Price Check Bobcat 825. What is your opinion of this deal?

[Alden Plowen]

1984 Bobcat 825 Hydro. 3251 hours, but 50 hours on 40HP Perkins diesel engine.

5 foot bucket

Asking $6500. Looks decent in ad, but how about the high hours on the transmission?

What do you think of the Perkins engine?

Thank you.

 

[RPW]

Test it out. If motor starts cleanly and doesn't smoke, all hydraulics work fine then you might have a deal. One thing I found out with my bargain machine is to work the machine for about an hour (hard if possible) and see how it works at the end. The story behind this claim is I bought an O-L-D 742B (ford gas) for $1500. No instruments and wouldn't start (pouring fuel out the carberator intake). OK I knew this before I purchased but nothing looked like I couldn't deal with as I'm fairly mechanically oriented. Long story short is got the motor running fairly easy and it sounds good. Created a few basic instruments and off to work the machine. After about an hours work the drive motors faded out. No forward or reverse movement or nearly none. When cold worked fine. I did what I could and then turned it over to the dealer. Everything checked out ok execpt that both hydraulic motors are shot. Found a fair priced source for new motors and when time permits will install them. Bottom line is this machine might be completely sound but you won't know until you put it through its paces.

Good luck.

 

[tonyq60]

We got our 825 years ago for $4000 and it is well used as it was used for concrete demolition.

The hydrolic hoses for the drive can be a beast as the drive system sits in the oil tank and if the one that goes into the bottom back fails you will have a very messy job and working under oil with lots of extensions and crow foot no fun at all.

But it is a stupid simple beast meaning once started no electrical needed.

Do get a seevice manual.

Great machines for home or non pro use.