I am looking at purchasing a backhoe. I am a heavy equipment / class 8 mechanic for a small construction company. I specialize in Refactory pumps. The last company I worked for and currently I am the shop welder. The company I work for owns all Case 580 hoes. I have little experience with Caterpillar and I have never worked on a JD. I know I DONT want to buy a caterpillar for a few select reasons. I am partial to Case because that's what I have grown up with and always maintained and repaired but I have run across a fairly good deal on a 99John Deere 410e in good to excellent condition. My question is this specifically I am under the impression that Case has bushing for every pin in the back hoe for a few reasons one being the ductile iron boom. The John Deere has bushings but not as many. What are some of your guys experience with John Deere or with both. would you consider the rebuild-ability to be close to the same or one more difficult than another. I don't care about comfort or personal preference between the machines just strictly cost of long term maintenance. Would anyone be concerned with buying the John Deere over waiting to find a deal on a Case?
My vote would be for Case. I love Case hoe's and plan on buying one myself when the day comes. Honestly, the maintainability on Case hoe's isn't bad at all. In all honesty I think Case could use some more quality thrown into the mix in certain areas, but not everywhere is it needed. They are reliable and pretty easy to work on for the most part. I don't really have much mechanic experience on Deere hoe's and don't care to because I am not really a fan of Deere's for probably similar reasons why you're not a fan of Cat hoe's. I've worked on Case and Cat hoe's and those are really the only ones I care to work on or be involved with.
I would favor the Deere over the Case hoes, but that's just me. I don't think there's any big differences in terms of reliability or serviceability unless you get back later than what you're talking there.
"Strictly going on long term maintenance" the Case parts are going to be cheaper. The bushings that are absent on the Deere are probably the "stationary" cylinder pins that don't move as much as the active end, at least that's where the zerks are absent. Realistically, if it's in good to excellent condition, are you really going to need to rebuild it?
I can say in my experience (all Case) company machines start needing pin and bushing work between 4 and 6 thousand hours. So in my price range anything I buy is going to need work some point in the realistic future. I want to be in the 30-40,000$ range and this is on the low end with low hours and little wear to match. It also has almost every imaginable feature except two doors and a radio. I just don't want to be in for a rude awakening that it's going to need all kinds of machining down the road because it is not as serviceable of a machine as the case. That's why I'm trying to put personal preference aside and look strictly at certain aspects. I have looked at parts schematics but am having a hard time without experience with these machines determining how important the lack of bushings is. Normally on non personal company machines it's the same 5 joints that always need repair. Our machines eat swing towers for lunch but we run them hard I. Our application. This is a machine I am purchasing personally and not with my employer.
I have had Case B ,C AND super E and a 310 JD . I felt the case had a bullet proof extenda hoe which really never needed to service . As compared to the Deer it had wear strips that had to be replaced often . And I often wondered with the JD If were a good idea to have the hydraulics and shuttle using the same oil together.But neither one of those machines left me stranded .I must say though the JD was as old as the Case B . It was a tough old bird with a 3 cylinder engine . I have been out of the business for 30 years now and many changes have been made to these machines . One thing comes to mind , Im not sold on the Case Ductile Boom . To me cast iron and pounding dont mix.
Deere or Case aside if you have budget of $40k keep looking, you can do much better than a 15 old hoe with semi high hours on it.
I guess I might have been over stepping at 40,000 i would like after all financing and fees to be considerably below 40 this machine said and done is in the 33,000 range. I have been looking for over a year and in my area I have had a difficult time locating a hoe in good condition for that price. I have noticed that backhoes in my area are considerably more money than other areas for what ever reason. If you have something in mind or some avenues to look at I am all open ears. I would be purchasing this unit until the second week of December so I have some time to back out if I stumble across a better machine. I do not want to take on a payment over 500 a month with 12,000 down at 6% so that puts my total no higher than 37,000. This machine is less and in good condition the newer machines I have looked at are all the same hours but in fair to poor condition. I have look at a dozen 2004's and 5's but all have something off about them and significant play.
If everything local is overpriced start looking further away, its not really that expensive to ship equipment. Just as an example, right now ironplanet has a decent amount of 310's and 580's that look to be from sunbelt all with buy now prices in the low 30's. Most are around 2010 with 2,000ish hours. For price reference spend some time looking at past auction results, Richie Bros has results for the past 2 years.
Thank you i have not looked at iron planet just machinery trader and rock and dirt. I haven't noticed that significant of a price difference. I have found maybe 3-5 thousand and after flying to inspect and shipping it would be roughly the same but after looking at iron planet. Do you inspect them first or how would you go about deciding on a machine?
To the above, I've been looking at Cat backhoes. The local Cat dealers can send a technician out to look at the machine. They can take photos of the machine and do an SOS. I'm sure a Case or Deere dealer could do that as well. That may be something to consider. I'm in San Diego, CA and the Cat dealer here charges $80/hour, including drive time. Their inspection typically takes 2 hours. It's not cheap, but it may be better than a plane ticket and taking time off of work.