Mini Digger Life expectancy

[Matthew Storrs]

I saw 2 Takeuchi tb125s on Mascus the other day both with excess of 8500 hours and apparently still in good working order.

My own Takeuchi tb125 has 4500 hours, it smokes a little more on start up than a new one and there is a bit of play in the kingpost but It honestly dosen't feel much rougher to operate than a brand spanking new one and it has barely (needed a new thermostat at 3200 hrs) had a spanner to it in those hours, hoses and new tracks aside. It is worth noting that a national plant hire firm had it for the 1st 3000 hours so its not had an easy life with them or me. The key is regular servicing of ALL fluids and filters and a heavy hand with the grease gun.

 

Just judge each individual machine when you look at it rather than concentrating too much on hours. check track motors are both tracking straight, wear/roughness in the slew bearing, pins/bushes, these are the components that can be abused easily whereas the engines on minis generally purr along powering a pump and isn't worked overly hard.

 

IMO- based on operating cost per hour- it is probably cheaper to buy new. They hold there value so well that if you keep it for 3-4000 hours and sell it on it is likely that it wont cost you much if any in repairs/downtime and you will get a healthy return to sell it on at this stage and let someone else have the problems that may start to appear.