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Looking to buy some equipment

L

Longhauler

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
12
Location
Houston, TX
A little backstory...

Late last year a good friend started a new business scrapping barges, and perhaps one day servicing marine vessels. We've reached a point where we need to purchase some heavy equipment of our own. Primarily a crawler crane capable of 100-120 ton lifts and an excavator. Probably a 300 or slightly larger.

So...

That brings me to my question. If you needed to purchase these two pieces of equipment, which manufacturer / models would you buy, taking into consideration ease of operation, reliability, availability of spare parts, etc..
 
R

RTSmith

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Oct 23, 2008
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421
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Middle Tenn.
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Amateur demolition & dirt pusher
I think maybe I'd split this up into two threads (each piece of eqpt) in their respective forum area. May be some hesitant to post because it can turn into two broad discussions going on at once.
 
Dozerboy

Dozerboy

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New? Komatsu is pretty hard to beat in these parts, but I'm a big fan of Deere and nothing wrong with the new cats too. Going to be putting a shear on the hoe?

I don't know about cranes the operators I've talked to its all personal preference.
 
G

Grademan

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Apr 8, 2011
Messages
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Pa
It's all about service. Ask around and find out which local dealer will serve you the best. We run case cat and Deere. I prefer komatsu but no service here.
 
Deeretime

Deeretime

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344
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High River Alberta
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superintendent
Richie bro's sale!
stick to brand names and bring someone knowledgeable in machinery!
Just depends what your budget is when it comes to reliability
 
L

Longhauler

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
12
Location
Houston, TX
RTSmith said:
I think maybe I'd split this up into two threads (each piece of eqpt) in their respective forum area. May be some hesitant to post because it can turn into two broad discussions going on at once.
Click to expand...

I considered two sperate threads, but I had hoped it would be easier to consolidate. The new business keeps me pretty busy so I don't have a lot of time to keep up with multiple threads.
 
L

Longhauler

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
12
Location
Houston, TX
Grademan said:
It's all about service. Ask around and find out which local dealer will serve you the best. We run case cat and Deere. I prefer komatsu but no service here.
Click to expand...

I've been operating a rented Komatsu, and frankly I like the machine. But service for them is very limited here as well. I'm leaning towards a Case or an Hitachi.
 
L

Longhauler

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
12
Location
Houston, TX
Deeretime said:
Richie bro's sale!
stick to brand names and bring someone knowledgeable in machinery!
Just depends what your budget is when it comes to reliability
Click to expand...

Agree on all points. Our budget is a concern, but frankly I'm willing to extend a bit if necessary. The excavator is the most critical item at the moment. The Hitachi we've been using has a hydraulic thumb, which helps greatly since we're literally using it for everything, from pulling giant pieces off of the barge to loading the processed steel into roll-off boxes. Right now we're making all of our cuts by torch, but eventually we'll use a shear for all but processing.
 
G

Grademan

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Apr 8, 2011
Messages
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Pa
Longhauler said:
I've been operating a rented Komatsu, and frankly I like the machine. But service for them is very limited here as well. I'm leaning towards a Case or an Hitachi.
Click to expand...

I have mainly case trackhoes because of servise (dealer support). We also have a Hitachi - good machine - but NO local dealer support. We use the local Deere dealer for parts on that machine. Case has a nice lease option with all services included, I have in on two units - works good - I know to the penny the cost to run those machines and frankly a 4 year lease just ended, we put an average of 4000 hr on the unit and it was the cheapest hoe I ever ran in the fleet.
 
L

Longhauler

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
12
Location
Houston, TX
I know it sounds like a foreign concept. But it can be done, and planning ahead of time for maintenance and repairs will certainly help the cause.
 
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