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Seeking advice on purchase of used CAT 245D

Popntx

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Messages
13
Location
San Antonio
I am in the market for a used skid steer for my place in the Texas hill country. Will be mostly used to remove cedars that are taking over, plus piling dead brush etc. So, I'm planning to purchase a brush cutter and grapple to go with the skid steer. I know very little about skid steers other than renting one a few years ago and talking to friends so need some advice.

A local dealer has a 2014 CAT 246D with 1150 hours coming in that I want to consider purchasing. It has enclosed cab with AC, doesn't have high flow, and he says it has rear weights which makes it equivalent to a model 262.

I have several questions. Will this machine handle the type of work and attachments I'm getting? Does it sound like a reasonable price? Do I need to worry about the hours being turned back? Is it possible to check maintenance records? Is there anything in particular that I need to be checking?

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to any advice.
 

01Time

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Joined
Apr 22, 2020
Messages
97
Location
Central Texas
I am in the market for a used skid steer for my place in the Texas hill country. Will be mostly used to remove cedars that are taking over, plus piling dead brush etc. So, I'm planning to purchase a brush cutter and grapple to go with the skid steer. I know very little about skid steers other than renting one a few years ago and talking to friends so need some advice.

A local dealer has a 2014 CAT 246D with 1150 hours coming in that I want to consider purchasing. It has enclosed cab with AC, doesn't have high flow, and he says it has rear weights which makes it equivalent to a model 262.

I have several questions. Will this machine handle the type of work and attachments I'm getting? Does it sound like a reasonable price? Do I need to worry about the hours being turned back? Is it possible to check maintenance records? Is there anything in particular that I need to be checking?

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to any advice.

I have an older (early 2000's) 246 that I bought for the purpose of clearing cedar. The brushcutters I've seen are pretty expensive relative to what I paid for my 246, so I just use a grapple bucket. Also, the brushcutters will leave a stump because you don't want to be running the cutter into the ground.

Since cedars (aka ashe juniper) don't root very deep, if you use the right technique, small to mid-sized cedars will come out using a bucket with not too much effort. I try to get the bucket as high on the main branches as possible (as to not break them) and try to push forward, using the tree itself as a lever. A smaller tree will come right out. If the soil is soft, there's no limit to the size of cedar you can unroot. The larger ones require more work. Sometimes I have to dig around the base to loosen the grip the roots have into the soil. But, if you have the time and patience, a grapple bucket will take care of all of them.

Unless you just have the money to spend, I'd just try using a grapple bucket and only buying a brushcutter (or mulcher or forestry cutter) if that isn't working out.

Does it sound like a reasonable price?

How much are they aksing?

Do I need to worry about the hours being turned back?

The meter could be replaced and the true hours hidden. But, if you thoroughly inspect the machine, you'll have a good idea of what you are looking at. If it looks beat up and ran hard, then it's probably gonna have more than 1150 hours.

Is it possible to check maintenance records?

From my understanding, those records are maintained by each individual dealer. Or the previous owner might have performed the routine PMs themselves.

Is there anything in particular that I need to be checking?

You can take fluid samples of the engine oil, hydraulic oil, coolant, and even the fuel.
Make sure there are no cracks or welds on the loader arms.
Make sure all of the controls work.
Inspect the hydraulic cylinders (leaks, dry rot, damage).
Look under the ROPS and behind the rear door and look for leaks from the hydraulic lines and engine.
Take it for a test run. It should have equal power to both sides. The machine should have no problems lifting itself.
Make note of the smoke, white smoke at startup is okay - but it should eventually clear up. Any other color might indicate a problem.

There are very few things that are cheap on these - the parts and labor to work on these are expensive. Make it a point to stay on top of the preventive maintenance schedules.
 
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Popntx

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Messages
13
Location
San Antonio
Sorry I forgot to put the asking price. He's asking $29K.

As far as pushing the cedar with a bucket versus using a brush cutter, I was hoping to avoid having large piles of cedars that will need to be burned. I had a guy come out to our place a couple of years ago that cut/mulched a bunch of cedars and you can barely tell they were ever there. They were mostly the bushy type in the 6" tall range. He would just lay the cutter down over the cedar and it just disintegrated it. It mulched it into pieces that pretty much got covered in grass after a year. However, I think his mulcher was better than what I'd want to spend. I know a guy that has a brush cutter, asking $4K, it's basically new and he says has a 1 year warranty. He says it will do what I want it to do.

I appreciate your response and opinion. I'm pretty new to this and want to be sure that I make the right decision and not get burned. Thinking about asking a guy that I know that knows these machines a lot better than me to go with me to check it out.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,260
Location
Canada
Need to see what kind of flow and pressure a brush cutter requires. Also if needs a case drain line.
 

KSSS

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Feb 27, 2005
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Location
Idaho
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excavation
If it had high flow it would give you more options on mower attachments. I would think cedars would be quite a work out for a typical mower attachment. I can tackle pretty good size trees with a Diamond mower with high flow, even with that you got to take it pretty slow. I have no experience with cedars maybe they shatter pretty easy. You are sub 75 hp so you dont have DEF to deal with, but I believe that CAT uses a DPF on those machines so I would make sure the filter isnt full. Should be enough machine to do what you need to do with a grapple. Price might be a little high for 6 year old machine without high flow, mid 20's would enough for that machine, but if it is exceptionally clean and cared for, your price might not be far off.
 

ThreeCW

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Joined
Dec 15, 2019
Messages
227
Location
near Calgary, Alberta
You might want to hire an independent CAT mechanic who is familiar with skid steers to provide you with a pre-purchase inspection. As was mentioned, parts and repairs on these machines are pretty pricey and having a pre-purchase inspection will either give you a good feeling for the machine or give you an idea of what repairs may be required. If repairs are required, you may be able to negotiate a sharper price with that information.

As was previously mentioned, you will want to double check that the standard hydraulics are sufficient for the accessories that you want to run ... as you might require high flow hydraulics which would be a deal breaker on this machine.
 

Nige

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Jun 22, 2011
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G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
Do I need to worry about the hours being turned back?
Ask the dealer to give you a "Product Status Report". This is a pdf document that is produced from information extracted from the machine electronic controls using Cat ET software. It will contain the "Diagnostic Clock" hour readings as registered by the various electronic controls on the machine, amongst a whole host of other information. All of them should be within a couple of hours of one another. Particularly note the hours on the Machine ECM versus the hours on the Engine ECM.
 

Popntx

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Messages
13
Location
San Antonio
Attached is the brush cutter that a guy I know said he would sell me. It's the 72" with 3 blades and he wants $4K for it. It's slightly used with 1 year warranty left. Specs say it has a 6" cutting capacity but isn't clear if high flow is needed to reach that capacity. The size cedars I will be clearing are all well below 6", and are like very large bushes with multiple branches. Cedar wood is pretty soft. Specs for the brush cutter says motor gpm low/medium/high is 16-30. The cat 246D spec shows a standard flow of 23.

The guy selling the brush cutter says all I need is standard flow, and the guy selling the skid steer says the same thing. I do trust them, but these are the guys that are trying to sell me something.

Any additional advice is greatly appreciated!
 

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Reuben Frazier

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Joined
Mar 25, 2019
Messages
145
Location
NE Texas
Your wanting to cut 6”cedar trees and mulch them up with a 245 low flow and a brush cutter? Thr is no way in the world that plans going to work out very good. I’m sorry to be the bad news guy but you can thank me later. We cut cedars every day and I wouldn’t even consider putting one of our 100+ hp machines on it with a $15,000 hd brush cutter to remove 6” of anything not involving a mulcher. The best job for you is obviously a mulcher but get you a grapple or a tree puller and you will be ok, just burn small piles.
 
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