said I wouldn't buy another one but when the bids came in on some work we want done thought I'd take a chance. It came in Monday from Witchita, KS. Overall shape is better than expected but will need a complete undercarriage soon. Hoping for no major repairs but you never know.
Dozer
- Thread starter Lucky
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said I wouldn't buy another one but when the bids came in on some work we want done thought I'd take a chance. It came in Monday from Witchita, KS. Overall shape is better than expected but will need a complete undercarriage soon. Hoping for no major repairs but you never know.
I was hoping for the same thing but about only thing could be used again would be the pads. It'll get me along for this year so no rush, maybe make it a winter project.
chevytaHOE5674
Well-known member
Looks like a fun toy.... or tool. Haha
Do some shopping around. Just did rails on a Deere excavator and it wasn't much more for complete rails/pads then it was for just rails plus new bolts/nuts and all the labor to remove and replace 344 bolts and nuts.
Do some shopping around. Just did rails on a Deere excavator and it wasn't much more for complete rails/pads then it was for just rails plus new bolts/nuts and all the labor to remove and replace 344 bolts and nuts.
I did the same thing the cost to get the work done was so high so I bought a 650G and have did several thousand dollars of work with it but it will need an under carriage before long also. First Case i ever ran and I hate it
It will be for sale when I get done
Mrcopier
Well-known member
A under carriage run about 30k doesn’t it?
When we first bought this place about 200 acres was covered in Honey locust. We bought a Case 850G to clean it up and put around 1,000 hrs on it. I stayed on top of things and spent maybe $3,000-4,000 in repairs. I sold that dozer for what I gave for it. To put a price on things the contractors I had give me bids on just the locust clearing said let's start with $50,000 then we'll have a good idea on total cost. All told that dozer probably saved me $100,000. We did a ton of projects with it. We really liked it but wanted something a touch bigger.
Cat brand undercarriage is pushing $30k. ITR brand is around $15,500. That's me doing all the labor. No idea what install will cost. The pads are $4k but as @chevytaHOE5674 says it's a lot of work to remove and reinstall them. I can weld grouser bars on them for about a grand but that's allot of work too. We'll see how the money is when the time comes.
chevytaHOE5674
Well-known member
All depends what it needs but your not far off.
I looked at a D6 few weeks back and it needed everything, rails and pads were 12k. Bottom rollers $400 a piece, idler $800 a piece, sprocket segments $400 a side. All told with bolts and stuff the parts were 28k not counting an labor. Needless to say I passed as the seller was asking way too much given the condition.
chevytaHOE5674
Well-known member
Most of the time I just blow all the bolt heads off with the gas axe and reinstall with all new. Most of the time the old bolt heads are worn a socket hardly grabs them and the threads are rusty and galled up.
Welding grousers is a good way to go if you got lots of time and can do it yourself. If paying labor it's cheaper to replace the pads.
This dozer had a really good inspection done by the Cat dealer and so far everything on the report is seems accurate. They had the pads at 15% and the sprockets at 30% if I remember right. Everything else was past 100% wear. I think I can get quite a bit of use for my needs though.
What I found on older dozers was they kind of had a base price then add in undercarriage life. You can certainly get to deep if you don't watch it.
chevytaHOE5674
Well-known member
If the idlers and rollers are good and the rails have some height left so they don't want to de-rail you can get a lot of work done. My experience has always been the tracks fall off in the worst place like a mud hole or side hill. Ha
I mean the pads/rails/sprockets are shot anyways so you may as well run it until they start to fall off and cause trouble, it's not like your on a paying job and need the machine to run 10 hours a day.
My excavator needs rails as the pins and bushings are shot. But as long as I'm careful when making sharp turns they stay on so I'm going to run it a good while longer.
I mean the pads/rails/sprockets are shot anyways so you may as well run it until they start to fall off and cause trouble, it's not like your on a paying job and need the machine to run 10 hours a day.
My excavator needs rails as the pins and bushings are shot. But as long as I'm careful when making sharp turns they stay on so I'm going to run it a good while longer.
My thoughts exactly. I've got a few projects for it to see if I even like the way it operates before I drop another 15-20k in it. It has finger tip controls which I'm not sure if I'll like or not. They unloaded it off the truck and I ran it 300' to the barn so haven't ran it yet. Mice had made a terrible mess in the cab so got that cleaned up and going over everything as I have time.
