The rod scoring nobody speaks about prior to the seal blows out.
The instant you approach a used excavator the single thing that most purchasers go for is either the bucket pins or the track tension. That’s fine. But, the cylinder rods, particularly the boom rod exposed to weather, debris and the full force of any pressure spike will indicate if this machine has been babied, or beat.
No I don’t begin with my eyes. My finger tips are the first to start. You don’t want to see any scratches. You’re looking for the bit of this chrome that’s peeling or pitting a little. If it “hitches” or “stutters” every few cms, it has scoring and now you need to determine how much.
A “minor seal job” on a boom or stick cylinder on a 6/7 tonne excavator is not minor! When paying a shop it will be a day of work and parts. If reject grade scoring is present on the rod, it doesn’t mean that you are doing a “seal job”. There aren’t many shops that do this work around and lead times can range from 2 weeks to 2 months or more – depending on location. Aftermarket cylinders are cheaper and quicker to obtain, but have variable quality.
Here are three things that I do before sending any funds, and I make the seller watch me do it since there’s no accountability if I do not.
Data sources for the table above:https://eu.ironplanet.com/buy/how2inspect_a_used.jsp?eq=Backhoe%20Loader
