small excavator buying questions, features

[case310350]

Just started looking at small excavators. which tracks are better steel or rubber? my understanding is the rubber track gets replaced as a unit where steel can be repaired.

I know I want 0 tail swing but what about the offset boom feature?

any model or manufacture that was extra good or bad? looking for used, about 12-13k to spend. I see lots of yanmars for sale in my price range, is there a reason for that.

take care greg

 

[Tigerotor77W]

Small excavators -- like mini-excavators, or small excavators (7-15 tonnes)?

 

[CascadeScaper]

In the $13K range, you'll get a machine, but chances are you'll have to do some work on it at some point or another.

 

[case310350]

I mean mini like 4 to 5 ton machine.

 

[smalltime]

I am impressed with the bobcat brand of mini's.
I have ran yanmars, deere's, cat's, & bobcats. The bobcats are by far my favorite. They are comfortable to operate, plenty of power for the size, parts are easy to get, the cycle times are quick, & best of all, they are made in the USA. I just bought a Bobcat 430 which is a zero tail swing model. I have already put a little over 100 hours on it & I could not be happier with it. I have not tried the new case models, I looked at them since our other stuff is Case & I like the dealer, but Case does not make their own & they are not made in the USA. A friend if mine had the Yanmar & I liked its power, but it was very uncomfortable to operate & parts were sometimes hard to find. However, there is not a Yanmar dealer around us, so maybe that was some of the problem. The Deere seemed slow on the cycle times. I liked the cat, but I just preferred the bobcat over the cat. It may be hard to find a zero tail swing model in that price range, but they are very useful.

 

[2004F550]

We have a Bobcat 435, which is zero tail swing, we also tried a Cat 305 before we bought but ended up with the Bobcat b/c it had better breakout and we got better deal. So, I guess I would look into used bobcats, we used to rent them years ago and were good machines in terms of their power. I would stay away from rental units if I was going used, you never know what has been done to them.

 

[case310350]

well resale prices suggest you all are right with used bobcat prices being on average 20% higher for the same feature, hours and condition. but may be worth the extra money..

 

[Squizzy246B]

I did 6 months of research before I bought my Yanmar...mainly speaking to owner operators about their gear. Service and support where my main concern...which I knew I could get from Cat. The Yanmar pretty much matched the Hitachi pound for pound and they both slayed Cat on price. Don't be afraid to look at Kubota. We are getting close to 4000 hours on our 161-3 and its still nice and tight despite the fact we use a breaker on it from time to time (we grease the hell out of that machine and it pays off). Kubota and Bobcat do service our area but I wasn't getting any good feedback on parts availability and pricing (quite the opposite).

I don't think there is a lot of major differences in the currently available crop of machines ...not in their overall ability to get the job done anyway. The newer (last 2 years) Takeyourhoochies appear to be going well but I don't like the older ones because they just aren't that durable IMHO.

Service - Support - Condition...don't worry too much what colour it is.

 

[Cat420]

I don't have a ton of experience with mini excavator, but some. I have enjoyed using the Kubotas from 3,000lbs on up to 10,000lbs. They dug well had good and power to push with the blade. We used a Case cx75 and I wouldn't buy one of their smaller sizes if it was similar to this one. It swung so slow I almost fell asleep. It only had less than 100 hours too. The A/C was freezing cold though. Komatsu makes a nice machine too no matter what size, they all have seem to have to same feel of quality

 

[Jeff D.]

I did 6 months of research before I bought my Yanmar.....

.......The Yanmar pretty much matched the Hitachi pound for pound and they both slayed Cat on price.

Plus you can run 440volts through them Yanmars and they don't even so much as hick-up! You tell em' Mr. Squizzy!:yup

 

[Alan Mesmer]

I am partial to Bobcats and Kubota. I have a Kubota KX121-3 with tilt blade(9500 lb.) right now and it is a nice machine. It has plenty of power - I use a 30" rock bucket and a 42" ditching bucket with no problems. I also have a Kubota k008 mini mini(2000 lb.). My Kubota dealer is 3 miles from my house so I am a little partial to Kubota. I have used Bobcats (rented) and they are fine also. The Bobcats had plenty of power too.
The one demo machine that I used but didn't like was the Gehl. It seemed like I was on a rocking horse every time I swung to dump. It almost made me sick it moved so much! Don't remember if they had a long stick on it or what but I just didn't like it.
As stated before - be careful with rentals. They are usually really loose machines.
Just a suggestion; rent some different machines to see what you think. Sometimes 10 hrs in the seat is the real indicator if you like it or not.
Also ask your dealer if they have demo days in which you could try out the machine with no obligation.

Good luck
Alan

 

[Squizzy246B]

Plus you can run 440volts through them Yanmars and they don't even so much as hick-up! You tell em' Mr. Squizzy!:yup

Look..it was 415 Volts right!...we run 415/50Hz here not 440/60Hz Ok....Lol:bouncegri

 

[jmac]

I owned a Bob cat 331 and liked it. Problem you will face is that at around the price point that you are looking for it will be hard to be to picky. I just sold my 97' Bob Cat 331 for 15k so you will not find a zero tail swing for that kind of money unless it has losts of hours on it. Try the auctions but buyer beware.

 

[Steve Frazier]

My experience with Kubota is it often takes close to a week to get parts that aren't normally stocked. I can't afford that kind of down time. I don't know if this problem is unique to my dealer or representative of the brand.

 

[KSSS]

You may have a difficult time finding one from a dealer at that price. I would search Ritchie Bros and Iron Planet and see what a particular machine has brought at auction. If you could find another 10K to spend you could take a considerable step up. I have owned IHI and Takeuchi. Dollar for Dollar the IHI is great machine. I bought a 97' 35J with a thumb and 900 hours for $16750.00 put 1500 hours on it and traded it in and got 12,500 for it four years later. The Takeuchi is also a very good excavator but you wont find a zero tail for the money you want to spend. I have run CASE, Deere, Komatsu and Bobcat. They all have their strong points and their not so strong points. Like someone said at $15K you can't be picky in your color.

 

[coopers]

I've been around Kubota and Bobcat mini's the most and although Bobcat wasn't bad, I was far more impressed with the kubota. I used to work in the rental business and for two seperate ones at different times in my life and one was only kubota mini's and then the other company was only bobcat. We had very few to no problems with the 121-3, 161-3, and 41-3's that we owned. Yeah there was the occasional break down due to operator error (part of renting equipment out) like thumbs snapping or lines being broken or tracks thrown, but whatever parts we needed were usually obtainable very quickly. There were times that we had to wait for a part from Japan but it was few and far between. Those machines were so strong it was unbelieveable, we had the older 121-2's still in our fleet that were running like they were new. I like how the whole machine is desined, how the how is designed, how easy it is to access the engine, their strength and dependability, even down to the design of the buckets, but that's just me. But like they said, you can't be too picky with the amount that you have allocated to spending. They're quite pricy new or slightly used. We do have quite a few Kubota dealers in WA, two that were very close to the rental company I used to work for so that may be a factor in some ways.

Blake
WA

 

[CascadeScaper]

My experience with Kubota is it often takes close to a week to get parts that aren't normally stocked. I can't afford that kind of down time. I don't know if this problem is unique to my dealer or representative of the brand.

Yep, same here. Can't wait that long. Plus, if we had a real issue on our hands that I couldn't fix myself, the mechanics at the local dealership wouldn't be able to figure it out either. They're a tractor dealership, but they can't figure out the construction equipment they sell. I'll stay away from that.

 

[jmac]

I think most Kubota suff is sold thru the tractor supply chain, at least here anyways. New Holland the same way, were as Bob Cat sold by just a Bob Cat specific dealer. Back to your question, I think 12 to 13k is going to be hard to find what you are looking for, not saying you can't get lucky hope you do. I would try to save up another 7k make it 20k you have to spend and you will open up your options allot.

 

[case310350]

going to sell one of my backhoes to come up with more money. one question which no one has addressed which track is better, dependable, steel or rubber? theres a yanmar b27 on ebay wants 10k for 0 tail. when I don't have money I have patience.

 

[minimax]

I have a deere 35c ZTS mini with steel tracks and bolt on rubber pads and love that style of tracks .Just ordered a new deere 35D mini with steel tracks and will be putting on rubber pads on the new machine.

minimax