Who finances Florida’s excavators.
Every UCC filing secured by an excavator in Florida since 2021 — 16,392 of them — by manufacturer, by lender, and by county, with 2026 measured through 6 September.
of Florida excavator filings since 2021 are held by four manufacturer captive lenders.
Caterpillar excavators were financed by someone other than Cat Financial — more than the other three majors combined.
2026 is pacing below 2025. At the year-to-date rate, filings land near 2,688 against 3,009 last year.
John Deere is the only major brand gaining share in 2026. Kubota and Komatsu are both giving it back.
Five years of excavator paper, and a slower 2026.
Florida excavator filings peaked in 2024 at 3,150 and have eased since. 2025 closed at 3,009. Through 6 September 2026 the state has recorded 1,834 — which, at an even run-rate across the year, points to roughly 2,688 filings, about 11% below 2025 and 15% below the 2024 peak.
The five-year floor was 2022, at 2,644. If the current pace holds, 2026 finishes above that floor but below every other year in the window.
Florida excavator filings by year
2026 shows filings recorded through 6 September as the solid bar, with the dashed outline marking where the year lands if the current daily rate holds for the remaining 116 days. Seasonality in Florida construction is not modelled.
Four manufacturers, eight in ten machines.
Of the 16,392 excavator filings since 2021, Caterpillar, John Deere, Kubota and Komatsu account for 81.5%. Twelve named manufacturers account for 94.2%.
Deere is taking share this year.
Comparing each major brand’s share of 2026 filings against its share across the full 2021–2026 window shows where the mix is moving right now. Deere is the only one of the four clearly up.
| Manufacturer | 2026 YTD filings | 2026 share | 2021–26 share | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Deere | 485 | 26.4% | 24.4% | +2.0 pts |
| Caterpillar | 514 | 28.0% | 27.9% | +0.1 pts |
| Kubota | 355 | 19.4% | 21.0% | −1.6 pts |
| Komatsu | 114 | 6.2% | 8.1% | −1.9 pts |
Shares are of all excavator filings in each period: 1,834 filings for 2026 year to date, 16,392 for the full window. Caterpillar holds the largest share in both periods but is flat year over year.
Caterpillar cedes more paper than the other three combined.
Pair each brand’s filings against the filings held by that brand’s own finance arm and you get a capture rate: the share of a manufacturer’s financed excavators that the manufacturer itself financed, rather than ceding to a bank or an independent lessor.
| Manufacturer | Brand filings | Captive lender | Captive filings | Financed elsewhere | Capture rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kubota | 3,438 | Kubota Credit | 3,314 | 124 | 96.4% |
| John Deere | 4,005 | Deere entities | 3,763 | 242 | 94.0% |
| Komatsu | 1,331 | Komatsu Financial | 1,189 | 142 | 89.3% |
| Caterpillar | 4,581 | Cat Financial | 3,705 | 876 | 80.9% |
The gap is the addressable market, and it is concentrated in one brand. Since 2021, 876 Caterpillar excavators in Florida were financed outside Cat Financial — more than Deere, Komatsu and Kubota’s non-captive volume combined, which totals 508.
For a bank or independent lessor writing construction paper in Florida, that is a targeting instruction: the Caterpillar channel places real volume outside the captive. The Kubota channel effectively does not.
Four captives, nearly three-quarters of the market.
Ranked by excavator filings held in Florida since 2021. Deere’s combined entities have edged ahead of Cat Financial, and the top four are all manufacturer finance arms holding 11,971 of the 16,392 filings between them.
Deere files under two distinct secured-party names — John Deere Construction & Forestry Company and Deere & Company. Counting only the first would understate Deere and leave Cat Financial ranked first; the figure above consolidates both. “All other lenders” is the residual and includes banks, independent lessors and smaller captives such as CNH Industrial Capital and JCB Finance.
Where the machines go.
Excavator filings by debtor county since 2021. Miami-Dade alone carries 10.7% of the state’s volume. The ranking does not track population: Lee County records 913 filings against Broward’s 553, despite Broward being far the larger county by residents.
One in five machines is financed by a person, not a company.
Since 2021, 78.2% of Florida excavator filings name an organization as debtor and 21.8% name an individual — typically an owner-operator borrowing in their own name rather than through an entity. That individual share is materially higher than the all-time figure, which sits near 15%.
Across the same window, 58.6% of excavator filings carry at least one matched contact at the debtor business, which is what makes the filing actionable rather than merely informative.
Method, definitions and limits
Source and period
Every figure is a count of UCC-1 financing statements in the Florida filing record as held by LeadX on 6 September 2026. The report covers filings made from 1 January 2021 onward. Florida is refreshed daily and carries parsed collateral, which is what makes the asset-level cuts in this report possible; not every state does.
Why the window starts in 2021
2020 is not comparable to any other year in Florida. The state recorded 355,970 UCC filings that year against 165,816 in 2019 — but 192,256 of them, 54% of the total, were filed by the U.S. Small Business Administration to perfect its interest in EIDL collateral. Net of the SBA, 2020 came in at 163,714 filings, 1.3% below 2019. Including 2020 in a trend line produces a spike that reflects one federal lending program rather than equipment demand, so the window opens in 2021.
What is being counted
- Filings, not dollars. UCC financing statements do not state a financed amount. Every number here is a count of filings. A single large machine and a single small one count the same.
- Brand counts are per filing, not per machine. A filing is counted under a brand if its parsed collateral contains at least one excavator of that brand. A filing listing two brands is counted under both, so brand rows can sum above the number of distinct filings. Observed overlap is small: the twelve named brands sum to 94.2% of filings.
- “Excavator” is the parsed equipment type. It covers compact and full-size hydraulic excavators as classified from collateral text. It excludes backhoe loaders and compact track loaders, which carry their own types.
- Lender counts use secured-party name matching. Names are matched on substring, then consolidated by hand where one lender files under multiple legal names, as Deere does. Filings made by a representative or filing agent rather than the lender of record are attributed to the name on the filing.
- Capture rate divides a captive lender’s filings by that manufacturer’s brand filings over the same period. Both are filing counts on the same basis, but a captive can also finance another brand’s machine listed on the same filing, which would inflate the numerator slightly.
Annual figures and the 2026 pace
The filing-date filter selects filings made on or after a given date, so annual totals are derived by differencing consecutive cumulative queries. 2026 covers 1 January to 6 September — 249 of 365 days. The 2,688 run-rate assumes the remaining 116 days file at the same daily rate as the year to date; it is arithmetic, not a forecast, and does not model seasonality in Florida construction.
Known limits
- County is the debtor’s county of address, not the location of the machine. Equipment financed by a company headquartered in one county may operate in another.
- Filings are counted regardless of status. Active, lapsed and terminated filings all appear in totals.
- A filing perfects a security interest. It is evidence that credit was extended against collateral, not proof that a machine was sold, delivered, or is still owned.
- Two records in the Florida file carry a mis-parsed filing year in the 23rd century. Both fall outside this report’s window and are immaterial at two records in 5,664,988.