First off, I under-did the due diligence here. I asked most of the important questions over phone calls and come the day to look at/grab the machine, between pouring rain and just being an idiot, I left with the machine. Saw it start, really only looked at the slew/turntable critically to check for play. 3500 hours for 26k. I've bought and sold plenty of cars/trucks and like to think I've got a good gut, and wasnt seeing any red flags.
Described was a 2016 machine that had been properly maintained it's entire life, with no serious issues, ready to dig.
What I got was actually a 2013 machine that has likely been used more as a hammer than a digger. For one, there was maybe 3/8" of free play around the pin through the bore at the end of the stick. The bushings were nowhere to be found and it was bone dry. Plenty of similar things. Lots of fab work in my future to tighten this thing up.
So just moving forward, I started making a line boring jig, machining sleeves to get back to factory bore, ordering a whole bunch of pins and bushings to finally give this girl some love. 1.5k in parts, and we're talking aftermarket, non-cat. For someone paying for labor/machining and using the Cat-official parts, this is like 5k in stuff, purely so the machine wouldn't tear itself apart in a few hundred more hours...
Question for the group - what would y'all do in this situation? "Not knowing" about issues is subjective and I wouldn't put it past certain folks to just "not have noticed" or "think it's normal", but calling it a 2016 when it's a '13 is something entirely different. From what I understand, with intent, this is fraud. It was sold by a construction company on behalf of the owner, from my understanding. I'm thinking of asking them to throw 2k back my way and call it a day...
Described was a 2016 machine that had been properly maintained it's entire life, with no serious issues, ready to dig.
What I got was actually a 2013 machine that has likely been used more as a hammer than a digger. For one, there was maybe 3/8" of free play around the pin through the bore at the end of the stick. The bushings were nowhere to be found and it was bone dry. Plenty of similar things. Lots of fab work in my future to tighten this thing up.
So just moving forward, I started making a line boring jig, machining sleeves to get back to factory bore, ordering a whole bunch of pins and bushings to finally give this girl some love. 1.5k in parts, and we're talking aftermarket, non-cat. For someone paying for labor/machining and using the Cat-official parts, this is like 5k in stuff, purely so the machine wouldn't tear itself apart in a few hundred more hours...
Question for the group - what would y'all do in this situation? "Not knowing" about issues is subjective and I wouldn't put it past certain folks to just "not have noticed" or "think it's normal", but calling it a 2016 when it's a '13 is something entirely different. From what I understand, with intent, this is fraud. It was sold by a construction company on behalf of the owner, from my understanding. I'm thinking of asking them to throw 2k back my way and call it a day...