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Australian Forestry Equipment

Checklist

Used machine inspection

Hours alone are not enough. A used machine with 12,000 hours may have a rebuilt engine, pumps, boom, rotator and head, while a 6,000-hour machine may have been badly maintained.

Use it: Before any used purchase, and before any pre-purchase deposit.

Hours alone are not enough. A used machine at 12,000 hours may have a rebuilt engine, rebuilt hydraulic pumps, a rebuilt boom, a new rotator and a rebuilt head, while a 6,000-hour machine may have been badly maintained throughout.

The question this inspection answers is not how much work the machine has done, but how much economic life remains in each major component group — and whether any of it is about to become your problem.

The hydraulic tests are the ones most often skipped, and they are the ones that find the expensive faults. A machine can move perfectly normally in a yard while its pumps approach failure, and only a case-drain test exposes that.

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Engine

Hydraulics

A machine can move normally in the yard while having expensive pumps approaching failure.

Chassis

Interpreting the answers

What a good answer looks like

Ticking a box is not the same as being satisfied with the answer. These are the lines where the response itself tells you something.

What you askedA good answerA answer that should worry you
ECM hours against idle hoursIdle a modest share of total. Records available from the machine, not quoted verbally.10,000 hours with 4,000 idle is a very different wear profile — and unavailable idle data is itself a signal.
Case-drain flowWithin manufacturer limits, tested at operating temperature.Elevated flow, or a seller unwilling to allow the test. Pumps are among the most expensive things to discover late.
Repair welds and paintDocumented repairs with records of who did the work and when.A freshly painted boom with no explanation. Fresh paint is not itself a problem; unexplained fresh paint is.
Oil analysis recordsA history showing trends over time, not a single recent sample.No records at all, which means component condition can only be guessed at.

Working through it

How to use this checklist

  • Run the hydraulic tests at operating temperature, not on a cold machine
  • Establish head hours separately from machine hours — they are usually different numbers
  • Inspect the chassis for repair welds before the machine is cleaned, if possible
  • Finish by testing the machine under load in material comparable to your own
  • If a seller will not permit a loaded test, that single refusal has answered every other question

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

What is a case-drain test and why does it matter?

It measures internal leakage past a hydraulic pump's or motor's internals, returning to tank through the case drain line. Elevated flow indicates wear that has not yet shown up as a performance problem. It matters because a machine can operate apparently normally right up until a pump fails — and pumps are among the most expensive components to replace.

Should I pay for an independent inspection?

On a machine costing hundreds of thousands, almost always. An independent inspector has no interest in the sale and will run the tests a seller might prefer to skip. The cost is trivial against the exposure, and the report gives you negotiating position as well as information.

Related checklists

Used harvester inspection

Do not buy a harvester solely from an idle demonstration. Process actual timber under load.

Used harvester head inspection

The head contains a considerable percentage of the technology responsible for production — and usually the majority of unplanned downtime.

Used mulcher inspection

A forestry mulcher can hide a great deal of wear. Rock damage should receive particular attention — a replacement rotor can destroy the economics of an apparently cheap purchase.

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