What to look for when buying a dozer help us?

[markblake]

I'll admit it, I don't know jack crap about dozers. It'll be a while before I try to buy one to do some more cleaning, widening my driveway, build a pond, etc on my land.......However, when I want something like this, I start looking years in advance so I'll know when a good deal comes along.
I don't know what I'm looking at. I'm not partial to any brand or even any particular size but because of the availability of parts, etc. if you suggest me any useful Construction Equipment Video that will easy to find me dozers. I'd say I'm looking for a John Deere 350. What should I look for in one? What is this "undercarriage" see mentioned so much. What about rollers, sprockets, pins, tracks, etc.? How many hours. Do they make them in standard shift/shuttle, etc?

Give me a quick lesson, here....
thanks
.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

I think you are going to be disappointed in a JD 350. I have a JD 550 at home and its just barely big enough o move some dirt. Non-Current Models | Construction | John Deere US Take a look and compare weights and HP. The older machines are cheaper because they either need fixed or are harder to fix. The plus side about the Deere's is the parts availability is pretty good. We just re did the undercarriage in the 550 and everything I couldn't get aftermarket was available from mother deere. Read the attached undercarriage guide. If you are going to own a dozer, you better be mechanically inclined and have a selection of HD tools. A 1/2" ratchet isn't HD either. A torch and a welder are almost required as well. Its not a question of if something will break, its a matter of when. Anything with tracks is going to cost you money.


On the plus side, there is nothing quite like running a dozer and pushing everything in sight listening to the tracks clanking, the smell of fresh dirt, and being able to see what you accomplished in a day!

 

[oosik]

I was going to buy a dozer many years ago. Friend down the way had a fairly new Cat. Think it was a 5 series. When I talked to him about my idea - he pulled his file showing the on-going costs of maintenance/repairs for the five years he owned the dozer. I darn near passed out when I saw the annual costs.

Unless you are prepared to be stripped naked - you better have a lot of high paying jobs to work the dozer on.

 

[fried1765]

I'll admit it, I don't know jack crap about dozers. It'll be a while before I try to buy one to do some more cleaning, widening my driveway, build a pond, etc on my land.......However, when I want something like this, I start looking years in advance so I'll know when a good deal comes along.
I don't know what I'm looking at. I'm not partial to any brand or even any particular size but because of the availability of parts, etc. if you suggest me any useful Construction Equipment Video that will easy to find me dozers. I'd say I'm looking for a John Deere 350. What should I look for in one? What is this "undercarriage" see mentioned so much. What about rollers, sprockets, pins, tracks, etc.? How many hours. Do they make them in standard shift/shuttle, etc?

Give me a quick lesson, here....
thanks
.

Here is your "quick lesson"
I bought a used crawler loader many years ago.
Part one of the lesson: It will ALWAYS be too small for the job you are planning to do!
Part two of the lesson: It will break down right in the middle of the job.
Part three of the lesson: It will cost you PILES of cash to keep it running.
End of lesson!
DO NOT BUY A DOZER!..... ANY DOZER!

 

[EddieWalker]

Apply the saying about owning a boat to owning a dozer. The second happiest day is the day you buy it, the happiest day is the day you sell it.

Having said that, there is nothing quite like owning one. My first one was a Deere 450G. It proved to be too small for anything except spreading already dug soil. The few things that I bought for it seemed reasonable, so parts where not too bad. It just wasn't big enough to move very much, and too light to break through the clay soil that I have.

After shopping around, I decided on a Case 1550. It's 170 hp, weighs 40,000 pounds and has a Cummins 6 cylinder engine. It's big enough to do what I want. I learned that clearing trees with it creates more work after all the trees are on the ground. Small stuff gets all tangled up, bigger stuff gets all tangled up, and medium sized trees snap off at the base, which means digging out stumps. After about ten acres of that nightmare, I no longer use it for clearing anything. Faster and easier to just dig them up with the backhoe.

For digging my pond, it's awesome. You just have to remember that it's not good for moving dirt a long distance. 300 feet is about max, and that's still a long time of going backwards for the next load.

As mentioned already, working on it is a nightmare. Parts are actually cheapest from the dealer, except for filters. Amazon is about the best for those. Finding somebody to fix it is impossible. If you find somebody that says they will, good luck having them show up. You need to be able to do all your repairs yourself.

Before starting it, you have to grease it, add fluids and inspect it, and sometimes repairs stuff that might take a few days or even weeks. You don't just jump on it and go. Once you get it started up, the first hour is great. It's fun, things are happening and seeing the dirt taking shape is very satisfying. Then it becomes work, and the next couple of hours are a job. After that, it's a torture session. Six hours is where I try to stop, and I'm a zombie for hours after. If I go longer, the suffering is more prolonged.

What to look for?

A dozer is three things. Tracks, hydraulics and an engine. Tracks wear out and they are expensive to replace. A machine with fewer hours will have better tracks, but the cost is a lot more. What is your budget? The more you spend, the better you will get, but even brand new, they brake down. Sprockets are the most obvious thing to notice, but also the easiest and cheapest to replace. The pins on the tracks are the most overlooked, and the most expensive to replace. Hydraulic cylinders have seals. Seals wear out, so don't make a big deal out of a leaking cylinder. For a hundred bucks, I can have a cylinder rebuilt if I remove it and bring it to the shop. Hoses also fail all the time. They can be easy, or a pain to replace, but they are all fairly reasonable cost wise to have new ones made. Just wait for it to leak and then take it to the shop to have a new one built. If a pump goes, panic. Pumps are expensive. Case wants $25,000 for a replacement pump on mine. I have three pumps. Instead of replacing it, I took it out and brought it to a shop that rebuilt it for $4,000 And the engine is just like any other diesel engine. If it's solid, you are good to go. If it's worn out, you will spend some money. It cost me $5,000 in parts to rebuild mine, and a couple months of working on it when I had the time.

Once I finish clearing and grading my fence line, I'm going to sell my dozer. I've had it long enough. If I ever need one again in the future, I'll hire it out and have somebody bring one here and do the work for me.

 

[TnAndy]

DO NOT BUY A DOZER!..... ANY DOZER!

Agreed. Owned a JD350 and a Mitsubishi about the size of a JD450.....except for a little yard grading and some minor road building on the farm, they did very little for me. My current mini-excavator has been far and away more useful.

When I need dozer work done now, I hire a neighbor with a JD 650.

 

[bcp]

What to look for when buying a dozer?

The door with the EXIT sign over it.

Bruce

 

[caver]

They folks on here convinced me I didn't need one without even posting ...just reading old threads. Now, having said that I would like to own an old Cat D4 but just to tinker with and do a light restoration.

 

[Old Red]

This has been a very entertaining thread to read. I now have a greater appreciation of the dozer work I hired out and what I paid for it. Goodness! How did those guys ever build the great alaskan highway!

Anyway, some of you had mentioned mini excavators….what do you use them for? Obvious you can dig ditches and trenches, but when it comes to comparing to a dozer…school me on this. I am intrigued by mini ex….

 

[oosik]

Ha, ha. When we first moved down here - I thought I needed a crawler tractor. The dealer had an old Oliver Cletrac(Sp) and I was ****-bent on having that unit. Well, I got it and you know, the only thing it did for me - as I went ripping, roaring and bouncing over hill, over dale - it made me feel like Patton must have felt on his many tank battles.

Otherwise, after a month of having fun - I called the dealer and he took it back, gave me full purchase price, I bought an much more reasonable Ford 1710. My days of playing Patton or Rommel were over.................

 

[Sawyer Rob]

How did those guys ever build the great alaskan highway!

It was easy, they didn't start out with 3/4 wore out dozers like guys here want to buy!! AND they had GOOD mechanics along with them that could fix those dozers with unlimited funds to buy parts with!

ALSO, they used CAT D7, 8 and 9's, not little dozers folks on here want to buy.

SR

 

[oosik]

And it was a military project with unlimited funding, unlimited manpower and a VERY specific timeline to provide road access to Alaska from the lower 48. I had the absolute pleasure to meet two old black gentlemen who were in the military and worked on the Alaska Highway. Very few black men were initially allowed to use the heavy equipment - this eventually changed. These two fellows were heavy equipment mechanics. What they both remember most - other than the bitter cold, was the hoards & hoards of mosquitos. Many of the men on this project - both black and white - had never been out of the south and this project was their first experience with cold weather.

 

[bcp]

No D9's made yet, but lots of D8 and down. Cat and IH, too. And some jobs needed little ones, so they had them, too.

Bruce

 

[buckeyefarmer]

We had a small jd 1010 crawler on the farm, and it was very useful. I ran it a lot, and loved running it. We made a good bit of money with it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Like one ALCAN worker said: "miles and miles of nothing but, miles and miles of nothing"...

I've been over the ALCAN 13 times, two times with my motorcycle. Today it's NOTHING like it was in the early 70's when I traveled over it the first time!

Yes they had smaller dozers when they built it, but they were not doing the heavy pushing, that was for the big iron...

SR

 

[oosik]

I've been over the Alcan eight times - Eastern Wa to Anchorage - but never by motorcycle. Our first trip, up the highway, was the spring I graduated from college - in 1965. It was a true adventure in '65 and fortunately we drove it in a brand new VW Bug. It was a slow, dusty, muddy trip to Anchorage but the little bug made it without a single hitch. My last trip was when we came out in '82, I understand the entire distance is paved now.

I spent my summers working in Alaska, starting in 1960. IMHO only, the spirit that was once Alaska, the days of the Sourdough - they are gone forever and have been replaced with modern technology. Now you can only find what Alaska was once really like by going so very far into the wilderness as to be lost forever.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It will never be 100% all paved, there's always stretches tore up for repairs...usually about 125 miles...

SR

 

[ultrarunner]

My friend gives lectures on the building... he was an engineer and dispatched to get it done as in punch it through as once it was blazed others would come and improve it... very entertaining and glad I had a chance to hear it first person on hoe the Alaska Highway came to be.

My opinion of Dozers is limited to my experience and self taught.

Years ago the folks were directed to build and maintain fire trails on their land after the 1991 Oakland Fire Storm...

Got a couple of estimates that were out of this world... more than the rugged property was worth...

I approached Dad and said how about we buy a dozer and I learn to operate it and put in the cuts to satisfy the Fire folks... Dad was skeptical and talked to someone with a large paving and grading company who emphatically said NO WAY... because of inexperience and the steep terrain.

Being young I did not listen and found a deal on a CAT D3 with 6 way blade and rippers... Dad and I split the cost of 17K with the Dozer being mine when the job was done...

I owned that Dozer 20+ years and put in and maintained all the Fire trails... and only reluctantly sold it because I ran out of work to do...

Just realized I have never uploaded a picture of the D3 so here it is.

Bought it for 17K and sold it for 15K... did a lot of work, had a lot of fun, being I owned it I could work on my schedule AND when ground conditions were optimal which I quickly learned the importance of.

Going over 20 years of ownership I average $150 a year in parts/supplies... mostly lines, oil, coolant, etc. and I replaced both steering brakes... tore it down under an oak tree and dug in... while at Peterson Tractor I was offered jobs while waiting at the parts counter... owners had equipment to maintain and I guess doing my own work was enough to strike up conversations.

I can't say enough good things about Peterson CAT... always made sure to get me in and out... made lines while I waited and let me use their private reference manuals... treated me like I owned a fleet of tractors instead of one.

About two years after selling the D3 my brother bought a ranch and needed Dozer work... said how useful my D3 would have been... so I started looking again and brought home a JD350C that had belonged to the Irrigation District... paid 10K

So far it has not needed any parts in 3 years but did have to flush the fuel lines and tighten up some things... tracks are good... rollers so/so

The D3 had foot pedal steering which I really liked and the 350C has levers... so between steering and operating the 6-way blade my hands are always moving...

The 350C is really like a mountain goat... the D3 can be a little tipsy with a higher center of gravity.

The smaller 350 takes a lot longer to move dirt but has done some nice work...

My brother has been offered 12k for the 350C from a neighbor so I feel we did OK price-wise... the Park Service used a lot of Deere 350 to build trails and I can see why.

Like Eddie said operating can be taxing... about 4 hours on the D3 was about my limit before I got Loopy... you don't want to go right when you meant to go left on the side of a steep ravine... so I would call it a day and be mentally done for the day...

Maybe being able to do my own work made the difference.... or I have just been lucky?

The D3 is not quite double the weight of the 350... so only natural it could do more.

A nice feature of the 350 is I can actually move it with my PJ trailer and my brother's Diesel F250...

As with most things tractor related... if you can do your own work so much the better.

The D3 also saved my life... was just going down the trail not doze and a huge bay toppled and hit hard... the CAT ROPS stopped me getting killed.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I find you can get a lot more work done with a skid steer than a small dozer. Hire out the big jobs and buy a skid steer for all the other stuff.

 

[sixdogs]

Years back I had an old Deere dozer and I must be the only guy around that never put any repairs into it and sold it for more than I paid. Sheer dumb luck. Since then I've learned to stay away from them and sub-contract any dozer work.

The guy will have a correct sized machine, it will be maintained and the operator is a master at his craft. Saves me hours of time and no $8,000 repair bills like a friend of mine just got. He was figuring on $500. They all need something and all cost more than planned.