Hello men, new to the forum. I have truly enjoyed reading and learning from everyone here and finally decided to join. I have been unable to find any current posts related to this so excuse me if this has been covered recently. I am considering purchasing a 2003 John Deere 650H dozer from a friend. He is asking $23K for it, approx 1200 hours on the machine. I have not inspected it as of yet and would like some general thoughts and opinions on it. It feels like a reasonable price from what I can tell but researching prices on line leaves me confused. There is a large disparity on prices of these machines on line. I am going to use it around my farm and for personal use, not really considering trying to make money with it. I do not have away to move it personally and will have to have a local company move it if the need ever arises. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance guys. Pete
Sounds like your friend is giving you a heck of a deal. 1200 hours on that machine is very low its probably worth 40k+...
look at it and if is not trashed BUY it , that is a steal, use it and sale it and put some coin in your pocket. if i wasn't on the wrong coast i would buy it in a heart beat
Machine's only run a hundred hours a year since new? I would suggest that's not true, though the hour meter may show that. If it is true oddly enough I would worry about issues from setting so much without running. Has your friend owned it since new, and how good a friend is he? LOL Give it a hard look for wear and looseness, check the track shoes and chains, look for a Deere part number on the track links, etc. Might be a great deal, might be buying somebody else's headaches, just be mindful. :IMO
Thank you for the help guys! In response to how good a friend he is, we do not grill out at each other’s house on the weekends but we do work together and have known each other for many years. I would feel comfortable calling him or him calling me in the middle of the night to fix a flat tire for a daughter or spouse. He is not in the earth moving trades. He is the second owner I believe and I remember when he purchased the unit 7 or 8 years ago. I believe he uses it around his acreage and occasionally does small jobs for others. I would think the hour meter is accurate. It does have a forestry package, not completely sure what that entails. I have never owned a dozer but have owned a number of farm tractors. I am leery of auction machines as they seem to always have hidden issues and require some sort of major maintenance not long after purchase. I had hopes of purchasing it, using it to take care of a few projects over the next year or two and perhaps selling it and getting my money back. I enjoy working with machines and tractors, so I was looking forward to operating a bulldozer myself.