I recently sold my 955L it was a very good machine just a little slow. I'm wanting to buy a 953 to replace it with. I have a lot of light brush to clear, mostly Ota Molaves that grow like weeds here. My budget is 20 to 35K. I'm a competent mechanic and operator. I'm a little apprehensive as I know repairs on these machines can cost more than there worth sometimes. The forum is not much help convincing me I'm making the rite decision. Is there anything else machine wise I should be considering? Thanks
Guess not. So i will take my chance on a used 953.
Can’t go wrong with a 953. I’ve used mine for years and did a lot of work on it recently. I’ve got the original 953 lgp with around 5,000 original hours. There’s been some good upgrades as the models progressed but mine still gets the job done and I can work the 2 lever bucket controls no problem. Swiss Army knife of machines in my opinion. A few parts for the old ones are getting somewhat hard to find even though it’s a cat but you can still get most everything you need between cat and aftermarket. If I were looking for a different 953 I would get one with the larger track adjuster rod. If you have one that bends or breaks it could be the track spring is broken like mine was. Not a hard job but if the parts you need to remove have been in there for 40 years you’ll destroy everything getting to the spring and it ends up being really expensive. You start adding that cost to other undercarriage repairs and it could be a money pit. Plus the pins that hold the tensioner and spring pressure on mine were seized bad. Not a good situation holding back spring tension while your heating and beating on the pins.
The "Ota Molave" trees you are referring to are actually called Autumn Olive, not picking on your pronunciation, just FYI. We too have a bad autumn olive problem here and I clear a lot of them. IMO a 955 or 953 are way more machine than you need for this type of work. They are shallow rooted and clearing them is very light, quick work even for my little Case 450C dozer. Something along the lines of a Case 855D or Deere 555G would be more than adequate and a lot cheaper/easier to repair than a 953.
A hydrostatic machine is quite a bit quicker but more expensive if you have to repair it. If the OP says a 955L was slow, he wouldn't be happy with a smaller conventional machine.