544e Loader For Sale

[Francoise Witsell]

thanksfor all the replies. we have the local john deere construction sales guy coming out Monday, on the phone he suggested no smaller than a 544, and for a brush cutter he recommended a self contained unit, claims the end loaders don't have the flow that a backhoe would have to run one off the hydraulics, I did tell him that we currently use an old case 1085 with a 6 foot head on. cat guy is coming later I understand that a 930 cat is about equal to a 544. jd was talking about diamond brush cutters, around here I see a lot of john deere endloaders,

I was around both a 544j Deere and a 926, can't remember the letter, cat. The Deere was by far the better loader although it was a tad bigger. The Deere had a roomier cab, service points were a lot easier to get at, and overall just a lot nicer to operate. Not saying the cat wasn't a good loader, it just wasn't as nice as the deere.

This summer we demoed a 544 Deere and a 930cat. The three of us that ran them all felt the Deere was just a touch behind my 10,000 hr 20 year old 928g loader. It was quite, but we ran it for 3 days against our 928 and all felt the same. A month later cat brought a 930 out, once you got used to the transmission it was an animal. It has several settings on how much rim pull it has and what mode the transmission is. I loaded gravel in semi's for a couple days and dug road ditches for a day without bucket teeth and it would still boil dirt out of the bucket with a 1/4 yard bigger bucket. The hydraulics were quicker on the cat, big deal when you're driving out of a road ditch loading a dump truck, the Deere you had to stop and wait for it to clear the truck. The cat is supposed to show up the end of March. For the government bid it was $1,000 or $1500 higher.

Locally most independent mechanics prefer deere and it shows. Many more 544E to K than Cat. Friend has 928M (?) new Cat on farm and nice rig. They had a mono boom one and it went 20k 0 issues. But neighbors 544g has 35000 plus...meter quit 6 years ago at least. Fil 544g had 22k when traded...both oem running gear. Both good....demo and check. Fwiw...if you have dealer look at Komatsu. Very nice and torque! Man...they have made big in roads in WA in heavy construction and even dairy use.

I demoed a Volvo and didn't like it. Slow hydraulics, light on the rear end and wasn't as powerful as the other 2. When the salesman asked me what I though I told him. His reply was it's not always about that, it's about the money!

Brother has a 924K high lift cat loader for feedlot use , it is smooth and quiet in the cab and seems to have a lot of push power but the visibility in all directions is absolutely horrible, the cross member on the loader frame is right in your line of site no matter what you are dumping on .

Same up here rdo is John Deere dealer Butler is cat. Butler has a way of schmoozing the help and owners with free dinners and parties for the big wigs sways a lot of business for a little promotional expense.

When the neighboring township bought their 924k 2 years ago they demo'd Cat, JD and a Case. The Cat was hands down a nicer unit to run and had better power as well. For the township I work at we don't have a need for as big of a loader but if we were to replace the 344H Deere we have now it would be with a 918M Cat.

Honestly, service is our only selling point, every brand has its strong points. Some things are better than Cat, some things aren't. Every machine seems to excell over the others for one use or another.

New Cat loaders have been very impressive to me vs their preceding models. Getting out of an F or G series into an H was usually disappointing. Getting into a K or M series has usually left a smile on my face.

All you can really do is look at the proximity of your dealer support and spend a little time in their product. Split the difference between what you like to operate and how well the machine is supported. Initial purchase price means little in the long run. Downtime and maintenance are usually the most expensive part in cost of ownership.

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