pricing for old broken dozer?

[swick1]

My cousin has a 50's John deere 440 dozer that has been sitting for 20 years with a broken final drive and a tarp over it. The machine is pretty rusted up. I would like to get it going again but it seems like a running machine is around $3000-4000 on ebay. I'm pretty sure it's a gasoline engine. What should I offer for it and how much do you guys think it would cost to get running again? Should I just suck it up and buy an already running unit?

It looks like this but rustier:
http://www.tractorshed.com/gallery/tphotos/a4683.jpg

[bigbull338]

its not worth more than $1000 to $2000 as is.if it was me id offer him $1500 for it.

[Denny Ruebush]

I took a 1956 D6 Cat from barely running to purring. A lot of hard heavy work, hard to find parts and required way more money than I thought but you can get in so far you can't look back and have to trudge ahead. My next will be a GOOD running machine.

What about the engine on that 440? Is it locked up, rings gone, bearings shot? Way to many bear traps setting around to be offering money until you at least get it to run.

[rtimgray]

I would see how much it weighs to determine how much it's worth - around here, scrap is about $250/ton right now. If the machine weighs 3 or 4 tons (my guess, I think they are fairly small machines, but I don't know if I've ever seen one in person), then I would guess it is at least "worth" $750-$1,000, if you have a truck/trailer that can move it. If it's a project that you want to get into and learn about old iron, have a place, tools and time to work on it, - go for it. If you need to get something up and running quick and don't want to do a lot of work on it, I would pass on it.

The only other thing to consider would be if you could find another 440 of the same/similar vintage for a relatively low price and you might be able to make one good machine out of two bad ones - but I would consider this a long shot at best.

Good luck with whatever you do and take care.

[DT86]

I would see how much it weighs to determine how much it's worth - around here, scrap is about $250/ton right now.

YES! Take it from somebody whose father once bought an older dozer with a "few" problems. PLEASE do not pay more than scrap prices.
BTW, anyone in the market for a large paper weight?..Boat anchor?..Um, Yard Art?

[swick1]

I think $500 is a good starting price point. Thanks for the information. I won't go over $750.

[George2615]

If its been sitting for 20 years and you can buy a running one for 3-4K go with the running one. The one sitting for 20 years is probably worth scrap metal price as mentioned.

[LD1]

I agree with others. Scrap price and no more.

That way, you can get it home, give it a good look over and determin what it needs to fix.

If could very well take $3-4k to get it in running condition. In that case, scrap it and your not out anything. But deciding to scrap vs rebuild is something you need to decide. Go through EVERYHTING and decide if it is worth fixing.

But if you pay scrap price, you have got nothing to lose to get it home and look it over.

According to tractordata TractorData.com John deere 440C industrial tractor dimensions information
That 440c WITHOUT the blade weighs 3.5T in gas form. Probabally another 1-1.5T for the blade and associated stuff to make it a "dozer".

So, check prices in your area and see what 4.5-5T would net you. Around me, that would be $1125-$1250

[Grandad4]

The real money in repairing tracked equipment is in the undercarriage. The UC is also a "wear item" that must undergo re-builds periodically. Considering you already know part of the final drive is bad, you could about expect the rest of it to be a money pit also. If you plan to get something that's reliable enough to do real work, I think you'll need to be looking for something newer/in better shape.

[ultrarunner]

I used to like fooling around with old equipment when I had the time... I also found it could be lucrative because sometimes it didn't take much to get it going.

I would start by letting your cousin and his wife know you are looking for a project and mention the Dozer... see where it goes.

Don't bring it home unless you have the time, place and patience and certainly not if your plans call for a Dozer sooner then later.

I don't know the configuration... 6-way blades and a ripper are a big plus... it also means you will most likely figure on replacing all the hydraulic lines...

I'm sure it will be a challenge just getting it moved... the tracks are most likely frozen solid and that is not counting the rest of it.

My Dozer tracks will get real stiff in 6 months... now I run it every 6 weeks or so just to keep things freed-up.