922-B and or other 922 loaders - opinion ?

There were gasoline ones, but I believe the 922A and then the 922B diesels used a D320 engine up through the 59A series and then the D330 for the rest of the run except the last year or so, a D330C which is pretty much the 3304 engine which replaced the D330's. None of these with perhaps the exception of the D330C/3304 engines were especially bullet proof, especially compared to the older engines (D311, D315 etc they replaced)

the A's had some frame cracking problems which were corrected with the 922B.

All the rear steering axle designs have CV joints that go out eventually and cost a bundle to replace, though these are available aftermarket. Someone quoted $1200 for the joints a while back. The rear steering is different from what most folks are used to these days.

Brakes aren't noted for being much on any of these. All are air boosted hydraulic (brake fluid) type. So you have 2 systems to fail and either one can cause loss of braking. Older machines have belt drive air compressors while the newer ones have gear drive. There were several different brake valve arrangements with a hydraulic/air combination valve originally which was replaced by the one on ours which is a simple air brake valve operating one air chamber which pushes a single hydraulic master cylinder for all 4 wheels. Later machines had dual air chambers and master cylinders to separate front and rear brake circuits for some redundancy.

Ours is still a work in progress. $1000 machine, with a scavenged disassembled bad engine. Luckily we found another D320 locally out of a large forklift, but it turned out to have been submerged at some point so it had to be unstuck and rebuilt. We still have to finish up the brakes and axle seals etc before we can use it. Would be nice to find a cab or canopy of some kind for it too.

Good luck!

Good bit of information there, I'd imagine one like I missed out on, in similar condition would probably last awhile, long enough to afford parts and or repairs, which I can do, as the finished material I'm making will help by generating some $$ when sold.

I'd like a 920 or 930, having run those years back, decent size for the volume I'm handling, which may be 1000-1500 yards annually, as well as being able to negotiate the narrow road I have to the work area, just that these are still too expensive, the one I missed went for $3500, small investment for what I'm doing, $30K is a bit much for now, might be justified later though.

I've operated a non-turbo'd 922A and it was a fine machine.
You don't see them about very often these days.

Good visibility, excellent crowding ability in the pile.

May take a bit of getting used to if you've come off a pivot steer type though as you have to allow yourself a little bit more room to move around.

An honest tool if you can find a good one.

Yeah, I can imagine you'd be off a little after running an articulated model like a 920 or larger, I've run 920's, 930's, 950's 966's and 980's, WA-450 Komatsu, years back, all decent machines, 950 or a 980 would make short work of what I am doing, but I've also run some older ones, non articulated like a 922 or 944, like you say, little more room to negotiate the work area probably won't be loading any tri-axles, just single axle dumps, so this would seem to be a decent model to start off with, some good information above about the drive train etc., like all this old stuff, have to be capable of repairs, which I think I am, had I just seen that ad sooner, I think I'd been a happy camper with the one I missed out on, really need to find something to help turn this material into money.