We bought a 770 last winter. Really am enjoying the machine. Any advice what to keep an eye on? Only thing I kind of wonder about is the number of moving parts in regards to the floating bottom rollers. Does it need to be kept clean? How many hours have you put on one? How tight do the pins and bushings in the loader stay?With ctl's you really need to consider parts and service availability. Especially if you are buying used. They are all very capable machines in the right hands. They can also destroy themselves in the wrong hands. They all will break down, a good dealer can make a huge difference in how you fare with a machine.
I have 3 Bobcats now (2 770's, 1 870) and have had decent luck with them. Main thing is I have a great dealer within 15 minutes that has the service and parts thing figured out.
The T-300 and 320's were solid machines as long as final drive oil was changed religiously. The Taks have always been solid, seems like any vintage of those were solid.
Shimmy,
The use is varied from the tiling crew to the dirt crew. I have never had any undercarriage problems at all, and they are in the mud a lot. I have had a couple of drive motors replaced, always past 2000 hours. I had a controller for the regen system burn up, that was a $5000 part, why I won't own tier 4 ctl's out of warranty.
The pins and bushings will hold out if you grease religiously. We do it every tank of fuel, which can be quite often depending on application.
Overall good machines, we use them as dozers and have lots of attachments, so they get worked pretty hard.
TK, Kubota, Case,
The biggest issue with the JD's do seem to be the drive motors. They just don't last. Reason why they're so "cheap" used is because they don't make big hours w/o major repairs/maint. which are a small fortune...........
What do you think is typical lifespan of a drive motor? Brad SEIN just said at least 2000 hours.
Maybe not. My Case ate two before 800 hrs. That could have been attributed to the previous owner's lack of maintenance, but the manual says to change the fluid at 500 hrs and at that point one of the drive motors was already history. I'm a little gun shy so I check the fluid level a lot and change it at no more than 200 hrs. In fact, I changed it yesterday. One had nice clean looking fluid and the other was a bit darker. You can guess which one won't last. Case, Cat and JD use Bonfiglioli drive motors. If only for that one reason...I put them in the same category. My next ctl will be a Kubota or Tak.
Just curious... How does worn old gear oil damage the seals. When mine went on the JD 332, it was the rear seal of the gearbox, where the track cog/gearbox spins against the hydraulic motor. I think its a metal on metal seal?
What y'all waitin on CM ? It's only money.....he he heMy Cat salesman has a 279 that he's ready to send out for a demo, I haven't set it up yet..:cool2
My Cat salesman has a 279 that he's ready to send out for a demo, I haven't set it up yet..:cool2