I am wanting to purchase a track loader. Medium size. Not a newer one with all the electronics. Will be only used on the ranch cleaning ponds and filling a dump truck. Probably less than 200 hours per year. I am new to track loaders and want something that is not a night mare to work on and parts are still available. Looking to hopefully spent $15,000 or less. What would be a good reliable loader that may fit my needs? Thanks for any input.
Check out the "Cat 951-C in my sights" thread, those older powershift machines are fairly user friendly.
When I finish up the engine overhaul and install the new track chains and sprockets I will be sitting at about the $15,000 mark. I count my time as nothing and actually it is a break even deal because I don't ever have the time or the money to take the wife out to dinner anymore. Always working on the machine! For sure those old machines are a thrill. You might look for a 941, 951, 953, 955, or 963. I recommend staying in the Caterpillar line for the availability of cheap aftermarket parts prices. I am not knocking the other brands but they sure are proud of their parts. Buy a machine with a good undercarriage if you can. Know that when the price is below fifteen thousand or so you are not going to find very many machines sitting on a good undercarriage. You can find an old loader that is capable of pushing and moving dirt and the tracks will stay on it in the ten to fifteen dollar range. Look at the fluids and the age of any visible filters. Look at the grease nipples. Fire it up and see if it will spin the tracks, back up, and turn left and right. Check for water in the oil or any warm engine water or oil leaks. Does it over heat or loose power as it gets warm? It will have some problems and all of their parts are heavy. If you own the tools and can do the work on the machine yourself it will be no more expensive than owning a boat and most people who own boats don't use them 200 hours a year. You have my two cents worth. Welcome to the forum!
Thanks for the information. I have a 450-C that I have put a rebuilt H-L-R clutch pack in. Put on new sprockets and bottom rollers. Resealed the water pump on the D7. The only things I have not done myself are the heavy stuff on the D-7. that you need a crane to remove. There is a heavy equipment mechanic that is near me that I get to do the heavy stuff. He says the newer machines with all the electronics and sensors are a PITA. I looked in a skid steer Cat a while back. I have never seen that many wires except in an airplane. I have looked at a couple of loaders near here. A Fiat-Allis, a Drott and a 350 Case. The allis scares me because of parts. The Drott and Case are too much money for the shape they are in. I will start looking for the Mobel numbers given. Thanks.
Why are there so many 953's on the market? Was it that there were many built for many years? Are they a costly problem once the hours mount up?
They're the most popular machine in the track loader category, many units were produced and sold.
DMiller will be along to comment on the Allis and the availability of parts. Pick a part, any part that is common to all brands of equipment. Next call the different dealers for the various brands and price the part. Also check the availability of aftermarket parts for the particular brand that you have in mind at the time. Aftermarket parts are just fine for a farm or ranch machine. Example, I just bought a front engine mount bushing for the 951-C . Four hundred dollars at Caterpillar. I paid less than sixty dollars at Off Road Equipment. There is not a lot of parts price difference in any of the Cat loaders that I mentioned above. Hours don't mean too much in an older machine. If it was and is well maintained it is going to be a better machine than the lower hour machine that was neglected. Really, you can't believe the hour meters that show low hours on a machine.
Yes Nitelite I will offer up some words of wisdom. The FA units are hard to find SOME parts for, if there is a reasonable unit near to you as a FL14 or a FL8 the parts are still out there mainly thru Minnpar in Minneapolis and rails can be had as the 14 interchanges to a Deere style(7.484) and the 8 to Cat(6.906). I have one of the more oddball units a 7G which by all tracking is one of the harder to find parts for and I still find pieces as needed. Lots of old FA units in the boneyards, pickings for used stuff gets lean but still there, many more sit on used equipment lots still functional. At a good buyer price a 1980's vintage machine will do for a good many years. If find one with the Allis Buda or Cummins are good, the Italian engines were not the best. In my case I found a decent donor machine for those parts no longer available and use it for spares. If you can handle all the extra levers Case loaders are not bad either, just as much a handful of controls as my old Allis.
I did what Nitelite recommended to see what parts are out there. I had several similar sized IH and Dresser loaders near me for a little less than what I paid for my Cat 933, but I have a Cat dealer less than 4 miles from me. I know that if I cannot get something aftermarket, I can always sell a a kid or two and go to the Cat dealer (plus I get to drool over the new stuff in their lot).
talked the person that has the FA FL-14C near me. H ants $7500 for it. Has not run it 3 years. Says everything works. Chains are shot but said they did not roll off when turning. I am going to go take batteries out and see if they will charge up. How is that price if all is as he says?
pictures of loader
I'll stick with my original advice. Again, pick a part and see if you can find it, then price it. Pick the same part for the Cat, check availability and price it. Then see if you are still interested in the Allice. Then go with your gut feeling and don't look back.
If it starts and at least moves with hydraulics function it is worth the $7500. From what I can see the shoes don't appear as skinned back as some and the sprocket has some tooth left, next step after start is to measure the rails, leading edge of one pin(any pin) to the leading edge of a fourth pin away from that one, should give a rough four link measure, divide that by four to get the wear average. Has been mistreated by appearance some, shields gone off recoil spring and drive hub deflectors, make certain all the rollers up and down roll free when moving. Cannot find a shoe width on these, measure across a shoe for width of track, most Deere rails of 7.484 use a 20". I do not quite understand the exhaust setup on this one either and does need the dust head for the air cleaner intake.
I asked why the hood and air cleaner top were off. The owner said that he hired someone to get it started. The person died before doing that so it was not started and put back together. The hood and air cleaner pieces are there. I removed the 2 12 volt batteries to charge them. One took a charge but one didn't. Will try to use the one big battery and a smaller amp hour battery to see if it will turn it over. It has segmented sprockets that the teeth have been built up with weld. the oil is about an inch high on the dipstick. Going to siphon some off the bottom of the pan to make sure it has not water in it. The hour meter shows a little less than 8000 hours. The shafts on the hydraulic cylinders have good chrome with no pits. The track shoes look good. The pins and bushings on the tracks are really the only bad looking part of the loader. I know squat about FA's but I am going to try tomorrow to get the beast started.
Just a heads up on machines(any machine) that has sat for extended time, lots of issues as seals seeping or just flowing leaking, loss of integrity in rubber components. These series tractors do have the Iveco engine but are not short on HP, hopefully it will start and you can see if worth anything. Really need matched batteries if at all possible, the low AH battery could cause it to low speed roll over, maybe not, it should still be 24V start charge. Checked Minnpar's site, do have parts manual online for these, is a little less user friendly than the old Allis books but is still well illustrated, if have a concern over some parts try a p/n search after peering thru the pages(slow download) on the site to see if they have on-hand.
Engine is froze. Oil in bottom of pan gray with a lot of sludge. Going to pass on it. Another big piece of iron bites the dust.
Just a scrapper parts machine now.