Been reading posts here that came up on Google. Registered today and new to this forum. I have a ranch and have a gov contract to take out my overgrowth of Cedar trees. I bought a Link Belt 240 XL excavator, too slow to cover the 1500 acres of cedars. So, i am taking on a D9H 1977 with a cab and ripper which will help ripping shale to pile up in my shale pit. It (Dozer) has a big 15 foot blade. Dozer is in need of paint but mechanically sound. If anyone wants to reply to my D9H purchase please do so. I live and operate in far Western Oklahoma near the “Antelope Hills.” This is a very knowledgeable forum.
If you're going to be ripping you need to do a really good inspection of the machine. There are some very knowledgeable members on here on big older machines like D9H's.
First thing you probably need is a full set of three manuals, Operation, Parts, & Service. Do you have any yet.?
Nige I have checked my online sources and have found where they can be bought. I want to make 100% sure the one i am looking at turns out to be OK before i buy the manuels. Understand the risk involved with these machines. And i am not an expert on them by any means. Kinda Scary to say the least but the big girls have my attention knowing the smaller dozers have less Risk overall.
Start with a Serial Number. That should guarantee being able to identify the appropriate manuals for that particular tractor. There are a number of manuals sold online (often from Eastern Europe) that are supplied as Adobe pdf files on a memory stick. Often they are not what they claim to be but simply a mish-mash of documents culled from Cat's online system. Additionally some of the paper aftermarket manuals sold in the US are also not too clever either. Genuine manuals are usually NOT cheap but unfortunately they are the only ones you can really rely on.
Yes Sir: I agree on that for sure. I am looking at the Original Manuals and have seen real cheap manuals that threw a flag at me for being so cheap and not looking like the originals. Yes sir i have noticed the serial numbers on the front of each manual and have a pretty clear assessment of the manual needed and they match the serial number also. Thanks for the tips Nige! Keep em coming! Jbm
Nothing gets my allergies wound up like cedar does. Maybe ragweed. Welcome to the forum, where’s your prospective dozer located? Maybe somebody on here is close and can take a look with you or for you.
Welcome Honky Cat - First thing you find with BIG dozers, is repairs normally cost BIG money! So you'd better be making MAKING Big money with it! Second, you'll find that new parts for 1977 model Cats - and especially the big old Cats, are getting rarer and rarer. Third, you better make sure those final drives are in EXCELLENT condition, before you lash out and start doing heavy ripping and dozing big trees. The big tractors such as the D9H always have a history of being bought to put into the hard, heavy work! - and a result, they nearly all have had a long hard life. The final drives in the D9H are a planetary-style reduction gear setup, and they are BIG dollars when they blow!
And need BIG tools. I hope your toolbox is up to snuff.
Thanks for the Flowers!! I appreciate your friendliness! Altogether we can survive this Unknown World we are not familiar with! Respectfully Jbm
Thanks Nige!! My lovely wife say i have the toolbox. Respectfully Jbm
I would hate to see the fuel bill clearing 1500 acres with only the blade of a D9H. It would not be cost effective. Now 2X D9H with some decent chain between the two. Get it done in a couple of big days most likely.
Yes Sir I agree! I bought a Link-Belt 240 Lx Excavator 1 year ago and have knocked out a big area with it. My thinking is that with this Big Girl (D9H) and the excavator we can gain alot better kill than with just the excavator(It moves alot slower than the D9H). The D9H has a 15 foot blade on it. I want to put a big 15 foot rake on it to keep from tearing up as much earth. Heck i have a gov contract and it pays $150,000 when completed. The money keeps me motivated more than ever. I hope to be done around December31. Thanks for the interest! Keep them coming. Jbm
Here are some pics of my excavator getting som big ones. I like tge excavator because i can go with bucket in behind them and completely uproot them for 100% kill. Cedars are taking Oklahoma by storm and they suck up to 50 gallon of water per day taking mousture away from the grass and aquifers. This is a simple gig. Just stay after them every day possible.
If you had a big chain you could drive in an arc up to maybe 270 deg's. with 1 end hooked to the stationary excavator.
D9H with V shear blade would be the fastest.
Finding one for for a D9H might be a challenge. I think he'd prefer to up root them than shear them off. The long chain would be probably be the fastest unless the tree's were too big and too dense to rip up several at a time.
Never thought of that? I wonder whether this style would just cut them off or uproot them? I have to get the root ball out and layed on the ground or it still sucks water everyday. I proved this by ripping out old stumps that werent ripped out, just sawed off and believe it or not those big roots were full of water. Thats why i have to get them uprooted. Thanks for the idea! Wish i had 2 Big Girls now instead of the excavator. However i have cleared over 600 acres with the excavator. Just need more help is why the D9H is hopefully coming to help. I also know that the D9H is overkill for this project, but i have always looked gor an excuse to own the Dozer that built the U.S.A. Thanks again!
Plus if i find a big rake to go on the D9H i can travel right through the thickest growths (They are thick in places) and not tear up as much ground. Its sandy loam, pretty good soil and they will pop right out if done right. Plus i have to gather and stack piles of them and wait for the first snow then burn them all up. These cedars are not good for posts or i would salvage the big ones. They are not like the red cedars in Texas that make great corner posts.
You could look at D8's too. A guy with a big ranch up here was almost jumping out of his pants when he bought a 1980 Terex 82-50 (D9 size) in surprising good condition for $16,500cad. at RB's. It was the first machine loaded on one of the haulers (advertising at the auction) big trailers after the auction for that day ended. Someone else mentioned he had 1500 acres or something like that. When they were driving the dozer up to the ramp he was asking if the steering worked good and it did. Apparently it's normal for Detroit 2 strokes to not show much oil pressure at idle. It was a nice looking dozer. Only apparent issues were a chunk broke out of 1 track pad and the lift cylinder creeped. The undercarriage looked pretty recent like less than 25% worn.
I have a large rake (very heavy duty) made by Holt Caterpillar in SanAntonio Tx that fits a cat D8r, of course it can be retrofitted to fit anything. If interested, drop me a PM.
Get someone knowledgeable to inspect the machine. As mentioned those final drives can be a fortune to repair. A newer elevated drive machine is far easier to repair.
Dave I agree on that post for sure. I appreciate the information. I am having a mechanic check out the D9H this coming Monday. it has been sitting over a year, started and tracked every week or 2, The farmer I am buying from is fixing the only valve cover leak it has and it is from dry gaskets. Going to put on new gaskets and check the Planetary drives for me and overall check the condition all over. The Farmer I am buying from is straight and upfront on everything about this Girl. I told him if this was a problem Dozer I reserved the right to have it shipped back to him for a full refund and the return shipping is on him. He agreed. I cannot distrust a guy like that, he has had 3 of them in the past and his main deal is to collect them then sell them. He just sold a D9G and he said it was iffy at best needing many changes. The one I am on(D9H) is the best one he has had. It is not perfect, surface rust on the cab, not deep salt rust eating holes anywhere. I will sand, prime, then paint her back to glory. It will have a retirement job with me, no more extra heavy work, just idling around wiping out Cedar trees. Dig out a few ponds, pull a deep plow clearing shennery, etc....Just basic Farm work. No Hoover Dam type work at all. I am 67, had a quintriplett Heart bypass last year, I feel better now than I have or can ever remember. I wish you were in Oklahoma I would hire you to mount some of those tree rails over the hood and cab. Thanks Dave!
Glad I could help I guess, I didn't do much. Knowing the seller has had a few D9's kind of as a collector sounds good. If he'll sign something basically giving you a warranty if there's a major problem is fantastic. It sounds like a really good machine. The one thing you don't want to have to do is replace the undercarriage. That would cost a fortune. You don't want to have to repair the machine that built America.
Welder Dave: You are right on for sure! I don't want to have to redo anything on the Old Girl! However, as you said maintenance and fuel are big enough costs, which are mandatory in my case. We grease everyday, and tighten tracks already on our excavator,as needed, which this D9H is a much larger project. But it is coming for one thing, and that is to have a reliable machine that crawls through the THICKEST BRUSH and makes mince meat of it. I hope that I get to hear that Big Girl start up every morning that we need her and man she sounds like Howitzers going off "Popping and Blowing" every start! A real sound of America! THANKS DAVE HAVE A GREAT DAY! By the way I have 2 -60's SAE 200 pipelines and need to move one of them. (Redface) See Ya- Honky Cat
I had a 59 SA200, still had the hand crank and everything. Some sorry piece of you know what stole it. What are you asking for the one?
Sorry to hear about your loss! Sounds like hou had a nice welder? Hope the authorities gind it for you. I will take $6,000.00 for the 200 SAE Lincoln Redface. It has the doors on both sides and is on a nice single axle trailer. Thanks so much gor your interest! Honky Cat Oklahoma
There are others who also contributed and know a lot more about costs of running big dozers. I have a 1961 Canadian SA200. It sounds like the one you have for sale is pretty cherry. You might want to join the Welding Web and put it in the buy and sell forum. A refurbished red face on a trailer recently sold around the price of yours. SA200's with the standard straight pipe have a very sweet bark that you can instantly recognize. Some would scoff at mine because it has an under hood muffler.
Whats a dde?
Mine welds and lays a pretty bead smooth as butter melting! Unbelievable! Thanks for asking Sir! Honky Cat
Mine has a smooth continental gas engine! Did you mean Detroit Diesel by the term: DDE?
They all have 4 cylinder Continentals and they do weld very smooth. There's a reason they are still in demand. I accidently hit DDE and post reply and then went back and edited it.
Again WHAT is DDE?????
Nige, Dave, Everybody else i have a question for you: How do you check the planetaries on the D9H? Is a magnet in the oil the only way looking for alot of metal? Or any other way other than tearing them down which is expensive. Thanks Honky Cat
You can do an oil sample from both final drives , SOS kits are cheap enough . If the oil is new that won't help much . Look for a wide deference between the sample results . Won't be so easy to suck a sample if 80-90 oil is in the finals , easy enough to remove a drain plug and catch some . Give the dozer a walk to stir the oil up a bit first . If you have 1500 acres to do the Govt money won't go far @ 100 dollars per acre paying only part of the fuel if the cover is more than just a few trees per acre . If your intent is to develop a farm then it would be a welcome help no matter what they would pay . I can't get trees down with a blade or a gravity roller in anywhere near an hour , closer to two . Plenty of stems per acre as in solid canopy mine though and sloped
Yes sir we were going to drain oil and check for metal, but the sample kit is a cheap way of knowing pretty exact where we are. The Ranch is 3000 acres total. Been in my Family for over 150 years which my Family settled 1873 which was before Statehood. Indian Territory was what our area was called before being named Oklahoma. The story says when my earliest Family settled on this ranch the neighbors came and helped them dig and build their Adobe Dugout and told them the Indians would come and burn them out and kill everyone there. Well, we are still there and doing well, when it rains. I have a nice Link Belt 240XL excavator. It has already dug out over 600+ acres of Cedars. This Big Girl will have an easy job pushing out 15 foot wide swath of trees to supplement the project. I understand the economics and figures you put together for analysis. There is more to this than i have explained. Plus this Big Girl will also pull a big deep plow and kill large acres of Shennery, which is a Black Jack genetic makeup of Shennery. You have to deep plow to clear large acreages of Shennery. Then run through it with a rake and pile up large piles of roots and then either pack some home(Great Smoking Wood) for smoking Briskets and Ribs, etc, or burn them like the cedars. The soil is a great soul called sandy loam. It will grow anything from Wheat to Alfalfa even Green Chiles will prosper. So this is a one time project to set the ranch up with land that has been cleared rather than how it is now. I like working like this because we can take off anytime to travel or do other things. We raise the better Registered Black Angus and Alfalfa and Oat hay. Lot of work, but so far it all makes our living. Thanks for the information regarding this project. I appreciate all the help i can get. This Forum is second to none in my opinion! Respectfully: Honky Cat
Fat fingers hitting the wrong letters on my phone.
I've not heard of shennery. I tried looking it up with no luck.
Read the manual then pull the filters. Then pull the fill plugs. Stand back. If oil erupts out the fill plug hole, your duocone seals are shot. When you pull the drain plugs, take a sample. If there's chunks of metal flowing out the drain or in the drain pan, you won't have to send the sample to the lab. When you replace the oil, read your manual first. Look for a priming procedure and follow it. Cheaper than replacing the finals after filling with new oil and filters.
You definately know the deal!! Thanks Chuck! I dont have my manual yet, but will soon! You mean the 2 engine filters? I dont have my 3 manuels yet. Thanks again! Honky Cat
The finals on the D9H are pressure-lubed and have an oil pump and filters. https://ccmodels.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/D9H_Spec_Sheet.pdf
Interesting they came with only a 19 amp standard alternator. Even the optional 50 amp seems small by today's standards.
Nothing to do but charge up the batteries for the next start or run some headlights at night. There are enough daylight dozing hours IMO, although I was on an 8 and 9 on a swing shift before.
I guess. No electronics to power.
Good evening Honky. I have owned quite a few big tractors of various ages.Anything is a gamble unless buying new.You’ll find plenty of issues with an old 9H,but many will not require too much attention. Operating the beast on bottom gear only will be your friend here.Keep a clean radiator,new Cat fanbelts and a good service and it may just be ok. Oil samples could leave you a merry dance on a tractor that’s been stood as long as yours has.Cutting open filters is a better guess in my opinion. Pictures are a must. You can tell a good few things of close up pictures. One thing that does bother me though,is you stated your farmer friend has started it up and moved it around every couple of weeks or so over the last year it’s been parked up?
Thanks Sir for helping! Yes Sir he has kept the batteries up and circulated the fluids throughout his ownership. He pushed a little dirt not 10-12 hrs. Per day. I just found out the tractor is a one owner and my farmer that has it bought it from the 1 owners family. It has not been worked he told me like a big project company would. The 1 owner passed away last year. I hope that he maintained it well? My froend is calling the previous owners son and going to report to me based on what he knows. Hopefully we will know more. I caught a great YouTube video on the owner JPaydirt going over a DH9 that he purchased. Man that old Girl was in alot worse shape cosmetically than the one i am getting. He had to change the Air Filter part that holds tge big filters. He had to do alot to his but he is a genuine cat owner and does his own mechanics on all machines. I bope he answers my email and like all on this forum can help me by going through the steps to getting mine right, if it has alot of thing wrong like his did. I appreciate you info very much! Honky Cat I will post pics soon as i get her home.
For big clearing and dirt, I'd want a D375. Old D8's and D9's are good for folks like me that just likes them as a hobby of sorts. That one sounds like it maybe okay, but when something breaks the parts are the issue. I'm sorry but I just can't see paying more than 27k tops for those old things. Some good ones went cheaper than that at an auction close to me some months ago, I didn't know about it till days after. Yeah expensive hobby in many ways.
Yes they are getting harder to find. I know thai i dont need the old girl compared to the ines you mentioned. But, She needs me. Thanks and keep em going! Honky Cat
Tctractor's and nicky 68a can likely help you with any issues you run into and give the best advice to keep the machine working for the longest time without abusing it
Thanks Dave! I appreciate their and anyones input! I can tell that this aint their first rodeo! I can tell from some videos on youtube that what these guys say is right in line with other specialist. Thanks Dave! Hinky Cat
No problem. LoL Glad I could help you. There are other's but those 2 have a ton of experience with the big Cats.
Believe me i appreciate them for sure! As the Great Yogi Berra once said: “It aint bragging if you can do it” Thanks Again Dave!
I will have plenty of pictures to share using my new toy, Iphone 15 Pro Max i just traded for today. I cant believe how good quality the few pics i took today!
I apoligise for the 2 pics. I meant to put the thumbnail for this pic. The bigger one appeared above it so i will figure out what i done wrong. My apoligies for the wasted bandwidth i caused. Honky Cat
No need to apologize. It's an awesome picture!
I think it would have looked good with any style camera or phone. Heck it looked so much better than my old iphone 11 produced i thought i would share. Thanks Dave! Honky Cat
GodsDozer I just found your reply. I am very interested in the big rake!!! Please contact me Honky Cat
Look at the envelope at the very top of the page. That's where you can send a private message (PM) to another member or receive a PM from a member. It will show when you have a PM the same as right beside it shows if someone has reacted or replied to one of your posts.
Sorry i am late on yhis! Its a wild growing kind of blackjack type of oak that will take over like Cedars. Its everywhere in Western Oklahoma. Honky Cat
Thanks a Million for this great read! Honky Cat
What a Gig!!! Keep her moving!! Honky Cat
Get with me on the Big Rake!! Please post a pic of it if you have one.? Thanks Honky Cat
I sent you a private message. Thanks
Glad to meet you today Godsdozer! We will get down there soon to see you! Honky Cat
Sounds good.
Yessssir!