New $500K excavator found in Lake Michigan!

[OldSkool]

I’m not an insurance agent but have done damage analysis for adjustors. There would be no chance of saving the parts as the salvage company would require them.

Off the top of my head here is a quick list of need replaced: All electrical component and harnesses, ECM X5 at 3K+ each, since this is a new machine all Exhaust After Treatment System (EATS) 25K, Engine, Cab hardware and seat, main hydraulic pumps, all filters and breathers, and all rusted hydraulic cylinders.

Since the machine is in fresh water the exterior damage may only need repaired: Sheet metal, Hydraulic flushed, remover upper house from lower chassis (car body) and service/replace swing bearing and swing motor,

Repairs and replacement of parts for this machine will be upwards of 300K in my estimation. The fact that it was underwater makes it a salvage unit. The laws here are a bit gray but salvage is the recommended method to disburse the loss.

I did the evaluation on 10 machines that were in port when Ike came through Texas and all ten units were flooded to the tops of the seats. The net for each machine was 600K, the repair estimate came in at 350K+ per units. Since the units were flooded the insurance company would only accept a total loss.

These machine will usually be bought by a salver, sent out of the US and repaired then sold in another country. BTW 2 of my machines ended up in Canada by way of an auction company in SA.

 

[hawgwash]

BTW 2 of my machines ended up in Canada by way of an auction company in SA.

Sorta like hurricane boats. Lots of them have made their way to Canadian dupes.
Saw a highly suspicious one recently here in BC, came via Chicago.

 

[SeaAyeOwe]

Bill I get the feeling you would love the challenge of recertification and getting this thing back in production:grin:

Did we ever find out if it was a theft, vandals, malfunction etc?

 

[IanBat]

Hey seyaw and old Skool, I was also in the Heavy industry, still am...... We supply, cat, Komatsu, kubota, hitachi etc


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[SeaAyeOwe]

Hey ianBat - Semco, Hastings Deering?, west trac? - or are you running an independent ?

Who knew - I had no idea there would be such a heavy machinery presence on CSR?

So sorrry for all the events there last week btw. Thoughts and prayers with y'all.

 

[OldSkool]

Ditto on the condolences to the folks affected by the hostage crisis.

SeaAyeOwe, I did a little back ground check to try and make sure my post was as accurate as possible on the estimate. They believe it was vandals at this point. As you know a new track machine will track fairly straight for a long distance.

As for the re-certification, piece of cake on this one. If it wasn’t touched by water then leave it alone. Start the inspection from the track rollers and finish at the bucket pin.

I believe salvage buy is 10% so my buy back should be 50K.
The entire car body should be in good shape since it has minimal hours on it.
Let’s take a machine that has 1000 hours on it, replace the water damaged components, re-certify it, give it a new warranty and sell it for 30% less than new.

Numbers look like this.
Buy back 50,000.
Estimate repairs 300,000
De-net on parts and labor -90,000
Total 260,000


Estimate new 500,000
30% off -150,000
Total 350,000.
Cost of recertification -260,000
Profit 90,000
My commission on gross profit 24% 21,600.

Heck Yeah, I'm in!

All of this is play money so please take it as a fun what if.

 

[SeaAyeOwe]

:smt038 I knew you would have it down pat Bill.

Ditto on the condolences to the folks affected by the hostage crisis.

SeaAyeOwe, I did a little back ground check to try and make sure my post was as accurate as possible on the estimate. They believe it was vandals at this point. As you know a new track machine will track fairly straight for a long distance.

As for the re-certification, piece of cake on this one. If it wasn’t touched by water then leave it alone. Start the inspection from the track rollers and finish at the bucket pin.

I believe salvage buy is 10% so my buy back should be 50K.
The entire car body should be in good shape since it has minimal hours on it.
Let’s take a machine that has 1000 hours on it, replace the water damaged components, re-certify it, give it a new warranty and sell it for 30% less than new.

Numbers look like this.
Buy back 50,000.
Estimate repairs 300,000
De-net on parts and labor -90,000
Total 260,000


Estimate new 500,000
30% off -150,000
Total 350,000.
Cost of recertification -260,000
Profit 90,000
My commission on gross profit 24% 21,600.

Heck Yeah, I'm in!

All of this is play money so please take it as a fun what if.