Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
All parts are aren’t they ? Stuff with good reputations get good reputations because they need less parts.
13 tonne excavator. What to buy?
- Thread starter JPM
- Start date
- Location
- south norfolk
In my opinion you won’t buy a bad machine these days buts it’s personal choice and how close the dealer is.i understand the Chinese machines are ok but lack some refinements of others but they pretty much all use the same or similar engines,pumps and hydraulics.
Nick...
Nick...
I have bought a few bits and didn’t think they were outrageously priced.
Dukes Fit
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I would say you know little outside of your envelope. What exactly is the kind of work you’re doing with excavators?
A JCB excavator simply doesn’t have a look in at a Komatsu. If you don’t take my word for it, speak to a JCB sales rep or better, have a look a UK, European or worldwide sales.
Maybe have a look at any decent sized civil engineering project and count the number of Komatsu, Hyundai, Cat or any other manufacturer then count the amount of JS excavators.
Have a look in a quarry and See how many JS machines you find compared to other manufacturers.
As said, a JS is fine for farm work or house building etc maybe light civils but they don’t perform, last or have the reliability or resale value or reputation of a PC.
Second hand values will give you a big hint of that.
The PC 130, 160 and 210 models are perhaps the finest in their weight class unlike a JS130 which isn’t even a true 13 tonne machine. A JS weighs closer to 14tonne and shares its undercarriage with a 145.
Komatsu starts at around 12.5tonne and is still a better machine.
- Location
- Larne, Northern Ireland
General site works (foundations, main sewers etc), all kinds of farm work, drainage, land reclamation, demolition. Just everything really. What digger work are you involved in? What machines do you own?
Your area may be different but there aren't many Komatsu here. Hitachi and Case rule the roost, and rightly so. Plenty of JCB about too. Komatsu lost sales here when they done away with a conventional swing 13 tonner. Mainly see Komatsu in quarries here, which as you will know JCB don't have the same product range, nothing above the JS370 which rules them out of alot of quarry work.
You are correct, to the best of my knowledge a PC130-8 is 12.5 ton or so, a Js130 of the same era is around 12.9 ton, so very little in it.
I am aware that JCB aren't the best, but our latest experiences have put JCB ahead of Komatsu. Hitachi is still the boss tho. Hyundai are only shite. NH/kobelco are OK, nothing special. Cat aren't too bad either.
I spend a lot of my time on big stabilisation and much shift jobs, the bulk of the machines I see, run by massive earthworks companies are, as follows, CAT, Volvo, Komatsu and Hyundai. You see ground workers with the Hitachi machines, and very very occasionally you see the odd additional hire machine which usually is a Jcb.
- Location
- Larne, Northern Ireland
Just found this on my FB. A young me scraping up on a site on Hillsborough with the 130-5k
Dukes Fit
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I honestly don’t know what world you live in to call a Hyundai shite.
9 excavators from Komatsu, Case, Hyundai, Liebherr and Kubota.
Work is a mix of civils ranging from marine and harbour work (rebuilding piers, installing new slipways, building coffer dams, foreshore protection, dredging etc) to works for national utilities, cable installation, land reinstatement, wind farm work etc. Peatland restoration and recovery work using the bespoke LGP machines.
Municipal/street works installing new HV cables and gas lines for new housing developments. Forestry work with harvesting/mulching heads as well as demolition and stuff for geotechnical companies etc. Mostly Scotland but other parts of uk too.
Not a lot of Hire work, mostly all priced/tendered contracts.
Out of interest do you expect your JS to go to 16k hours?
- Location
- Larne, Northern Ireland
Nothing out of the ordinary then.
In fairness I have only used one Hyudnai, a 140-9LC. It was awful. No feel to the hydraulics.
Like most of ours then, most our stuff is done on a price, not often we do it per hour but can if need be.
Did you not read my previous post correctly. I never said I own a JS. And yes, the 2017 Js130 that I have done 1000 hours with I would happily run it to 16k hours if I owned it.
- Location
- Ceredigion
Got two Hitachi 130ts to look at next week .
If anyone can point me in the direction of anymore the 130 -3 seems the best model for farm use
If anyone can point me in the direction of anymore the 130 -3 seems the best model for farm use
We ran a cat 312b for a few years, the smoothest machine we’ve ever had to operate. Everybody liked it, but no aircon which is useless in a digger. Great cat backup with a decent selection of s/h parts if needed through finnings. No expensive repairs on a 219, 312, 320.. currently got a 324, had a bit of bother with dpf but cat fixed it straight away unlike hired doosan’s that conk out the day after the fitter’s been out. Curses of things.. The cats seem to stay tight in the slew ring, I have never been in a js that is not rocking about slack. Even lowish hour ones.. No feel with doosan 13 tonner, hard to grade with, 20’s seem better tho. Have a kobelco 20 ton zts and it seems ok, not got the confidence to run it to big hours like the cats, they were sold at 20k hours.. Be careful with Geith hitches, they split lengthwise as the two sideplates are joined with a piece of cat food tin.. think the latest ones are better
Our neighbour has 1 with a blade on it's a handy machine I've done a good bit with it over the years
Garth77
Member
- Location
- South Glamorgan
I bought a 312cl 13 years ago currently has 17000 hours on the clock (bought with 2500hrs) appart from usual wear parts (tracks/rollers) we’ve fitted a water pump, pressure switch, and lift ram seals. It does a lot of work with a 1.2t set of tree shears. Are you looking at a 312b ?
- Location
- Larne, Northern Ireland
Newest addition to our fleet
Lincs Lass
Member
- Location
- north lincs
Is my eyes or is the dipper and main arm short ,,looks very compact
- Location
- North West
I was thinking the same, had to look twice at the model as thought it was very compact. Could be camera angle though.
- Location
- Larne, Northern Ireland
Maybe just camera angle but she’s standard boom and 3m dipper
- Location
- Larne, Northern Ireland
They do look compact compared to current e series, think the low bonnet makes it look small
t6 175
Member
We bough an old Kubota 6T with blade about 10 yrs ago now our first tracked machine to replace our old JCB digger , kept her for about 5 years handy little machine , then she began throwing a track off now and again so we thought better to pass her on . We decided to look for something bigger as a replacement, more reach would be an advantage, we found and bought a JCB JS130 i think she is 2008 was 5000 hrs when we bought her just for farm work and the odd job for neighbours , very good machine does all fencing work, tree shear , ditches , knocking buildings down , erecting buildings , very pleased with it