Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase

   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #1  

Piston

Elite Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
3,945
Location
New England
Tractor
Kubota L4610 Hitachi UH083LC
Hi all,
I'm hoping some of you have eperience with excavators, and more specifically Hitachi Excavators. I don't know hardly anything about them. A friend of the family is selling an excavator and it just so happens that I'm also clearing my land. I've been using my tractor but it's a slow process. If I could buy the excavator for a decent price, then it may be worth the risk of buying it, using it, and selling it when I'm done. I have experience operating backhoes and of course tractors.

I started a thread about replacing my tractor with a skidsteer and mini ex, because I thought what he was selling was a mini ex, but then learned it's much bigger than that. I posted the following pictures on this thread, but will post them again here as well.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/.../274285-single-tractor-vs-skidsteer-mini.html

My question is, what do you think this excavator is worth?

It's a Hitachi 230-LC5
No hyd thumb
good condition
it's currently in use on a job and I can try it out
I know the owner, he's a lifelong family friend, and I absolutely trust that he wouldn't sell me something about to blow up.

I suppose you can't really say what it's worth without knowing the hours and undercarriage amount, which I don't know about yet, but will update when I find out. Is there any rough idea you can give me for something like this, if we assume the undercarriage is fair, and the hours aren't excessively high?

I apologize for not having more info, and I should probably wait to post this until I do, but I'm too interested to wait :laughing:

If you can't help me with any pricing info, can you share any and all experience, good or bad, about Hitachi excavators in general?

308990d1363701640-single-tractor-vs-skidsteer-mini-image-1705724579.jpg

308991d1363701648-single-tractor-vs-skidsteer-mini-image-2512195556.jpg

308992d1363701651-single-tractor-vs-skidsteer-mini-image-1717614130.jpg

308993d1363701652-single-tractor-vs-skidsteer-mini-image-2702855990.jpg
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #2  
Hitachi builds Deere excavators , or did .They are a very good machine . Lots of variables here , if you could get in that machine at 20-25,000 I don't think you would get hurt . Looks to be in good shape , body panels are not beat up like most I see . You put a thumb on that and you will wonder why it took you so long to do it . Go for it .
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #3  
Hitachi builds Deere excavators , or did .They are a very good machine . Lots of variables here , if you could get in that machine at 20-25,000 I don't think you would get hurt . Looks to be in good shape , body panels are not beat up like most I see . You put a thumb on that and you will wonder why it took you so long to do it . Go for it .
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #5  
I was thinking anywhere from $65-90k depending on hours.

Could you rent this beast from your friend? It's a nice machine, but a big expense and a lot of money to have tied up until you sell it.
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #6  
I purchased an EX100 from an aution prior to building my house. Cost me 16k at auction and i put about 4500 into it. Did everything i had to do from digging for the foundation to cutting in the driveway and digging a hole to china to get unwanted debris underground. If you plan on doing all your own site work get estimates on what it would could to have the work done. You can take that and put it towards the machine. One thing i do know is the bigger the toy the bigger the price to repair. Your unit is a big boy and has its own market for buyers. A lot of guys don't want a unit that big because your looking at a flat bed to move it around and that gets expensive. I have been to many auctions and the market for a mini excavator has a high demand bringing in big bucks. Most even higher than some larger 120-160 excavators. My machine ran great with no problems and it is a JD twin. By the way the 4500 i put into it was mostly stuff it didn't need in order to run. I sent it to a repair shop and told them to go thru it ( learned my lesson ) wouldn't do that again. When i was all done with it i sold it for 20k. So it cost me zero for my site work aside from my time. I know you said you would sell it when your done just be careful if you do purchase due to the fact that the market for that size machine is a lot smaller. May take some time to sell or you might have to cut the price down big time. Hope things work out for you. I can tell you i would not spend 50k on a unit and then take the chance of having that 50k sitting in the yard with nothing to do. I think you would be best of seeing if he would rent it out to you. Just my 2 cents . Good luck.
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #7  
Don't know what it is worth and don't think anyone else would be able to put a definative price on it without knowing more specifics.

Curious if you have asked the owner to price doing this work for you? I would wan't to know that if in your shoes and I would wan't to know what his best price on the machine was too. I would also advise having a good excavator mechanic or surveyor look it over for you and price it out.
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase
  • Thread Starter
#8  
I'll try to answer some of the questions.

Curious if you have asked the owner to price doing this work for you? I would wan't to know that if in your shoes and I would wan't to know what his best price on the machine was too. I would also advise having a good excavator mechanic or surveyor look it over for you and price it out.
Steve,
I haven't asked him about doing the work for me because my lot is about 120 miles from where he works out of so it's too far for him. However, that's a good idea in general. I don't know yet what his "best price" would be as so far only my father has talked to him, and he just left it pretty vague by saying that if I was interested, we could figure out something for the price. He seems like he's willing to compromise quite a bit but I just don't have the details quite yet. I won't get a chance to see it in person for another week and a half probably, but he isn't in a hurry to sell it and isn't advertising or anything, so I'm not worried about it selling out from under me.

How do I find a good excavator mechanic or surveyor? That's some good advice :thumbsup:


Builder,
That's what I'd like to do, buy it, do the work in say a year or so, then sell it. I see what you mean about it may be harder to sell than a mini due to the nature of the beast, that's worth considering.


Could you rent this beast from your friend? It's a nice machine, but a big expense and a lot of money to have tied up until you sell it.
Crash,
That's something I could inquire about, however, I do have a "better" option as far as renting. My neighbor (who also has a skidsteer, Fecon Mulcher, and tree shears) owns a cat excavator, I'm not sure what model it is but it's around 30k lbs, and has a hydraulic thumb. He bought it brand new about 5 yrs ago and hasn't used it too much. He told me he'd rent me his equipment for a good deal as a "neighborly" favor. He's a good guy who I know fairly decent and is probably my best option as far as renting goes. He also understands my crazy work schedule and said that as long as he didn't have any work for it, it's no big deal to leave it up there for a couple extra weeks.


if you could get in that machine at 20-25,000 I don't think you would get hurt . Looks to be in good shape , body panels are not beat up like most I see . You put a thumb on that and you will wonder why it took you so long to do it . Go for it .
Kevin,
Seems to me that 20k would be a heck of a deal for that machine judging by the others on machinerytrader. I'm not sure I could get that lucky but I'll try :D Although, even at 20k if it needs a lot of undercarriage work I could be way in over my head.

I sure do think a lot about how nice it would be to have my own excavator and thumb on it, I do think I could save some money that way (with a little luck) and have a blast doing it. With me running the ex and my dad running the backhoe, we could get a lot of work done in a couple weeks I imagine. :thumbsup:


I do get nervous though at the thought of such a big purchase. I like the idea, but I admit I get butterflies thinking about it sometimes. If it needs undercarriage work I'll almost certainly walk away from it, as that stuff scares the heck out of me from the little I've read. If it is in really good shape, for a very fair (or great) deal, then I may just have to saddle up and go for it. :cool:
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase #9  
Hitachi builds Deere excavators , or did .They are a very good machine . Lots of variables here , if you could get in that machine at 20-25,000 I don't think you would get hurt . Looks to be in good shape , body panels are not beat up like most I see . You put a thumb on that and you will wonder why it took you so long to do it . Go for it .

Deere and Hitachi are partners, what each builds compliments each other. Most are the same model no matter the exterior color.
 
   / Could use some help with Hitachi excavator purchase
  • Thread Starter
#10  
What would be the equivalent model for Deere? A Deere 230?
 
 
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