yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Yep, my neighbor tells me that most of the major brands can be sold in a few years for close to what you paid for them if you get a reasonable deal and there are no major issues with it when you go to sell.
Mini Excavator
- Thread starter yoderjac
- Start date
Yep, my neighbor tells me that most of the major brands can be sold in a few years for close to what you paid for them if you get a reasonable deal and there are no major issues with it when you go to sell.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Damn, I have used a tilt bucket one time, let’s just say his work looks much better then what I did.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
UNEXPECTED STEP FORWARD
I've got a couple candidate mini-excavators as mentioned above but nothing that is a slam dunk. My neighbor has contacted his friend in the business and he is looking. A couple weeks ago, my 1997 F150 had the 4x4 stop working. I took it to shop and it is some kind of issue with a relay behind the dash. You can't buy the relay new any more and tearing the dash out would be an expensive proposition. I mentioned to the mechanic I was interested in an older 3/4 ton truck for towing but it needed to be 4x4 or use on my logging roads at the farm. He said he thought he could ID one for me within 6 months, so I decided to hold off on the F150 4x4 repair.
Earlier this week, he texted me one to look at at a dealership about an hour away. It was a 2003 Chevy Silverado K2500HD extended cab standard bed. I went out to see it on Friday. They happened to have it on the lift inspecting it so I ask if I could see it on the lift. They said OK and took me back into the shop. I was able to get the mechanic that inspected it on the phone with my mechanic so they could talk shop. It has almost 190,000 miles but it has the Duramax diesel engine, so it should have plenty of life left in it. Especially since I'll only use it to tow back and forth to the shop from time to time. The dealership tacked on the stupid $1,000 dealer prep fee (so they can advertise the price $1,000 less than they sell used cars for). That took the price above what I was willing to pay and my offer was lower than they would go. Sales manager said no dice but they would call if things changed. I figured I had plenty of time and wrote it off mentally and just waited for my mechanic to find another candidate.
Sure enough the salesman called me this morning to "follow-up". I told him if they were unwilling to move on price we had nothing to talk about. About 1830, I got another call from him with a new price. It was a couple hundred dollars more than my offer, but when I made the offer there was an issue with the driver's side window and mirror that they had since fixed. That would have cost me a couple hundred bucks, so I accepted the offer.
I ended up driving out and closing the deal tonight. They let me put $5K on a credit card as a down payment and gave me the truck. I get a certified check for the rest after the storm is over to finish it. This should tow anything I'm licensed to tow.
A couple pics:
Thanks,
Jack
I've got a couple candidate mini-excavators as mentioned above but nothing that is a slam dunk. My neighbor has contacted his friend in the business and he is looking. A couple weeks ago, my 1997 F150 had the 4x4 stop working. I took it to shop and it is some kind of issue with a relay behind the dash. You can't buy the relay new any more and tearing the dash out would be an expensive proposition. I mentioned to the mechanic I was interested in an older 3/4 ton truck for towing but it needed to be 4x4 or use on my logging roads at the farm. He said he thought he could ID one for me within 6 months, so I decided to hold off on the F150 4x4 repair.
Earlier this week, he texted me one to look at at a dealership about an hour away. It was a 2003 Chevy Silverado K2500HD extended cab standard bed. I went out to see it on Friday. They happened to have it on the lift inspecting it so I ask if I could see it on the lift. They said OK and took me back into the shop. I was able to get the mechanic that inspected it on the phone with my mechanic so they could talk shop. It has almost 190,000 miles but it has the Duramax diesel engine, so it should have plenty of life left in it. Especially since I'll only use it to tow back and forth to the shop from time to time. The dealership tacked on the stupid $1,000 dealer prep fee (so they can advertise the price $1,000 less than they sell used cars for). That took the price above what I was willing to pay and my offer was lower than they would go. Sales manager said no dice but they would call if things changed. I figured I had plenty of time and wrote it off mentally and just waited for my mechanic to find another candidate.
Sure enough the salesman called me this morning to "follow-up". I told him if they were unwilling to move on price we had nothing to talk about. About 1830, I got another call from him with a new price. It was a couple hundred dollars more than my offer, but when I made the offer there was an issue with the driver's side window and mirror that they had since fixed. That would have cost me a couple hundred bucks, so I accepted the offer.
I ended up driving out and closing the deal tonight. They let me put $5K on a credit card as a down payment and gave me the truck. I get a certified check for the rest after the storm is over to finish it. This should tow anything I'm licensed to tow.
A couple pics:
Thanks,
Jack
247Deer
5 year old buck +
Another thing you should consider while your doing your trench is if your doing a phone or cable line to your house because that will have to be in a separate conduit. Also you can do a 400 amp meter pan with (2 ) 200 amp breaker’s one for your barn and one for your house and use one meter. That’s what I just did I also rented a trencher for my skid steer which works really good
Attachments
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
All good thoughts. More details are on my are at: https://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/new-barn.11326/ , but the short answer is this: I already ran 400 amp service to the barn from the transformer. I added a 200 amp shutoff so I could run that to the future house if I like. It would mean a single meter which is about $30/month but I would be responsible for everything past the meter. Another option is to run a line directly to the house from the transformer. I could get 200 or 400 amp service there as well. That is another $30/month, but I would have priority service on the power companies nickel if something goes wrong before the meter on the house as well. I have not made the final call on that yet.
As for a phone line, I don't think that is necessary in my case. The power company is in the process of running fiberoptic cable. They will run it at their own cost as long as I sign up for the service. It is supposed to be available by the end of this year. So, if we decide to have a home phone it will be VOIP.
I'm not sure what the situation is for other folks.
Thanks,
Jack
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Jack, a couple things. First, that truck is a big upgrade for towing. Second, the 4x4 shift relay module is about a half hour job. Remove the plastic around the instrument cluster, and it is to the top right of the cluster. Kinda between the radio, and the cluster. The parts are also still available new. But you can go on EBay and get a used one for $50.
As for the new truck, it is an LB7, injectors are common issues with these, and depending on miles, injection pumps. Other then that they are a great truck.
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yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Interesting. My shop said the relay is only available used now. Replacing it is beyond my skill level. I was thinking of suggesting to the shop that they just put a couple mechanical switches under the hood to control the actuator. I presume the smarts in the GEM and relay module are are for safety and on-the-fly shifting. With switches under the hood, I'd have to be in park with the truck stopped. That would be fine for me. I just need to know I can get it in and out of 4wd reliably. I plan to chat with them again this week. The F150 would certainly be useful to me with 4WD, but now that I have the new truck if I have to live with 2wd for the rest of the life of the Ford, so be it.
My mechanic said they had issues with the injectors that model year and pretty much all of them had to be replaced with a new design. We could find no record of them being replaced, but he said that if is starts and runs smoothly they were likely replaced. That was the big risk item with buying that truck. Although it is not likely that the injectors were not replaced with the new design, if there is a problem, my mechanic said the cost of replacing them can be 4K or more and there is no easy way to check to see if they have been replaced. That was my biggest negotiating point on price. Fortunately, I was able to get the mechanic at the dealership that was inspecting the truck on the phone with my mechanic so they could talk shop. That gave me a lot of confidence in the truck.
It has the Duramax engine and Allison transmission. I think it will be a good fit for me.
Thanks,
jack
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Well, I decided to go with the hillbilly solution. Most of the cost in the repair was tearing out the dash. I'll never sell the 97 F150, and having 4wd on the cheap is more important than esthetics.
So.....
Thanks,
Jack
Gravel Road
5 year old buck +
That's awesome Heck, pop rivet a piece of sheet metal over it to keep the dirt out and soda cans from rolling in and call it a day.
Heck, pop rivet a piece of sheet metal over it to keep the dirt out and soda cans from rolling in and call it a day.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
That's awesome
Yep, as soon as they fix the 4wd, I'll cover the hole some how. I'll probably do something that I can easily remove in the future should the problem resurface.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
It sounds like my neighbor's buddy has started looking. I got a call from a Bobcat salesman today saying he heard I was in the market for a mini-excavator. From his description, it sounded like he had a very nice low-hour e35 that would have been a great fit, but the price tag was out of my range. It only had a couple hundred hours on it which accounts for the price.
I must be learning. Between Christmas and New Year, my wife and I drove around looking at used mini's at dealerships around the area. Everything we saw was listed on Machinery Trader. My main objective was just to get my hands on different brands and learn about the differences. On that trip, I found 2 candidates that I thought might be a fit, a New Holland and a Bobcat, both described earlier in the thread. Well, I checked Machinery Trader this week and they are the only two no longer listed; presumably sold. So it looks like the machines that I'm considering a good value must be considered the same by others.
The search continues....
Thanks,
Jack
I must be learning. Between Christmas and New Year, my wife and I drove around looking at used mini's at dealerships around the area. Everything we saw was listed on Machinery Trader. My main objective was just to get my hands on different brands and learn about the differences. On that trip, I found 2 candidates that I thought might be a fit, a New Holland and a Bobcat, both described earlier in the thread. Well, I checked Machinery Trader this week and they are the only two no longer listed; presumably sold. So it looks like the machines that I'm considering a good value must be considered the same by others.
The search continues....
Thanks,
Jack
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Please tell me more about it, things you like and dislike about the e42.
Things I like: everything! It’s big enough to do some real work at 10k lbs. It has a learning curve so I do not recommend it being a good weekend rental idea for someone without operator experience.
The only dislike I have is that it cost $. I paid 28k for it. I figured I can use it for a couple years at minimum and get lots of projects done around the farm. At that point I can keep it or sell it for nearly what I paid. So the dislike really isn’t a dislike at all. Toys cost $.
I’ve got all kinds of stuff around the farm that this thing will do. I’ve already cleaned up a lot of trails and fence rows and made a few new creek crossings.
The thing I like most about the e42 is that most is it’s size. It’s still a mini but the extra size over the more common 6-8k lb machine helps substantially.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Yes, I was originally looking at 3-3.5 ton machines. The size limitation was that fact that I was towing a 10K trailer with a 1997 Ford F150. I was OK on the flat to rolling terrain around the farm, but I would not want to go over the mountain with it and that was towing my DK45 with a large mower. While I have not weighed the DK45, the spec is about 4K lbs add another 1.5K lbs for the loader, .5K for the loaded tires, and another 1K for the RM 990 mower, and I presume I'm around 7K lbs total.
Now that I picked up the old 2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 diesel, the truck is no longer an issue and the 10K trailer becomes my limitation. So, I'm now looking at the 3.5-4 ton class. I'm following the same logic. I figure I can buy something lightly used, spend 3 or 4 years reshaping logging roads and putting in culverts and drainage and such and sell it for about what I paid. I'm going to keep using my old DK45 during that period for food plot work and replace it with a new tractor after selling the excavator.
I'm looking for something in the same class and price range. A couple questions:
- I'm setting my hour limit at 2500 but would like to find something around 1000 hours. Keeping the price constant, do you think it would be better to buy a 4 ton machine with higher hours or a 3.5 ton with lower hours?
- Did you have any maintenance issues with the 2800 hour machine? How easy is the Bobcat setup for maintenance?
- Do you think I'm asking too much in terms of features for my price hours range? Right now I'd like: Hydraulic thumb, quick exchange, and a 12" trenching and 30"-36" grading buckets at a minimum. Right now my logging roads have water bars that don't last long. Hunters drive their pickup trucks over them and wear them and eventually we get ruts down the road. I'm thinking of digging a narrow 12" angled trench in my heavy clay and filling it with quarry stone so there is no dip/hump for the trucks. That is driving my need for the 12" bucket. We also have a lot of flat roads where water pools and guys driving on wet roads creates mud holes. I think a grading bucket would let me crown or slope these to one side or the other to prevent the pooling. This drives the need for a grading bucket. Two added value items for me would be an angled blade and a 24" digging bucket, but the angled blade is just a nicety, and if I have a quick exchange, I can always get a 24" bucket down the road if I feel I need it.
I'm trying to keep my price tag under $30K if possible. I started out with a lower price limit, but after making a trip to a bunch of dealerships to look at used equipment, the higher hour stuff looks like it has been rode hard and put up wet. I don't want to have to deal with a lot of maintenance headaches.
Thanks,
Jack
Jack, I’m not qualified at all to answer those questions but will offer my opinion. First off the size of the e42 IS a limitation for me too. I’ve got a trailer that’ll haul it but my half ton GMC Sierra wants no part of it. So the E42 is stuck on the farm which is fine. That’s why I bought it anyways. I’ve toyed with buying a truck like you did but don’t really have much need to move it so haven’t seriously looked at that yet.
As for maintenance. I’ve had no issues. The bobcat is set up easy to do owner maintenance.
The higher hours on mine didn’t bother me at all. Mine had been a Sunbelt rental since new until the guy that I purchased from bought it 2 years prior. Being a rental on some things is a negative. For something like this I viewed it as a positive. Most big rental places have pretty solid maintenance programs. Mine had been maintained well with a documented history.
I wouldn’t let the hours scare you too much.
Whatever you do if you buy it at the right price you should be able to flip it at the right price so at the end of the day you’ll do fine with little depreciation. I wanted to pay cash and I set a 30k budget. I could have gotten a smaller newer machine with fewer hours but it wouldn’t do half the work I can do with this e42.
look up a guy named Kapper on YouTube. I found his channel while shopping. He sold me on the E42.
lots of machines out there in the 20k range. They’re either too small or worn out. At 30k you start to find some machines worth owning.
As for maintenance. I’ve had no issues. The bobcat is set up easy to do owner maintenance.
The higher hours on mine didn’t bother me at all. Mine had been a Sunbelt rental since new until the guy that I purchased from bought it 2 years prior. Being a rental on some things is a negative. For something like this I viewed it as a positive. Most big rental places have pretty solid maintenance programs. Mine had been maintained well with a documented history.
I wouldn’t let the hours scare you too much.
Whatever you do if you buy it at the right price you should be able to flip it at the right price so at the end of the day you’ll do fine with little depreciation. I wanted to pay cash and I set a 30k budget. I could have gotten a smaller newer machine with fewer hours but it wouldn’t do half the work I can do with this e42.
look up a guy named Kapper on YouTube. I found his channel while shopping. He sold me on the E42.
lots of machines out there in the 20k range. They’re either too small or worn out. At 30k you start to find some machines worth owning.
Yes. But specifically on the excavators it’s more good than bad. There isn’t much to them. Massive heavy steel parts with big hydraulic pumps. If the hydraulics / pumps are well maintained and the lubrication schedule is kept they’re pretty hard to abuse. Different from a lot of rental items. Anything broken during a rental would be noticeable and would have to be fixed.
I agree less hours is better as a general rule of thumb but don’t discount one for that reason alone.
