Need expert opinions on this machine

[Scag48]

Given the boom damage, she'd have to be a lot cheaper for me to bite. Hitachi/Deere booms are known for their awesome ability to blow apart with hammer use. That issue has been repaired, but it could rear its ugly head elsewhere in the machine. I'd be curious how tight the pins on the stick are, a bit of a wiggle will give you an idea of what you're looking at for bucket linkage but the stick cylinder where it meets the stick is of some concern as well. Also, the hydraulic system as you mentioned but that's easy to find out, oil samples are money well spent.

24" pads are nice if you're in rock more than mud, you'll have to make that call. Also, not a huge deal here in WA as an annual overwidth load permit can be obtained for cheap, but 24" pads keeps you at 8'6" and that might be worth something.

I'll throw my .02 about Komatsu's 160-7's. I ran 3 different units at the last outfit I was at, all of them had standard sticks with CWS hydraulic pin grabbers, big CWS link thumbs, and heavy duty 48" cleanup buckets. The stability was average at best but like I said, they were dangling a whole lot of jewelry. They do have a little grunt to them though but I always felt the hydraulics would more than outperform the weight of the machine, you can stand them on their nose very easily. Not a bad machine, very quick and cycle times were good if you weren't having to sell a little material just to make it out of the pile. I think Hitachi/Deere is a better machine if you have a decent dealer close to the shop.