John Deere Or Caterpillar Excavator?

[HeavyIronLife]

Hey guys I've been looking for an excavator, and I have been thinking on whether to get a Deere or a Cat and I'm not sure which one is better . I will be clearing brush, lifting stumps and probaly going to dig a pond later on, if you could give me your input that'd be great thanks.

Power

Reliability

Size Class 40-60k

[Muz]

Hi & welcome to the forum I have you as a resident in Bonney Lake , Washington ? .. so some help from across the pond would be best suited to you

[HeavyIronLife]

Thanks and I live pretty close to Bonney Lake, and any suggestions/info would be great! Im leaning towards Deere but not sure why.

[Tom@DBarnfield]

I would consider what dealers are local to you and what sort of backup service they are able to provide you. Are you thinking new or used? Are you looking to run any attachments or just a bucket?

[HeavyIronLife]

Thanks for the dealer info, but definitely I'd get it used, I'd like it to probaly be under 5500 hours, and the only attachments on the excavator would be different buckets for digging and a root rake for clearing land.

[Stock]

For my experience of the two makes the Jd is basically a Hitachi, given the choice here I would opt for the Jap equipment.
However if I was going for a Mass Excavator in the 20 to 30 ton class I would take the CAT. Horses for courses.......

Consider the diesel consumption and if you look at the Richies Wiki you will get a good comparison of both machines...........

[245dlc]

I should add that the Deere engines are not as reliable as the Isuzu engines that you would have on a Hitachi or some Case machines. Many of the newer Case machines like the 210 have Isuzu same with Link Belt as they are essentially the same machine. I have seen more than a few Deere excavators with Deere engines have the bottom end go out on them. The 992 D & E were pretty bad for that. They were later renumbered as 450's and had the Isuzu motor instead and became a very much more reliable machine.