How NOT to buy a Skid Loader!

Uh, if somebody's telling you it's got 2,000 hours on it, you want to look at tires and track. That's That's a warrant engine. I don't think a hose should scare you, though. No. Oh, no. But it should be an indicator. Bargaining tool cuz if your track is ripped or torn anywhere around this area right here, you're just asking for it to fully tear off if you're in a position where you're putting a lot of stress on it. Here, will you hold this camera? [Music] All right, guys. I'm here back at the yard with our series on how to buy used equipment. And today, it's how to buy used skid loaders. And Tim and Alex and I are going to go through these things with a fine tooth comb with you and show you the things that we look for. And then if you want more information, I'm going to suggest you go down to the comments cuz there's tons of people that have amazing stories and lots of great points that they like to share. So that's the beauty about these videos. But part of the thing too that we're doing is over at the Dirt Monkey shop, we now have a repo section. We're working with a company called Yes Leasing. And Tony from Yes Leasing told me just yesterday his he said that he will finance just about anybody. If they can fog a mirror and tell a good story, he can get them financing for heavy equipment. We have an entire section of repoed used equipment for sale with financing. So if you guys want to be able to buy this thing and your financing is not the best, don't worry about it. Yes, Leasing can take care of you over there. And we're also working at getting a second finance company on board that has more of a typical arrangement. So maybe your credit isn't bad, maybe your credit is halfway decent and you want a better rate. We're going to have options for you over at the Dirt Monkey Shop. And these options also apply to a lot of the equipment that we sell over there. But Tim Tim, as you and I, we've we've gone through and bought plenty of skid loaders and I bought some duds. I bought some I bought a T-Rex. That was the worst dud skid loader that I've ever bought in my life. And you remember that machine and we didn't do our due proper due diligence because it was bought sight unseen. And everything that we were told turned out to be fabrication, right? Yeah. Tell me about the oil. When you checked that oil, it was the sudiest oil I've ever seen. So you you could put it on your finger and you'd roll it and it was gritty and it would stain your fingers immediately. Like just instead of being o in diesel oil, it was like grease. It was like grease. It was bad stuff. And then we changed the oil on it and it ran for maybe a half hour and the oil was almost the same condition it was when before we changed. Now this machine pop close that door for me real quick, Alex. All the way. Now open that door. This is where you start your inspection. See what he's doing right there? Now this one has paint on it. This is actually rhino lined. So that can be affecting it. But Bobcats in general have stiffer doors. I feel like on all the the 300, you used to have the 185, they you all got to you got to give them the the little love tap. But also on the flip side of that coin, open up this one for me, Alex, and let's show them the K Cabota how it opens different. Much smoother. So, if it's a Bobcat, use some common sense. If it's another machine, that could mean that the back of the machine has has ran into the end of a pool or something. We've never done that before. No, I've never done that myself. All right, so let's let's crack this open. As we look at this, this is a 20 one-year-old Bobcat right here. So, this is going to be a great tail of the tape. As we look at it, it's obviously been repainted. We talked about that in the pickup trucks. We always look for overspray on the body and around it. And here, these are obvious signs that you can see that it's been painted over oversprayed. The back door is is the inside is a different color than the outside. And we're not hiding any of that. But that's those are indicators where if you want to know how much extensive damage has been done, look for that. But what are we looking at in the back here? or what are you guys seeing? First thing I always do is check the oil. Okay. See how that looks. Cold. It's cold. Yeah. Hadn't been started. You You'd rather not have it be started. And that looks like sniff it as well, too. I can't smell, but Yeah. Right. You always smell burned out. So, sni So, sniff that oil for the burnout. Here, let me smell it. I I do want to smell that. Here. I knew you were going to do that. I knew it cuz I wanted to do it to Alex when he was doing I'm like, it was so hard not to. Thank you not to do that. I'm like, "Oh, God." Was everything it took me? So, that oil smells fresh. And that oil, how long ago was that changed, Alex? Recently. Okay. And and the hours should be on your oil filter. We have a whiteboard that we keep all our hours. Yep. But you It's nice to see them if they're somebody wrote on Magic Marker and and you know, they've been doing maintenance on it. Yeah. You just take a look at everything you can. Now, look at the rust. Yep. You see that? That means that this machine is a little bit older. And look at the hoses. Look at the hoses right here. You can see that there may be some cracking on them. What is your thoughts on cracking hoses, Timmy? Uh, depends on how easy they are to get to. You know, you can see where they go and you could probably crank them. Like these ones, you see them cracking. Yeah, they're weathered on the top. Yeah, just weather checking, which tells me that those only got a couple more years left in them at best. So, yeah, especially if they're a high pressure hose. I don't think a hose should scare you though. No. Oh, no. But it should be an indicator. Bargaining tool. A bargaining tool and an indicator of the true age and health of the piece of equipment, right? You know, another thing too to look for is is the tag on it. You want the tag on it because that serial number should be there cuz that gives you the ability to look it up and to know what you're looking for on that piece of equipment if there's been any major overhauls or redoss. And as we look at this one, what are you seeing, Alex? Uh, I would definitely, you know, pop the air filter off again, check the date on the battery just because they aren't cheap. You know, check the fuel filter, see if that's been replaced recently. And then overall, how oily and leaky is the machine? Is there oil? You know, this one is dusty where usually the dust will stick to the oil and kind of make like a barrier. This one, you can tell it hasn't leaked much oil in its lifetime, you know. But it all leak free. All depends on like how handy you are and what you want to use for bargaining. We check your belts, you know. These belts aren't looking so hot. There's one. It's just one belt right here. But yeah, that belt looks like it's a little worn. Yep. That's worn. I mean, that's going to have to be replaced eventually. You don't know how long you got with it, but And you got rust. You got little areas of rust. And that's what happens with an older piece of equipment. These are going to these are going to be telltale signs of the overall condition of the piece of equipment. doesn't mean it's bad. It just means that's what it's all right. I'm going to jump in here because you saw me peel that little bit of rust off. And that is really important to understand. If you can peel rust like that off in areas where you can visually easily see it, it also meant that someone could have easily maintained that piece of equipment and that should have been maintained in that area but was possibly not. But the point is is if you see it where it could have been maintained, it's going to be much worse in areas where it's not really easily maintained. So that tells me that my hardline hoses, not my soft flexible ones, but my my steel hoses and things like that in areas where I can't get at it could also have could also be suffering like my connections where one hardline hone go hose goes into another hardline structure. There could be rust forming around there and those may not be a problem when you go to buy it, but once you start working it and putting it under the strain of what it's meant to do, they could rupture down the road. Little bit of rust. That's all right. Let's leave that open and fire it up once and let's show them the blowby. Uh Tim, you want to pull the oil cap off? So, we're going to look for blowby and we're going to look at the exhaust. So the exhaust, the condition of the exhaust is another important element. You going to pull that cap right off. You want it off right now. Doesn't make Oh, yeah. Just let him fire it up. Don't take face off. We're not seeing any smoke. We've got no smoke. Oh, here we go. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. That's blowby. That That's blowby, but it's not smoke. In your opinion, how bad is that? That's That's a warrant engine. I If I seen a little bit of smoke coming out of there, sometimes it's just a crank case. Sometimes a little bit of white smoke, you know, that that might indicate that it's burning a little tiny bit of oil. Yeah. But that jiggle goggle you were showing is off of just the machine running. It's not the machine doesn't run perfectly smooth. The machine that engine looks like it's pretty slow. I would say that that's pressure getting relieved off the system by that right there. Okay, that that's real blowby right there. You know that that's now we know the amount of air that comes out of that one when we fire that up. Let's see how well this one also has blowby on it already. This one burns oil. I turn turned that off cuz we can't hear. How many hours are on this machine? I think the hour meter might be back there. No, it's got to be up on the dash. 2,000. Okay. 2,000. Okay. Really not that many. But that's a I don't know. I mean, I look at a skid loader. If a skid loader's got 10,000 hours, to me, that's a just a no-go. That's pushing. Yeah. A three a 3,000 4,000 hour machine to me is also the machine that's to me in that neck of the woods where you've got to start looking at doing some start it some repairs. Let's find the cap first. It's right here. So, as we look at the engine on this one, this is What year is this machine? 2020, I Yeah, I guess it's 2020. So, we've got ex but we still have rust. We have rust on the exhaust. Does the cap look good? There's a little bit of milkiness in there, but again, it's Minnesota. You get condensation built up on there. I wouldn't a little tiny bit of milkiness. I wouldn't worry about it. So, what I the reason I point out the rust even on a newer machine is 20ome year, 21 years old, 5 years old. It's the rust is not a major indicator. Go for it. Less less by feel. Yeah. How many hours are on this one? Thousand. 1,000 hours on this already. Wow. What are we looking at right here? How many? 1,200 hours. 1,200. Holy What are you looking at right here? Just water from just rain water. So that that's not a leaky radiator. Now if when I was touching it, if it was green or whatever color, slimy. greener slimy. That's telling me something else is going on. All right, we turned it off. We're not done yet. All right, we've checked out the engine. We've checked out the main components. One of the things to look at, uh, if somebody's telling you it's got 2,000 hours on it, you want to look at tires and tracks. And what are the tires and tracks telling you? So, in this case, as you look at these tires, what are you seeing? You know, little bit of scuffs and scratches in them. uh cheaper tires, you know, got a little bit of life left. They're not at the wear bar. Not crazy bad. Um but you said something, they're a cheaper tire. I can look at I bought so many sets and sets and sets of tires that I looked at these go, that's a cheaper tire. It doesn't have the rim guard on it. It doesn't have the HD. It doesn't I bet it's a 10 ply, not even a 12 ply tire. Yeah, that's the cheapest. This is a yard machine, so there's no need to put anything more than that on there. So, the overall condition of the tires is an indicator of what's going on with the piece of equipment, but it's also an indicator of are you getting good tires, are you getting bad tires? Now, as we look at this one, what are you guys seeing with the track? The track depth is definitely it's got this little like louver here, you know, for when it's worn, when you're going to start getting into the metal. Yep. I definitely check all the bogey wheels for wear, you know. Um, definitely other things too while you're listing them. These things will get super thin if they're super worn. Um, and then again to the cogs, you know, they'll start looking like a point when they start getting worn and they're ready to be replaced. I also check the inside of the teeth. You know, a little bit of metal showing isn't the end of the world. That's going to happen. You know, but you can see if any of these teeth are missing or totally off of there because that's going to cause you to potentially slip off the track. Yep. And then, you know, again, just check all this stuff cuz if your track is ripped or torn anywhere around this area right here, you're just asking for it to fully tear off if you're in a position where you're putting a lot of stress on it. Here, will you hold this camera? Yep. on a tired machine. If they ever had uh steel tracks over the top of it, that's tough on a machine. It's It's not It's not the end of the world tough, but these machines actually have big chains in them and you can stretch those chains inside. And when you have tracks over the tires, that can put a lot of extra stress on those chains, especially when you're turning. A tired machine is really meant to allow one set to stop and the other set to move while you're in a turn. With the chains on them, it it it throws off the balance of the machine. And you can tell if a machine has had chains because you may have some bumps, scuffing right in this area where the chain comes up and hits and creates damage. Now, this machine has never had chains on it, but it's also an indicator of where are things to look. And as you look at the body, you know, what was this machine used for? Why are the steps both damaged like that? Um, just just small indicators. Oh. Oh, yeah. Grabbing the cylinders. Tim, you had a great point about cylinders. Tell me about your point about cylinders. Oh, just check check these over. I mean, hose leaks. Yeah, that's fine if you can you're handy and you can replace your own hose, but always check. We can start this up and take it forward and and show them here. Don't uh here. Hold the camera. I'm going to go close the back up. So, you're looking over these cylinders here and you're looking for pits or scratches. marring. Any kind of damage to these is going to cause your seal to go and they can either um redo these, which is expensive, or you end up getting a new cylinder, which is also you're going to be better off repairing it. If it's just a scratch cylinder, they can rehone it or whatever it is. Yeah. We got a new cylinder on that machine and the repair was like 500 a cylinder, but the new cylinder was like 3,300 bucks, right? And it's as simple as having a rock hit it in one spot and you need And you want to check your pins, too. Your bucket pins. That's pretty solid there. But if it's loose, that's another give her a shake. Wiggle. And then you look at this one over here. It's doing that. That's telling you your pins. We do it one more time. Telling you that your pins were boring. These are tight also. Like that, you know, that's not just a loose bolt. It's just everything's woring. The pin itself is wore and you can actually see where it's actually wore in there. Um, how about lifting up the cab? Would you guys recommend lifting up the cab to to make sure that the cab will lift, if it's a liftable cab, if it will lift all the way up and then set all the way back down or does it lift up and go to the side? Does it give you a a yank on it? Which tells me that the machine may have been on its side at one point or worse yet upside down. So both of these aren't removable cabs. Like you can't just pop them up. Well, actually that's Yeah, the Bobcat is. Yeah. This is two bolts. Yeah. So like on Bobcats and the cats, I'd raise the cab all day long. It's 15/16 bolt. Take it out. Raise it up. looking at, you're going to see all the hoses, everything on the inside there because like that cat that we got when we when I raised that cab for the first time, there was a yard of dirt in the caterpillar. The cat the caterpillar. Yeah. Not that one, man. The hoses in the belly were That was awful. The mud was in there and it was causing the hoses to chafe on each other. They were pushing them all together and they were chafing and then they were all going. What do you think we got into hoses and fluid? Uh 5G 5gs into that. Oh yeah. And that was what you guys did and did it too. It's always the worst possible time. Can't be down at the shop. You got to be out on a customer's driveway or something when they go. That was another one bought sight unseen. Yeah. And when we lifted up the cap, it was just full of mud. So the guy just destroyed the machine and said must have sunk it. Sunk it. and he's like, "All right, time to sell it." And so that's what I did. I sold it. Now, as we go inside of the machine, look at the seat. So, if they're telling you machine's got 500 hours or 1,000 hours on it, your machine, your sheet seat should never look like that. Also, look at your pedals. Your pedals will be an indicator of how well maintained the machine was. rusty pedals, a rusty inside. Those things are all all indicators of the overall well-being of the machine before you got it. I check greaseerts, too. You know, has it been greased? Has someone been taking good care of it? You can go and see like there's been grease in there. And you can see that there's been grease in those bottom ones. Like it's recently been greased. You see back here there's grease. You can tell that it's been grease. You come in here and those are dry. Who knows if they ever had grease in there? Also look at your fittings to make sure that these aren't beat up. That the hoses themselves, the the fittings themselves are in good working order. None of them have been used, abused, and uh put away wrong. Also, oil. Check your oil levels. You're going to have an oil level here. This one needs a little bit of oil. Where's the oil level on this one? That's another thing I was going to say is then start that start that machine up and run it through its cycles. Run and run your hydraulics. If you got scattering or shaking or you know when you when you lift it all up and it's doing this and you're good on oil, you might have something with the pump. You might have pump you might have something with the filters that are it could be just filters that are getting clogged. But yes, um chattering is a beautiful your machine is shuttering while you're lifting up and you're not knowing you're buying a a a fixer upper. I would walk away from it at walk away. I wouldn't even try to do the filters first. Also check your arms. We've actually New Holland we lost the arms. They snapped right on us. The New Holland LS190 snapped on us on a job while we were loading a truck. They just snapped. So, you want to look through even this one is covered. You can still see that all of the the welds are good on the arms. And the arms on a set of on a piece of equipment like this are back then it was 12 grand for an arms and this was two three decades ago. Now they're probably closer to double. Probably closer than what you paid for a full skid steer back then. Yeah. Yeah. So the arms the cab also look at the cab. Is the cab beat up? Is the cab beat up…