reduced tail swing in town: CX145D SR bought through lake park

third one of these threads i guess. my husband and i run a small utility outfit in Sioux Falls, water and sewer taps, service lines, the occasional main break for the city at 2 in the morning. all of it in a lane with a fence or a parked car three feet behind the counterweight. we had a 2015 Kubota KX080 and it was too small for the deeper mains, and a conventional 15 ton does not fit in a lane.

we wanted a Case CX145D SR, the short radius one, and used ones are rare because the utility guys keep them forever. found a 2023 with 1,650 hours on the lake park auction, repo out of a yard in Conroe, Texas. it had the hydraulic thumb, the blade, a 24 and a 36 inch bucket and a Wain Roy style coupler. that bucket and coupler package was worth about 12 grand of the price to us by itself.

we did not send an inspector on this one and i will take the flak for it. the walkaround video was long, the guy at the yard sent me 30 more photos when i asked, and the hour meter photo matched. it was a 112 thousand dollar bid instead of a 200 thousand dollar one and we were in a hurry, the city contract started november 1. bid 112,000 blind, won it, no premium.

delivery was free, Conroe to Sioux Falls is about 1,050 miles by road but the site measures from Lake Park and Conroe to Lake Park is around 1,170, so we paid 70 cents on 170 miles, 119 dollars. 12 days. lien release from the bank named the serial, we called the bank. same as nate and mike posted.

six weeks in. the machine is what we needed, the tail stays inside the tracks and we have done three taps on 41st street with traffic on both sides. found one thing wrong: the blade float switch on the joystick did not work. dealer in Sioux Falls found a broken wire in the boom harness, 240 dollars. we called it in under the 6 month warranty since it was a real fault and they paid it without an argument.

wendy_grades wrotedid you have to send the machine somewhere or did they just pay the dealer bill?

we took it to the Case dealer here, had them diagnose it and write it up, sent the invoice and the tech's notes to the lake park people by email. they asked one question, whether it was working when it was delivered, i said no, we noticed it the first day. they paid the dealer directly about a week later. no forms, no adjuster, nothing. i want to be fair and say it was a 240 dollar claim, i do not know how a 9,000 dollar claim would go. but it was not a fight.

update for the winter. 1,990 hours, so 340 since it landed. two main breaks in november at 5 below, machine started both times, thumb and blade and everything works. the harness fix held. we are running it on the city contract through march. total out of pocket on it besides fuel and grease: zero, because the one repair went on the warranty. the Kubota is for sale if anybody in South Dakota wants a KX080 with 4,000 hours, message a mod, i am not going to break the no selling rule in my own thread.