Bought a used 303.5 - Scammed or just Stupid? Or both?

First off, I under-did the due diligence here. I asked most of the important questions over phone calls and come the day to look at/grab the machine, between pouring rain and just being an idiot, I left with the machine. Saw it start, really only looked at the slew/turntable critically to check for play. 3500 hours for 26k. I've bought and sold plenty of cars/trucks and like to think I've got a good gut, and wasnt seeing any red flags.

Described was a 2016 machine that had been properly maintained it's entire life, with no serious issues, ready to dig.

What I got was actually a 2013 machine that has likely been used more as a hammer than a digger. For one, there was maybe 3/8" of free play around the pin through the bore at the end of the stick. The bushings were nowhere to be found and it was bone dry. Plenty of similar things. Lots of fab work in my future to tighten this thing up.

So just moving forward, I started making a line boring jig, machining sleeves to get back to factory bore, ordering a whole bunch of pins and bushings to finally give this girl some love. 1.5k in parts, and we're talking aftermarket, non-cat. For someone paying for labor/machining and using the Cat-official parts, this is like 5k in stuff, purely so the machine wouldn't tear itself apart in a few hundred more hours...
Question for the group - what would y'all do in this situation? "Not knowing" about issues is subjective and I wouldn't put it past certain folks to just "not have noticed" or "think it's normal", but calling it a 2016 when it's a '13 is something entirely different. From what I understand, with intent, this is fraud. It was sold by a construction company on behalf of the owner, from my understanding. I'm thinking of asking them to throw 2k back my way and call it a day...

First off, your wife should beat you with a dead chicken. They aren’t going to give you anything back and I’m sure the sale was final. Other issues will come up also……make sure there are plenty of chickens in the coop.

I would fix the machine and move on with life. You likely aren't going to get anything back on the machine, most used sales are as is where is. It is your job to do your due diligence on the machine. Noticing worn out pins is pretty basic.

Heavy equipment is not sold by model year. Model years really don't exist as they do with cars, and a machine is not marked anywhere with a model year. Again, due diligence; had you showed up here on HEF with a serial number, or simply called Cat before you bought the machine you would have gotten a build date. Machines are sold by series; what you have is probably an 303.5 E or E2.

I am sure there will be guys that will come along and bloviate about fraud and lawyers and all that. I don't play that game, "Let the buyer beware".

My wife has always had issues dispatching our chickens.. so maybe doing so while beating me with them over this kills two birds with one stone, figuratively and literally speaking.

Still blows my mind though that normal folk will knowingly burn people like that. Guy had his grandkids with him and met at his house with the 303.5ECR, lent me a trailer - as wholesome of interaction as you would hope for. But dang, maybe this guy should really consider pivoting to an acting career! Or a bond villain or something. At least it had a spare bucket and the hydraulic coupler (that leaks, of course).

Thanks for the insight - bottom line is I'm just complaining about being an idiot and likely 95% of people here wouldn't think of repeating my mistake.. for those other 5%, maybe will extend some caution.

Looks like me and the lathe are going to be getting a lot of quality time soon.

os4ivmb said:

But dang, maybe this guy should really consider pivoting to an acting career!

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have you considered that it he represented it as he knew it?
Many people attribute malice of forethought to what is just ignorance. Up until you started digging, you thought it was A-OK.

For the actual condition of the machine, sure. I'm sure there are many tradesman where "it digs" means "it's in great shape".

But calling it out as a 2016 when it was a 2013 when he was the one who bought it in 2013 (Cat verified this) makes me doubt that a bit.

A 2013 build date or 2016 wouldn't make much difference in it's value. It's an E model with X amount of hours. The condition determines the value, not the year built.

It never hurts to call and ask. You might could tell more by watching his face if you do it in person. You will be able to tell if he was taking advantage of you. He might have genuinely not known the year or confused it.

As far as the repairs go a lot of machines need the same stuff so. Don't let that bother you to much

Did you pay too much for what you got?

Not what you thought you were getting, but what you have?

Either way you're stuck with it so move on.

I've been screwed many times, but more times by myself.

Joe H

It doesn't hurt to make contact with the seller and plead your case in person. He tells you to "pack sand" then you grab a shovel, but on the chance he really didn't know, he may have some sympathy. Owning a construction company, he certainly can understand your position, whether he gives a sh!t is another matter. At this point, you couldn't be in a worse position if you did make contact with him, unless you punch him in the face.

Joe H said:

but more times by myself.

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Yep . . .

We have all made to quick of a decision at time but the good news is it looks like you got it a somewhat decent price and once you get the new pins in they will be in good shape for a long time its to bad it got so far as needing boring but sounds like your working that out maybe start a new thread with pics of your setup to give others ideas

KSSS said:

At this point, you couldn't be in a worse position if you did make contact with him, unless you punch him in the face.

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I've tried to reach out a couple times, he'd noted that he would send all of his maint docs my way, but he's yet to return a call and no docs in hand... While I'm not sure if this is fraud, I do know for a fact that punching him in the face is 1st degree aggravated assault and will forever make me not a voter

Jonas302 said:

maybe start a new thread with pics of your setup to give others ideas

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I was hoping to chronicle all of that as just looking around, there isn't much on DIY line boring apart from "Buy the $$$$ machine". With a sacrificed old bench drill press, I'm thinking I can do it for under a couple hundred, so if that has anywhere near acceptable results, I'd love to share that with folks. Would this be the right subforum to do it (Compact Excavators)? - seems applicable to most anything with pins that people destroy...

As others have stated, year model means nothing when it comes to equipment, it's not the same as cars/trucks. I'd stop fretting over that, there are a lot of people that can't remember exactly what 'year model' a piece of equipment is, because it doesn't matter. Like said before, model number and prefix/suffix, hours, and condition are whats important.

Did you pay too much for the condition/hours? Maybe, maybe not, if you can get it serviceable for $1-2K in parts I'd say you are doing pretty good, I usually budget $5K repairs for any used equipment I buy.

Actually, unless you hit him with a baseball bat in the face that would be aggravated, but if you punched him in the face and left it that, simple battery. Being in Washington, that would be like an infraction.

KSSS, where did you school yourself on the ins and outs of assault???

Any pics of the machine?

OP what's your background and equipment knowledge?

Is this machine for personal use or are you going to make a living with it?

I can take photos later. Professionally am a mech/electrical engineer working on design/manufacture of telecom satellites. Background in a whole lot of different types of manufacture/fab. Knowledge of heavy equipment is obviously limited, apart from a handful of months looking for this guy. Thus far it's a lot simpler to work on than anything else I've been exposed to, aside from how heavy everything is. Machining/fab tolerances are a whole lot nicer to work with as well.

I've already refit new lights, added a flood bar, strobe, radio, and a harness for those things and have added two new fuses in the circuit box (where it looks like things for a cabbed version usually go). Just something to do while waiting on parts..

The machine is for personal use for a cabin property. I have some neighbors that I'd like to be able borrow the machine, so it's more of a community machine then? - so for the time being it's at home in my shop. The shop is fairly well fitted out (lift, crane, welders, plasma cutter, cnc mill, lathe etc), so there isn't a lot that's out of my range capability wise. The intent is to get the thing to near-factory good before it goes out the door.

I have these, though - that photo of the pin through the stick is how it was running - no bushings left.. bone dry...

All things considered, the rest of the stick/boom is as expected for the hours and the turntable is surprisingly tight... But that bucket end... Yeah it's a mess.

Chewed up pretty good…

Good that the slew
bearing is tight, that is always the first check I make….

Sounds like you are well set up for repairs. We used a Cat 303.5 for one season to feed our wash plant, it handled a 36” c/u bucket on a long stick pretty well. Good luck!