Hi everyone, I have a farm and have been using a business partners 14 tonne Excavator for a number of years, it is too small for our needs on the farm. We want to buy a used 24-28 tonne excavator in the 2002-2006 age bracket, most probably with 8000 plus hours. It won't be doing high hours, maybe 200PA. Brand doesn't matter to me, finding a good deal and a machine that potentially is in good order is more important. One big factor for me is cheap parts. Being a small farmer without much income, when something does go wrong and it will, parts need to be reasonable in price to repair it. What are your thoughts on the prices of new parts from the various manufacturers? Who has the cheapest parts? Case, Hyundai and Sumitomo would be my guess but that is all it is. Potentially we could use second hand parts for some issues if they are available. Thank you for your valuable time.
Cheaper parts usually means cheaper machines ,which usually means more break downs,which means more repairs,which means more parts.
I total agree with Bls repair's comment, it's one of my pet peeves. As far as I'm concerned if you can't afford parts you likely can't afford to own the machine. They just kinda go together. Another pet peeve of mine is someone spending 20,30 or 40 thousand dollars or more on a machine and then complain about having to spend an extra $500.00 to buy a service manual.
I find it easier to get comfortable with a manufacturer and a dealer that actually has parts. Small new start ups (think off brand chinese imports) can be here today and gone tomorrow. I doubt if the mark up margins are really that different from the various manufacturers, they all make money on parts, none of them look at it as a service, its a profit center. I would be interested to know dealership and manufacturer's numbers on parts and service, vs. selling new machines. I suspect there's much more day to day $ made on parts and service than new sales. I've heard of every manufacturer as being "high" priced for parts. Cat, Deere, Case, Komatsu, but at least they have the parts. I've got equipment from a company bought out by terex, and you can't get parts, that's a whole different problem. If you can't afford the parts,and don't want to work on equipment, don't buy equipment. They are all one cough away from major expenses. As you mentioned- look for a good decent machine, from a reputable brand, and that has a dealer that will ship parts to you, and hope for the best. At 200 hours a year, you're not wearing one out. I can think of lots of reasons for buying a particular brand: familiarity, parts availability, dealer support, simple good engineered designs, easy to work on, etc. But not the price of parts. I'm not as familiar with excavators, as I am with trucks and cranes, but I actually have less trouble keeping my older stuff running, than I do with newer stuff. The 2002-2006 is going to be into that 10-15 year old range where the electronic portions of the systems is going to start being troublesome. If you go a little older in systems, there is less electronics and for me, those kind of issues are cheaper and easier to fix. I kind of kid around with my customers on the age of my cranes. In my older rigs, the lever in the cab goes to the valve body, the valve body to the cylinder. If it quits working, I've got a big puddle of oil on the ground. I don't need the cat man and his computer to hook up and tell me the ecm, tps, hpop, flux capacitor is bad- I instead just have a puddle oil and pop off the lines and get a new hose. When I have troubles with my newer stuff, its rarely that there is a actual problem with the mechanical aspect of the machine, its usually some sensor or switch, or electrical connection that's given up the ghost. It's just that its much cheaper to run wires and have circuit boards today, than it is to make linkages and machined parts. If I've got two trucks sitting side by side and both will crank, but not start, and one is a detroit 60 series, one is a big cam cummins. The 60 series has a electronic throttle pedal, ecm, electronic injectors, crank sensor, tps, oil pressure, water temp and other sensors all hooked together, with wires between all of them. Any wire or sensor, connector in the whole system goes down, and your sitting still until the computer hooks up. The big cam has a pedal hooked to a linkage, to the injector pump. Fuel and air and that sucker ought to run. And I won't even go into all the emissions stuff that's hung on the even newer stuff- I avoid it. I guess what I'm getting at, if you were here in the states, something from the late 80's to early 90's in not abused condition, will be cheaper to keep running for the hours that you need it, than something newer. There used to be a great aussie who posted here. His phrase was- "the dirt is still the same dirt, we just keep making more expensive and complicated ways to move it."
We run a lot of older stuff and I second getting a good brand. We have had excellent luck with Komatsu equipment. The scale of production should be considered instead of brand. Case if point, last week I had a lower door glass get broken on a 200-6 excavator and the replacement part from the dealer was less than $75. Supply and demand sets price on used parts, too. A machine that is prolific will tend to have a larger supply of parts and have, hopefully, lower prices than a machine that is not as popular.
Crane op that's what I've been told by my first Cat salesman that is now high up on the ladder. He told me they will sell a machine without much mark up to get the parts and service. How that conversation came up was when I was looking at a buying a new machine where the purchase price was less than some used units on Machinery Trader. That's what I have experienced as well fuggly. Parts for a Cat hoe or dozer are very reasonable. Now if you're needing parts for a 953 track loader - grab the lube first.
more important than price is availability in your area...you may find cheap parts half way around the world and shipping will kill you, what brand machines do you use in your country? dealerships and parts supply companies....