Case 1150 dozer

[rpd428]

I hope this is allowed here as it is a dozer… but I’m in the market for a dozer and came across a case 1150 probably from the early 70’s (I’ll include pictures). Seller says it runs good and undercarriage is 80-90%… would this be a good buy? How are parts availability? I’m looking for a dozer simply to clear some brush and trees on only about 50 acres we just bought… maybe a few little projects but certainly not making a living with whatever I find. Thanks. Can probably have this for less than 10 grand.

 

[Cycledude]

Looks very nice in the pictures , $10,000 sounds cheap to me. In the long run you might be better off just hiring the work done.

 

[DJ54]

They were a decent tractor, although an odd size. Some friends in the excavating business had one, decent tractor but, too big for some jobs, to small for others. Mainly used it for hogging dirt building small ponds, or moving large amounts of dirt that were too big of a job for their Case 450. Would probably make a decent farm dozer though. BUT, no way I'd push out trees with it, without a ROPS, with the brush sweeps that go up to the top of the front cowling. When pushing out trees, they can spin turn, and come back over the top of the blade, and could pin you in the seat. Even once they are down, and your pushing to a burn pile etc., they can jump over the blade, and do the same thing. Limbs higher than the blade can turn/roll, come back on the hood, and knock the exhaust pipe/muffler off, and possibly break the exhaust manifold, and or break off hydraulic lines. The sweeps can prevent that from happening, but still not 100%. If you would happen to get it, find a used ROPS in a salvage yard, and put it on.

Any dozer is a high maintanance item. Depending on how much work you have for it, and how much experience you have operating one, in the long run, $10K would go a long way towards hiring someone to do it.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have a Case 1550 dozer. You need to post close up pictures of the undercarriage to verify if there is really 80 to 90% life left in them. For me, this is a huge red flag for a machine that old. It's rare that somebody spent the money for a new undercarriage, and from what I can see, it's been used for a very long time, which means the undercarriage has a lot of wear on it.

Case does not support their old equipment. The dealer may or may not have parts for it. On mine, the fan broke off and destroyed my shroud. Case does not have that fan. I had to find it at a salvage yard in Florida, where they also had the shroud off of another 1550 dozer that they where pulling parts off of. Including shipping, this cost me $2,000

Mine has a Cummins engine. You cannot buy engine parts for it from a parts store. Napa requires the serial number to find the right part. All Case serial numbers come up on the Napa computer as not being available. You can only buy parts and rebuild kits for the engine from the dealer. Fortunately, they have had those parts and the prices where similar to Napa.

Every time I've had issues with my dozer, my local dealer has gone out of their way to help me fix it myself. They copy everything needed from their manuals. They tell me where to get the best deal on parts and other places to do work on it. They just about totally refuse to work on it themselves.

When one of my hydraulic pumps went out, Case wanted $25,000 for a new pump. They didn't want to do the labor, and would not quote me a price to do the labor. They also told me about a place an hour away that rebuilds the pumps if I take it out myself and bring it there. Cost to rebuild the pump was just under $3,000 with me doing all the labor.

My dozer is 170 hp. It was big enough to dig my pond, and big enough to move a lot of dirt, but horrible at removing trees. When the ground is soft in the Spring, it pushes them over pretty good, but it also snaps them off from time to time and leaves you with a nasty stump to deal with. Most of the trees it pushes over are in the 12 inch range. Bigger trees require digging around the roots, and building up a ramp to get the blade up high enough on the tree to push it over. This is slow going and it creates a huge mess to clean up. Once the trees are on the ground, pushing them into a pile to burn adds a massive amount of dirt to the burn pile. I bought a rake, and that helped, but the trees still push dirt as they are pushed to the pile and you still get a bunch of dirt in the burn pile. A dozer is probably the worse machine out there for clearing trees. Once I realized this, I stopped using the dozer for trees and now use my backhoe for tree removal. I put a grapple on it so I can pick up the trees and carry them to the burn pile. Clean trees burn faster then trees mixed with dirt. Clearing trees with the backhoe is significantly faster and easier then with a dozer. I believe an excavator would be even faster at taking them down, but not as good for getting them to the burn pile.

I still have a few things left to do with my dozer on my land, but then I'm looking forward to selling it and never owning anything with tracks again!!!!

 

[rpd428]

I have a Case 1550 dozer. You need to post close up pictures of the undercarriage to verify if there is really 80 to 90% life left in them. For me, this is a huge red flag for a machine that old. It's rare that somebody spent the money for a new undercarriage, and from what I can see, it's been used for a very long time, which means the undercarriage has a lot of wear on it.

Case does not support their old equipment. The dealer may or may not have parts for it. On mine, the fan broke off and destroyed my shroud. Case does not have that fan. I had to find it at a salvage yard in Florida, where they also had the shroud off of another 1550 dozer that they where pulling parts off of. Including shipping, this cost me $2,000

Mine has a Cummins engine. You cannot buy engine parts for it from a parts store. Napa requires the serial number to find the right part. All Case serial numbers come up on the Napa computer as not being available. You can only buy parts and rebuild kits for the engine from the dealer. Fortunately, they have had those parts and the prices where similar to Napa.

Every time I've had issues with my dozer, my local dealer has gone out of their way to help me fix it myself. They copy everything needed from their manuals. They tell me where to get the best deal on parts and other places to do work on it. They just about totally refuse to work on it themselves.

When one of my hydraulic pumps went out, Case wanted $25,000 for a new pump. They didn't want to do the labor, and would not quote me a price to do the labor. They also told me about a place an hour away that rebuilds the pumps if I take it out myself and bring it there. Cost to rebuild the pump was just under $3,000 with me doing all the labor.

My dozer is 170 hp. It was big enough to dig my pond, and big enough to move a lot of dirt, but horrible at removing trees. When the ground is soft in the Spring, it pushes them over pretty good, but it also snaps them off from time to time and leaves you with a nasty stump to deal with. Most of the trees it pushes over are in the 12 inch range. Bigger trees require digging around the roots, and building up a ramp to get the blade up high enough on the tree to push it over. This is slow going and it creates a huge mess to clean up. Once the trees are on the ground, pushing them into a pile to burn adds a massive amount of dirt to the burn pile. I bought a rake, and that helped, but the trees still push dirt as they are pushed to the pile and you still get a bunch of dirt in the burn pile. A dozer is probably the worse machine out there for clearing trees. Once I realized this, I stopped using the dozer for trees and now use my backhoe for tree removal. I put a grapple on it so I can pick up the trees and carry them to the burn pile. Clean trees burn faster then trees mixed with dirt. Clearing trees with the backhoe is significantly faster and easier then with a dozer. I believe an excavator would be even faster at taking them down, but not as good for getting them to the burn pile.

I still have a few things left to do with my dozer on my land, but then I'm looking forward to selling it and never owning anything with tracks again!!!!

Wow that is one big dozer… thanks for the insight… may have a lead on a D4D that works as it should… any insight on these machines?

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't know anything about it. I'm assuming its a Cat. They have the reputation of having every part for every machine, no matter how old. I don't know if that's true or not.

Off the top of my head, I believe that D4's are in the 90hp range. Dozers that small are more for finish grading and making the dirt look nice. They are too light to dig in hard, compacted soil and pretty much worthless at pushing over trees. I ran a Deere 450G for a little bit and it was only able to take out saplings, and unable to push them when I had a bunch of them down.

Except for digging my lake, I really don't have any reason to own a dozer. Since I have it, I'll use to for a few more things, but once it's gone, I'll never own another dozer.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Looks very nice in the pictures , $10,000 sounds cheap to me. In the long run you might be better off just hiring the work done.

They are way cheaper than that. Just look around a little.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Looks very nice in the pictures , $10,000 sounds cheap to me. In the long run you might be better off just hiring the work done.

They are way cheaper than that. Just look around a little. They are becominga dinosaur. A skid steer with tracks will work circles around that thing. Skidsteer will not do as much at once but will make five trips before you get that thing across a field. Just rent a trac hoe to knock the trees down and do the rest with a skid steer.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

A skid steer with tracks will work circles around that thing. Skidsteer will not do as much at once but will make five trips before you get that thing across a field. Just rent a trac hoe to knock the trees down and do the rest with a skid steer.

Only under "ideal" conditions! Anything other than that, and you will be going for something to pull/push that skid steer out.

I had both at the same time, the dozer is still here!

SR

 

[4570Man]

Unless you want to be on the other side of the dirt don’t touch a tree with an open station dozer.