# Sold my mini-ex.



## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

Bad enough times are tough but today i hop on the machine, fire it up as usual, let it idle for about 2-3 minutes and then head across the yard. My neighbors lot has been vacant for yrs and used to be a fuel delivery company so there are old tanks laying around along with pipes and such. Some of this crap has spilled on my property and some has been buried in the brook out back. So while times are slow i figured a buddy of mine would give me a hand cleaning up this scrap and we could split the money. I drive the machine out back and begin loading his dump truck. After a couple minutes i drive it out into the brook and i begin digging around and pull out 4 gas pumps, a couple engine blocks and other mics. scrap. Meanwhile i begin to hear this hissing but i figured it was because i was in the water. I look down the temp gauge is buried past hot.  I back the mini out of the water and shut it right down. 

I let it sit for awhile and cool off, grab some tools and yank out the thermostat. It was closed but appeared to work OK but i left t out anyway and put the gooseneck back on, filled it up with coolant and fired it up. Sure enough, i am getting pressure from the overflow hose so i know i damaged the head gasket. I tried running it again and the temp would just climb right to hot. Now the fan is spinning as well as the water pump shaft and there are no obvious leaks. I shut it back off and dump in a whole bottle of "barsleak" and try it again. Within 5 minutes the temp went from cold to hot . Shut it back off and said screw it, must be the water pump is bad. I drove to a friends scrap yard who has been pestering to rent or buy my machine and told him what happened. We went right to the house and he looked it over, i started it for him and he watched it go from cold to hot in less than 5 minutes. He asked what i wanted and i said at least $4k but i knew i wouldnt get it, he offered $2500 and i asked $3k which he accepted. So, tomorrow i will deliver it and i now have $3k cash in hand. 

I bought the machine for $13k 6yrs ago, it more than paid for itself and now has at least given me some cash to rent a machine for the last few odds/ends i need to do for myself this fall. :thumbsup: But, this will be the last grey market machine i will ever buy. Next yr i am going for a Kubota, Kumastu or Bobcat.


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## burntside bob (Sep 27, 2010)

Give special consideration to the Kubota brand, I have one with steel tracks and am very positively impressed with it, my brother operates a zero swing bobcat with rubber tracks, hates it, perfers the Kubota better quality machine. All advertising aside Kubota is better machine.


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

I have ran a friends Kubota here and there and it just spoils the hell out of me when i do. Great power, fast and comfortable to operate. It is most likely the brand i will go with, that and the dealer is only 45 minutes from me.


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## peteo (Jan 8, 2011)

You cant go wrong with Kubota. They are by far the best mini on the market. My advice is stay away from bobcats. they are not balanced very well and the hydraulics are jerky as hell. Not to mention Bobcat seems to put all the power into the boom and none into the stick or bucket cylinders. I hate em personally but to each there own. I hear the Komatsu's are nice but i have never personally run one.


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## HUI (Jan 21, 2011)

I have operated a Kubota for a few hundred hours and was a good machine but it was crude for the cab. It was about a year 2000. I'm sure they have improved since. It was a 161-2

I have operated a 75 case and it wasn't too bad but the hydraulics seemed jerky. 

I have been in about every size of komatsu from 35 to about 200 and they are good machines. No real complaints

I own a Deere 50D. Personally I think it is the best overall machine. I like the manual quick attach. All cabs are small for a mini but at least I do have a/c and heat. I have about 2200 hrs on my 50D and no real troubles.


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## stonecutter (May 13, 2010)

peteo said:


> You cant go wrong with Kubota. They are by far the best mini on the market. My advice is stay away from bobcats. they are not balanced very well and the hydraulics are jerky as hell. Not to mention Bobcat seems to put all the power into the boom and none into the stick or bucket cylinders. I hate em personally but to each there own. I hear the Komatsu's are nice but i have never personally run one.


I have to agree with the bobcat critique here. Very weak dipper and bucket. I friends that own kubota and takeuchi. Both are great mini excavators. I liked the feature that takeuchi has on the base of the boom...a side to side to side option that saves moving the machine sometimes. It helped when I dug out my oil tank!


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

My machine was tired and a gray market machine to boot but it payed for itself. It had the boom that knuckled at the top so i could offset the boom/bucket the width of the machine without moving it. It was great for foundation work and digging septics. I really like the newer Kubota's, another friend of mine has a Kumatsu and that seems to work well too. I will have to wait and see how my cash flow is next yr. I know the economy is not looking well right now for sure.


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## mrcharles (Sep 27, 2011)

Just curious but what is wrong with having gray market machine? It is just a machine that has been imported without tariffs, correct?


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## Morning Wood (Jan 12, 2008)

mrcharles said:


> Just curious but what is wrong with having gray market machine? It is just a machine that has been imported without tariffs, correct?


I think the problem is repairing and parts. You would probably have to know the machine inside and out to get the correct domestic parts and get the machine up and running in a timely manner.


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

Exactly, getting parts was a nightmare. The so called roll bar sure was not OSHA certified in anyway. Hell the roof was only thin plastic and that got smashed from tree branch's. I ended up putting on a 3/4" PT plywood roof that worked awesome. I had bought steel for a roof but never got that finished. The tubing for the roll bar was only 1" and the side supports were only 1"X3" box steel, even they got bent bumping into tree's. 

So far i can pick up a 2006 Kumastu pc-30 for $16k or a 2006 Bobcat 331 for $15k. Both machines have new tracks, the bobcat has 2500hrs with a extended counter weight and the kumatsu has 3k hrs but is zero turn. Both have hydrolic thumbs. The bobcat needs to go ASAP and the kumatsu will be traded in the spring if it does not sell. The $16k price tag is also what they will give on trade so that is a final price. I think i will wait until spring, see how my money situation is then.


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## Morning Wood (Jan 12, 2008)

If I had money to burn I'd get a kubota U55 cab, steel tracks. It's nice to dream.


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## peteo (Jan 8, 2011)

I haven't had the chance to run the U models but I am pretty sold on the Kubota KX161-3 with the cab and rubber tracks. I would go steel but we tend to have to cross a lot of driveways and sidewalks so they aren't practical for us but they are nice. Also the wrist attachment for the Kubota is a great add on but its expensive as hell.


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## Morning Wood (Jan 12, 2008)

I haven't run any of them, but zero clearance must be nice in tight spots. Around here there us so much granite that rubber can get beat real quick. I've always thought that Komatsu's (I think) bolt on rubber pads where a neat idea. Why others don't do them, I don't know. Are they junk?


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## JDavis21835 (Feb 27, 2009)

Morning, I have seen aftermarket bolt on urethane pads. Dont see many in use. Not sure if it is a price point issue, or just a simple answer like a rubber track can be tossed on in about 15 minutes. 

As for the wrist twist attachment. Im sure they are nice. That said, I cant see a reason to get one. They are an additional moving part to break. If you have a machine with a blade, you can accomplish most angle work if you stop, and think how to do it. Additionally, you can cut shallow swales the way I do. I run through and cut the center line to grade, and wide enough to drop my track in. Then I go back, setting one track in that shallow trench, and I cut the slope in. This gives you a slope your are looking to get to. There is certainly more than one way to skin a cat if you step back and think outside the box. 

As for machines that have been listed here. I ran a Komatsu pc30 earlier this year. Nice machine, just seemed to swing slow. As for the 331, we have one that is older than you are looking at. It has been a good machine over the years. It is showing its age. After 3000 hours, it seems to have been nickel and dimeing us on everything. The people at Bobcat also seem to make you scratch your head when you tear into their machines to work on them. Some of the engineering certainly makes it difficult to work on their equipment.


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## peteo (Jan 8, 2011)

Jdavis, if you ever used the wrist attachment you would think differently. it saves so much time and effort theres really nothing faster for doing a lot of slopes and swales like we do. as far as more moving parts, I concede that but durability isnt an issue. they are very very tough. I use mine constantly even when I am tearing out concrete and you know how hard that is on a machine. I love the wrist attachment. I think its the best thing since the quick coupler but thats just my opinion.


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