Grey Market Hitachi

[excavator]

There have been many posts here discussing "Grey Market" excavators and the availability of parts. I know some brands have many differences between the two but what kinds of experiences have others had with Hitachi? In the last 20 years of working on heavy equipment I've seen very few of these problems with Hitachi excavators until you get into the mini's. Ex120 and up appear to all be pretty much the same. Actually, I believe the EX60 and EX120-1,2&3 are all considered grey market machines because Deere had the same size machine in their lineup. The only one that I have seen with significant differences is the EX200-5. The US machine has much less electronics on it than the grey market machine. The grey market industry put a major dent in the US dealers overall profits so I'm not at all surprised when they don't want to deal with them. I use the US version manuals, along with Deere manuals to work on them, I've put Deere parts in them and I've never found one that my DR EX will not communicate with. I'm very curious what others have found. Any thoughts?

 

[oldtanker]

OK I'm new here and new to Construction equipment. I have about 100 hours of Dozer time, some skid steer time, less than 30 hours pan time...you get the idea. I do have thousands of hours on tanks....LOL. I've heard of grey market compact utility tractors but never excavators. Here grey market means cheaper, most often Chinese made unit that are not built as well and almost impossible to get parts for in a reasonable time. They sell under names like Jenma or NorTrac. Couple of years ago you started to see Jenma dealers pop up all over. Most of these places stopped selling em because they couldn't keep the customer happy because of break downs and time required to make repairs because of parts availability.


Rick

 

[John C.]

I have never had any problems sourcing parts for Hitachi machines either domestic or gray. Right now though you have to go through the Deere dealer and I haven't been doing that kind of work for some time. Pape is the Deere in this part of the world. They are aggressive and helpful for the most part in my past dealings with them. If you had the right parts book come with your gray you didn't have any problems sourcing parts.

The electronics issue came up with machines built expressly for other parts of the world. Komatsu for awhile put out excavators with both the full electronic package that included programable operation and electronic joy stick controls and the opposite machine with no computer at all. If you had a Hitachi that had more than what was usually sold in the US then you had one of the special units. Many of the options seen on machine here now only got that way because they were tried on gray machines and customer start to demand them on US machines.

The Seattle/Tacoma ports seem to have been the main entry of gray markets but plenty also came through Vancouver, CN and the Port of Los Angeles. I've seen and worked on most of the brands that came through and each was an animal to its own. Cat was particularly protective while Komatsu and Hitachi just rolled with the issue. Kobelco and Yutani were the same thing and Rhine Equipment did a pretty good job on parts back then. The Kobelco dealers now don't want anything to do with the old units. Most will just shine you on with a bunch of BS.

Now days there are Korean makes coming through trying to act like the old gray market machines but I haven't seen the kind of quality from those makes than the original Japanese units. I have yet to see anyone trust a Chinese machine in this area. I have wondered how the grays were accepted through the middle and east coast of the country.

 

[2stickbill]

The only Grey Market Machine Hitachi I have seen was shut down on a job.Because there were no Safety Devices.Travel alarms etc.

 

[KenAl]

The EX-5 series were the start of big differences. Final drives and sprockets can be different as can be the pumps. The ZX seems to have more differences and I am still finding out more as parts are needed.

 

[dakuch]

I purchased a Hitachi EX40-UR mini excavator not knowing it was a gray machine. I would like to do some repairs on it, what is the best way to get replacement parts for it. Also are there any members that have a EX40-UR model? Tanhks JIM

 

[RobVG]

Has a bad starter on a 160. Took it off and took it to Pape to make sure they had a match.
The starter they came up with looked different. They even looked in their yard to scavage one. Had the old one rebuilt.

Had another one go bad on a different machine and my helper replaced it with a new stock one but it worked fine. Saved the part number.

These starters burned up because of a wire rubbing and shorting on the solinoid. Had a third one with the same problem but just moved and taped up the wire and have had no problems with it. It's not a bad idea to check for this wire- white one if i remember right.

 

[RobVG]

I'm sorry dakuch, I didn't notice this was an older thread and I just glanced at your question.

The dealer would be the place to start.

For other owners- check out the "Compact Excavator's" board on the forum list or click on this:
https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/forumdisplay.php?61-Compact-Excavators

 

[captain charlie]

I have been running a Hitachi 50urg for a couple of years. I was impressed at the welding job on the machine. Parts have been easy to find and not out of line with other prices. Kind of sad there are no proper manuals.

 

[Wardiker]

I have a Hitachi Ex60, 1991, 4000 hrs, bought it used 3 years ago, before I bought it I made sure I could get parts and a new engine if needed. Ive had no probelms with the machine (other than self inflicted minor ones) have had no problem getting any parts Ive needed. Love it

 

[bushmechanic]

old hitachi

I am working on a ex 200lc hitachi ita a strait 200. Anyone know anything about rebuilding the hydrolic control valve? This one is leaking in the hi psi side in between the 2 halves. I am hoping to just re seal it and put it back in. Is this a good idea? None of the functions are effected.

 

[looneyro123]

Can anyone tell me where I can find a service manual for my hitachi ex50urg. It overheats in about 15 minutes of running

 

[Directional]

If it's similar to the ex50u, there are some manuals and such on ebay

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

 

[Wardiker]

Can anyone tell me where I can find a service manual for my hitachi ex50urg. It overheats in about 15 minutes of running

Whats it doing exactly, Ill assume you checked the water and oil levels. Refer to my thread about 2 years ago had the same problem, turned out it was a clog in the fuel line.

 

[abdul k]

Hi Looney,
I have a EX50 URG and it was over heating due to the leaves/ rubbish getting stuck in between the radiator and the hydraulic oil cooler, it is very easy to take the radiator out to clean the rubbish from in front of the core, you have to drop the coolant out though. Mine has a turbo charged 3AD1 Isuzu engine in it and a while back the turbo compressor wheel was touching its housing, this over heated the engine also plus it made a howling noise, I had to get the turbo rebuilt, I ended up installing an automotive aftercooler on top of the engine cover/compartment, so that my engine breathes much more cooler air then previously, when there was just an air box inside the engine compartment, I could not see the logic behind the air box stuck inside the engine compartment!.

 

[captain charlie]

If it's similar to the ex50u, there are some manuals and such on ebay

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

I think those manuals are for the newer models that pivot at the base of the boom. There isn't much similarity to the older models that have the fixed base at the bottom of the boom.

 

[looneyro123]

Thanks for the info. I noticed very little movement of coolant in rad
So I decided to have the radiator flushed. There was some debree between rad and gys cooler so that may help. Thanks again

 

[captain charlie]

overheating

Looneyro, I cut a vent in the side of the casing last fall and it made a huge difference in the air exchange in the engine compartment. Its only 8 x 14 but it seems to do the trick.

 

[DOZER HAND]

I have a ex 75 ur hitachi 1994 and in need a crank- rods and oil pump for the motor a nissan bd 30-022268 any help would be great thank you
d710992d8@yahoo.com

 

[hiluxman]

dont buy a grey market excavator they have more problems then its worth