Is a dozer worth buying?

[Woodbeef]

Been there done that with both dozers and tlbs. I'd say hire a big one to do the heavy work. It is cheaper in the long run. Then hire a smaller one for clean-up. Then get yourself a 60-75 horse mfd loader tractor with a rear blade for everything else,and maintaining.

Yes it is fun to run the iron! Or should I say as long as it runs!! When it does not it can get expensive real fast!

You can also make a mess real quick with a dozer. You need to have the proverial "bubble on your butt" to get any thing done that looks good. If not it will take a little while for the flora to cover up your mistakes!!

 

[Will_C]

Mark; I think if you are looking in the 450 size range, I would be ready to spend 25,000. You can do that by finding a dozer worth that amount, or by spending less and bankrolling the rest, because you will be fixing somrthing at that price point if you will be using the dozer fairly often.
However, I think you could find a nice JD 350or 400, or a Komatsu D2? around the 17,00-20,000 range. Not 450 sized, but something that you would find useful for many projects.
I think that you should plan on hiring the house prep, driveway, and "fine work" out, and use the dozer for field clearing
, etc. until you are practiced at using it.
As always, just my two cents.
Will

 

[gerard]

You got a lot of good advice so I can't add much except have you shopped for a long term lease/rental? Might be a good test way to see how much you can accomplish without taking the plunge of buying. Checking out the machine's undercariage is the easy part since you can SEE it. The drive sprocket teeth should not come to a point but should be blunt. Pointed shows a lot of wear. There are pins that link each belt link. Feel them with your hand and feel for flat spots. They ride over the idler pulleys and drive sprocket and wear flat. They can be rotated periodically to extend the life but you can tell that's been done by feeling the flat spots. Not necessarily bad, just shows how much use. My biggest concern would be the drive clutches. Tough to tell how much more life there is but you should be able to plant the blade and spin both tracks in place, together and separately. Not much use if you can't. A 450 is a respectable size machine and for the use you describe you could make out fine and then sell it when done. As previously mentioned the only downside is the dreaded major repair............

 

[DarinRay]

MarkV,

You are still getting alot of negatives about buying one but you will never get one if you don't at least try. Yeah for the $20,000 range you aren't going to get a 90's JD or Cat with excellent uc but mid to upper 80's are everywhere with new uc. There are alot of things to check on and that's when a experienced person will help. Me on the other hand am still too trusting sometimes and have taken the word of the buyers on most of the transactions. But I can tell you this I am having a ball and love to be self sufficient and not have to worry about other's time schedules and cost. If I don't feel like operating anything I don't but when I want to I go get the unit running and ready. If you want to you can also have all the oils analyzed which will tell you what shape everything is in,,,,well unless they just changed them all which is also indication something is up sometimes but not always.

As far as transporting there are many places that do this everyday. I have a couple contacts if you ever do get serious about hauling that I've had real good luck and prices with. I would say you can have a small dozer or similar sized equipment hauled from coast to coast for around $1500 max. Edmondton Canada to New York over 2300 miles was around $1200 partial load not on it's own which would make it over double understandably so. If you find a unit and then want it inspected just search for that area's dealer which will be happy to perform all test oil too for a fee of course.

Darin

p.s.- I am almost done with my dozer and will be willing to part with it if you are interested and I can tell you it's excellent shape and for under $17,000. You can call anybody you want to have this inspected and I will reimburse your inspection costs if it's deemed unfit or not as described. Just email me any questions and I will let you know as soon as I can. I also am completing my excavating jobs as well and it's up for sale soon too.

 

[Will_C]

Mark;
The Komatsu that DarinRay has is the one I was thinking of. I have seen those in nice shape for 15-20,000. I think you could get alot of work done with one.

 

[woodmills1]

I went in your direction 8 years ago, and spent 3500 on an older case 310 with a bucket. machine has paid for itself many times. in fact if it is not so hot today I am going to start clearing for my fire pit here at the new place. I will probably pile up over a thousand dollars of top soil from this job alone, and how else could I move the giant rocks that i will line the edge of the cut with.

 

[MarkV]

I’ve been out of town for the long weekend and am pleased this thread is still alive. I sure do appreciate all of the advice. Many of the comments have pointed out thing I had not thought of and emphasized the importance of some of the things I had. Time to do some looking and budget figuring on this one.

Rob, a dozer playground………I like it. I could invite the TBN crowd for a weekend and then try to explain to the wife why the new place looks like a moonscape. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Sure would be fun.

Woodbeef, your points are well taken and this tread has already shown me that larger equipment and an experienced operator needs to be part of the equation for at least part of the work. A bigger tractor is also in the plan for the larger property. Life is good./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Will and Darin, thanks for the answers to the previous questions. Looks like a machine like Darin’s could be perfect for the clean up process and hiring larger equipment for the big jobs might be the way to go. If I were closer to being on the property I would be in touch with you today Darin. I have no doubt if you say the dozer is in good shape it is just that. I sure will check and see if it is still around when the time comes.

Gerard, a lease/rental is very interesting. I can see how you could get a newer piece of equipment with out the maintenance issues and still do the work yourself. Any idea how those programs work and what kind of costs are involved.

Woody, $3500 seems like a great deal if it has not been a maintenance nightmare. Of course I know you are a wheeler-dealer type and pretty handy guy. Was this past year your last year teaching? If so I hope you are enjoying the new found freedom.

Thanks everyone. I have all of your comments printed out and in a file for future reference. My ears are open if anyone comes up with more thoughts.

MarkV

 

[MJB]

I bought a JD 440 bulldozer (quite a bit smaller than a JD 450) a few years ago to clear the back part of my property. I bought it for $4000 from a retired construction contractor who deals in used equipment to stay busy. I used it for about three years and then sold it back to the same guy for a few hundred dollars more than I paid for it. I did do quite a bit of tinkering on it so it was actually in better shape, other than some added wear on the undercarriage, than when I bought it. Like the others said, you need to be fairly mechanically inclined or have a large bank account (or both/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif) in order to own a dozer. I am a self-sufficient type and liked having the machine around and ready to work on my schedule. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had a big enough need for a dozer. Nothing relieves stress better than some quality time on a dozer./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MJB]

A couple more thoughts on bulldozers... If you do not have enough friends already, you will find that you have quite a few more when they hear about the dozer./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Also, you might lend a buddy your car, or your house, or (heaven forbid) your tractor, but you should never ever lend out a bulldozer. They are way to easy to abuse and way to expensive to fix./w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

 

[jtn]

Mark,

I posted this pic before but this seems a very appropriate place to post it again. This is exactly what you need for your job.

Seriously though, if you are looking for a dozer the main concern is the undercarrige (tracks and related hardware). This is where most of your maintainence expense comes from. Avoid dozers from Florida! The soft sand they work in down there is hell on the UC.

That said, chcek out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ironplanet.com>http://www.ironplanet.com</A>. They independently inspect the machines and rate undercarrige wear.

If you do get one consider getting a root rake as this is a good tool for clearing and piling brush and small trees.

JT