil. You are right about the search criteria though, the boss was disappointed with what I came up with searching under his guidelines so he called and got pricing on the new 725's instead.
update on availability. Howard McAnear Equipment in Ft Worth,Tx. has about 25 late model used Cat trucks in stock. TKO Equipment in Dallas,Tx. has 12 late model used Cat trucks listed in stock. So there you go. I have bought/leased from both places, and highly recommend them both for good quality used Cat equipment. Both show their inventory on their websites.
Thanks for the info. I'll call them and see.
now apply the above mentioned criteria "less than 3000 hours" and "25 ton" and you find one possibility at TKO and 3 at Mcnear then when you start calling they are probably already sold or out on rent, that is my experience. The last 2 I bought in fact were late model deere 350's called the dealer that had them listed including serial number and they said they would get back to me (never did), as I was continuing to search I found the trucks at an auction, these guys had actually paid to list equipment that was at an auction that they never even were asked to broker at anytime "scam" I actually ended up buying those trucks at the auction!!!! shipped them from florida to Washington one took about 9 days one took almost four weeks!!! bought two more out of Washington the cost was a lot more even after the transport cost......TIO
The only real problem I have with the cat trucks is they are so soft and low in the front end. It is very easy to come against a berm or cut slope and dent those things. If you go to Ritchie Bros they almost all have smashed in fuel tanks and front "bumpers" you can't touch anything with those things!!!! the Volvos, deeres and even terex's aren't soft it the front end at all. With renting 4 cat haul trucks over the years the dealer replaced 2 fuel tanks and I replaced 2, still have 2 fuel tanks with light "rub" marks in them they weren't on the machines for 1000 hrs. Oh yeah and the front axle back side fender takes no mud at all to "remove" or damage beyond repair...TIO
TIO, honestly that sounds like an operator issue. I had two 725's at one time and the only dents on the front end of the older used truck were there when I bought it. Leased a new 2007 and gave it back to Cat in 2009 when the economy tanked - thankful timing. We ran 100+ load cycles per day for 2 years and didn't have that issue. The main wiring harness going through the firewall is an issue. Replaced 2 on the older truck (2001) within 3 years of operation.
CM1995, the fact that it may be an operator issue is besides the point, LOL. regardless the front of a cat haul truck is way way softer than any other haul truck I have ever been around. the fuel tank on the right side is very thin metal I think only about 3/16" thick this is not heavy enough IMHO they are just soft compared to the other trucks, and the fenders will fill with enough mud through one slow 100 foot soft spot to remove themselves...Articulated truck usage that I am used to consists of hauling in wet soft conditions until the amount of time you spend pulling stuck trucks out of a fill or soft road no longer calculates as profitable. Sometimes 10-20 loads a day is good. I don't think this is how you used your trucks?.....TIO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9wJOAtSk6s or search "hemlock dam removal" starting at about 5:00 there is some equipment action shots showing typical conditions. try this link this was the last project that was not favorable to the cat haul trucks but the Volvos and terexs had no front damage at all.....
The last JD's we had were plastic on the front bumpers... Thought that was weird. New 400d's
TIO the only time we would be running trucks in those conditions would be stripping topsoil and hauling clearing debris - even then it doesn't make sense to rut up the site, only to get a thunderstorm and make it even worse. Cut and fill of engineered fill has to stay within the moisture parameters to meet spec, so we were always running on nice hard ground. So yeah, different operating conditions for sure.
Yair . . . The first wiggle wagons I ever saw were on canal construction typically working in two or three feet of slop . . . we were top loading 627's on a similar job. It was a while before I ever saw them operating in "normal" conditions and I often wondered as to their viability . . . with the 627's we could pretty much look after our own fill, the wagons had a Komatsu 65 swampy pushing out and trimming. Cheers.
Wiggle wagons have their place and I would like to have another one. During the boom of the mid 2000's I had 2 - 725's. Of course it depends on the site conditions, parameters and what your building whether they are a good fit or not. What I like about artics is the versatility. They can be used to move brush and stumps, pipe, structures, be a mobile bedding box, haul shot rock and of course haul dirt.
CM1995, if we waited for descent site conditions around here our operators would sit at home 9mos out of the year. There is very little good ground left to develop in the Puget sound area so almost all the jobs we get have sh**y ground.
That's our great northwest! In the woods it can literally go from being mudded out to shut down for fire danger in the same week....TIO
Haven't got shut down for fire danger in years. Just had to swap working day for night.
Volvo came back with some very interesting pricing on new A25G's. This might work.......
Pulled the trigger on the new Volvos today. Should be here in 2-3 weeks. Problem solved!
let me know what you think of the new series!
And when it gets too soft for even six wheel drive artics with all the locks engaged.....
Will do, should be like driving Cadillacs compared to the clapped out 725's.
I've always liked the the Volvo's. I always had good experiences with them. We had them hub deep in mud cleaning off house pads and they kept on ticking. The new Cats are nice but I'm still not sold.
What I don't understand is why do they put the greenest operators in the trucks, the cost as much or more to fix than anything else besides a pick or shovel, ? I could write a book of repairs because of lack of training/instruction or common sense.
Oh I hear that! These 725's really don't like the boxes flopping. It tears up the walking beam mounts and 1/2 the time bends the panhard bar.
It's a matter of perception, "any idiot can drive one", so usually some idiot does, with 30 seconds training. "There's the key, there's the park brake release, that's the shifter. Don't worry about all those interlock switches. Go!" They think they're saving money and the overriding factor "Git perduction!"
Ten four on those thoughts. I've seen plenty of kids run artics like they were driving go karts down at the carnival. Flipped boxes, backing into equipment, getting stuck where they shouldn't be and then getting torn apart when pulled out. The earlier photo makes me wonder what kind of walk around that "qualified operator" did before he started production?
There are a few A40 Volvos coming up at the Reno Ritchie Bros. auction. They are 08's.
In the past I have put my "greenest" operators in the seat of 725's. However they weren't green horns off the street that only knew how to operate an X box. If you're not vetting your operators, no matter what they are operating, then that is an issue that will cost money.
Worked a short job one time where the "kid" I replaced had laid the box of the artic he was driving over twice in one day. On a straight level decently smooth dirt haul road!! I had better luck.
We rolled so many on 1 job I had the dealer come out and reflash the trans controller to remove 2 gears. Everyone was pissed but it kept us from getting booted off the job by the developer. One guy "swerved to miss a deer" on the haul road. LOL
Yeah, at speed you can get an unrecoverable osccillation going as they bounce on the tires and hydraulic steering actually does turn them into wiggle wagons, kind of like a "tank-slapper" on a motorcycle.