Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Mini Excavator

yoderjac

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
swat1018 said:
Are you sure? Have you seen how he fixed the dash of his truck?
Click to expand...
You didn't like the antifreeze brand jug I used?
 
4wanderingeyes

4wanderingeyes

5 year old buck +
A few wear items to watch for when buying a used rig, if these are in good shape you should be good to go.

Rubber tracks, if you buy a rubber tracked machine, bearings, track wheels. Piston seals, hydraulic hoses, a worn under stage, pivot pins, listen for a whining hydraulic pump, engine oil leaks, excessive smoke, plugged cooling system, greasecerts plugged, or rusted. I would stay away from any machine that the paint is corroded off
Buy a well maintained machine, keep it maintained and you can get a couple thousand hours out of it with little money for repairs.

I would much rather buy a machine that was owned by a small business owner, such as an electrician, plumber, well guy, then a construction company. A construction company will usually wear these smaller units out pretty quick. Machines from a smaller rental company that gets new ones every 3 years or so, will usually keep them in good shape, well maintained so they hold there value for another trade in. Larger places tend to not pay close attention to small things, and are more concerned with getting the machine out to get money coming in, and won’t cancel rentals for maintanence and repairs. I would stay away from leased machines. This is what your typical construction company does, and they aren’t to concerned with maintenance, until it breaks down.

In saying all this, if you buy a good machine in the $20-30k range, use it for a couple years, you can probably sell it for what you paid for it. For the cost of maintance.
 
B

breddick

5 year old buck +
When I was researching minis everyone kept talking about the tracks and how I needed to make sure the tracks were good. I guess if I was financing the thing and living paycheck to paycheck that would be a big thing to consider. I saw it as just something to consider in the price. The e42 I bought had pretty worn tracks. I factored that in to the price I was offering. Not long into ownership I broke one of the old tracks. $1500 later I had two new tracks delivered. Took the old "good" track and put in the barn for emergency use. Tracks aren't cheap but they are items that will wear and need replacement periodically. Simply factor that into the price when comparing different machines.
 
yoderjac

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
I saw on on machine trader that wasn't too far away and tried to call to arrange a visit. Got nothing but voicemail all day, so I decided to email them. They responded in an hour saying the machine had sold. After a little back and forth, they connected me with the regional sales manager. I emailed them my requirements. He said he had one coming in from NC, so I went to check it out today. It had 2170 hours on it. They were willing to add a thumb and two buckets in the quote. It was close enough to my budget to take a look. The machine had been leased to a pipeline company. It had been maintained well, but it was clearly rode hard and put up wet. One of the tracks was shot and on backwards! Lots of dings in the body that had rusted. The battery terminals were so corroded I could hardly see them.

Now I care much more about the mechanics than the cosmetics, but the cosmetics give an indication of how hard the machine was used. They had received two other back from the same lease. They were lower hours and more $ but they looked like they had been rode just as hard.

Whoever warned about leased machines earlier in the thread was certainly right about this case!

Thanks,

Jack
 
B

breddick

5 year old buck +
My E42 was very comparable to that E45. Mine didn’t have a thumb and had old tread. I paid 27k cash for mine. Added a nice thumb and new treads put me right at 30k. Just for reference.
 
yoderjac

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
4wanderingeyes said:
I am not a big Bobcat fan, and I dont know what they typically go for, but here is a machine that seems decent enough, and at least it is on the east coast. They also deliver.

Click to expand...

I watch machine trader daily. The problem is that I don't have time to drive all over to check out a machine only to pass on it. I'm hoping to find something in-state. The E45 would be a little to big for my 10K trailer anyway, but thanks for thinking of me.

Thanks,

Jack
 
yoderjac

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
yoderjac said:
I saw on on machine trader that wasn't too far away and tried to call to arrange a visit. Got nothing but voicemail all day, so I decided to email them. They responded in an hour saying the machine had sold. After a little back and forth, they connected me with the regional sales manager. I emailed them my requirements. He said he had one coming in from NC, so I went to check it out today. It had 2170 hours on it. They were willing to add a thumb and two buckets in the quote. It was close enough to my budget to take a look. The machine had been leased to a pipeline company. It had been maintained well, but it was clearly rode hard and put up wet. One of the tracks was shot and on backwards! Lots of dings in the body that had rusted. The battery terminals were so corroded I could hardly see them.

Now I care much more about the mechanics than the cosmetics, but the cosmetics give an indication of how hard the machine was used. They had received two other back from the same lease. They were lower hours and more $ but they looked like they had been rode just as hard.

Whoever warned about leased machines earlier in the thread was certainly right about this case!

Thanks,

Jack
Click to expand...

When I was looking at the machine and chatting with the sales guy I mentioned a number of issues I saw. The unit did not have a bucket on it when I played with it, but even with no bucket, I could tell the coupler needed new bushings. The battery terminals were very badly corroded and I mentioned the one track was in bad shape in addition to being on backwards.

The salesman emailed me back offering to replace the bad track, install new bushings, and clean up the battery terminals. I turned him down but asked him to keep looking for me as more machines come in. Tonight, I found the machine listed on their web site. It was a lot of driving, but worth the experience. The machine is listed for $32K on the web site. They quoted me $31,900 including a thumb and second bucket. A JD thumb for the 35G sells for about $1750. They did not mention of the second bucket was new or not, so I'm going to presume it was used and allocate $650.

So, it looks like they were pretty quick to add at least $2,500 in value to the listed price. I realize it probably costs them significantly less than the $2,500, but this gives me a good feels for future negotiations on other machines.

Thanks,

Jack
 
yoderjac

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
Last week a guy had a 35G for sale on Craigslist. When I called him he told me a guy was coming to buy it the next day and he would get back to me if the guy for some reason did not buy it. As we were chatting, he told me he buys and sells equipment like this on a regular basis and would let me know if he get something similar.

He called me this morning. He has a kubota kx71-3 coming in. He sent me one low-res pic. He will take pics and send me details when it gets here. It appears to have a thumb, but so far there is no indication of an angled blade. He wants $27,500 for it, the same as he was asking for the 35G that sold. Other than "low hours" I don't have a description yet. I'm not sure if it has a quick exchange for the bucket or not.

I took a look at the general specs. It looks like this is a little over a ton lighter than the 35G.

Any thoughts on this model compared to a 35G?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top