skid steer

What are all of your thought on a Thomas T173 with 4900 hrs on a kubota engine no smoke no leaks hes asking $7500

A used Equipment dealer here in NH has a '99 with new paint listed for $11,000. It doesn't give the hours.

It would depend on the condition,if the paint and tires are good ,if it doesn?t want to wander when the controls are in the parked position and the loader pins are all tight it would be a good unit. If the loader hasn?t seen much grease and the pins are worn out I?d leave it at that price.

Buying used is always a gamble. I would ask myself, how many hours am I going to put on this machine? Do you intend to be the last owner? Or will you use it for, say , 1000 hours then move it. If you need to put 500 hours a year on this machine, and expect 10 years out of it, you?ll be disappointed. A new 50 hp skid steer will cost around $50,000.00

I sold Thomas brand and owned a XL172. They are a pretty good brand. The 4900 hours would be my concern. The motor should be fine but the rest of the machine could easily need repairs now/soon.

I am running Bobcats with more hours but I owned them since new. I know how they have been treated. A skid steer usually takes a beating with poor maintenance.

So this machine would have to be cheap.

My flying buddy in N TX owns a used equip business. He takes in all kinds of machines, including skid steers. According to him, by the time a skid steer has ~3000 hours, they are beat to spit, and near worthless. Most of the time, he offers less than half retail price if over 3000 hours because he knows how much it will cost to get it to work right, and safe.

He advised me to never buy a used skid steer until he checks it out. There was a Bobcat brand with 3700 hours I was looking at. He saved me from a $12k mistake. I would say plan another $3-5000 in catch up repairs. My buddy does this for a living, and he has a hard time making money on old skid steers.(he won't sell them messed up, too much liability)

I've had some high hour machines and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. I had a Gehl with a good amount of hours - 3000 really isn't too bad. Completely replacing the hydraulic fluid is a good way to protect the hydraulic pump, valves, and wheel drives. Of course less is always easier on the machine. 4900 is a good chunk of hours though. I went with Gehl because the parts really are fair priced. Bobcat is good too. If you go with an older machine that is all mechanical (no pilot control electronic joysticks) you could try and do most if not all the work it may need yourself. If it was me I would stay away from Thomas and go for one of the more common makes (just my opinion). I don't know of any particular problem areas but if you do inspect it do a couple checks: cold start it, make sure hydraulic pump doesn't make any horrible noises outside of maybe a light whirring you may hear at idle, check for creeping of the wheel drives (sometimes controls can stick and that gives the illusion of creeping drive motors - helps to center the controls gently and confirm), any leaks at the wheel drives or hydraulic pumps would be expensive, cycle the boom completely then bring it back down and see if any of the cylinders leaked during that exercise, check pins on boom and bucket (they will have play unless recently done but just make sure nothing is insane/cracked/welded). I'm sure I am forgetting something but in general the expensive stuff on the a skid steer are the wheel drives and tandem hydraulic pumps. If those are working, don't leak, don't make noises, don't creep, then you might have a decent machine on your hands. I'd still get it home and completely drain the hydraulic fluid and replace (and even consider going up 1 weight to compensate for wear). These are just my opinions - I've been down this road a bunch of times and the aboves worked for me.

3000 hours at an average of 50 MPH for a car is 150,000. Compared to industrial use, that's maybe double the wear or 300,000 miles equivalent. The one's I see all have leaks at the axle/gearcase, which means the fluid is usually run low. Rear pivot bushings are often shot too mostly from twisting on the ground, or pounding it.

Just budget for all new seals, pivot bushings, and a new pump(or more).

Never a bad idea to budget for repairs. It really is a machine by machine assessment. A well kept high hour machine will outlast those low hour machines that were cold started and hammered throttle up and run out. Of course a middle ground can be achieved with enough shopping.