Okay, I run a small two-three man logging operation in Ohio. Untill now I have been skidding my timber out with a 795 farmtrac 4x4 Tractor and a Case 450 track loader. The Track loader is no more as I sold it this weekend at a little profit, I have been needing an actual 6 way blade dozer for some time now and have finally saved the funds to buy one in cash. I ran into what seems to be a good deal on a 1980 Fiat Allis FD7. Now i know this is alot bigger of a dozer than my old little loader but would you call it to big to skid with ? It also has the forestry package and winch but he said the winch is not working at the time being. So my questions would be this. #1 How reliable are fiat allis dozers ? FD7's to be precise? #2 What kind of money could i run into trying to fix the winch? ( not knowing whats wrong with it exactly) #3 Are parts still readily available for it? #4 Is it to big for my needs in your opinion? Basically any info on Fiat Allis dozers and fd7's particularly would be of great help ! Going tuesday to pick it up. Thanks in advance.
I am by no means a fiat allis expert. But if I were you I would try my best to stick with caterpillar or john Deere. Cat first..... Especially in older equipment. Cat parts are plentiful....even on old equipment. Lots of aftermarket sources and salvage yards. Cat parts are often interchangeable with other models. Cat has a modular approach to many parts. I have had allis charmers and fiat based motor graders...and used to mess with a few old dozers. Lots of power but crude and I would have to look forever for parts and also wait forever once I found a part. The more you money you sink into the machine .....the more you'll justify to yourself that you need to keep it. Mechanics are more familiar with cat or Deere. Mostly cat. Banks will loan on cat or Deere faster and easier. Many people think cat is too expensive when purchasing.....but you'll more than make up for that when spending money on repairs and parts..... And if you change your mind and want to sell it......it's hard to offload a fiat. The more that time passes by....the more rare and odd a fiat becomes.... I hate to be a Debby downer about fiat......sorry. I always heard the saying Fix It Again Tony as an acronym for fiat! That's just my opinion. Hope I haven't insulted anyone.
Hate to say it being we sold a few of these but stay away from the Fiat machines parts what there are becoming hard to find. Now if you could find a old Allis Chalmers you would be better off there are many more parts around for them.
I own a Allis which is basically Fiat Allis today, parts are scarce, rails are non-existent, a lot of high wear components are no longer available at all either reman or new and used is tightening up as we write. As stated, Deere or Cat better options.
Thanks guys, I pushed it off until Thursday after I decided to think about it a little longer. I did a general search on some undercarriage parts for it and came up empty handed which kind of made me timid about it. I am a small operation so downtime for me can mean a make it or break it situation. I need something that parts are readily available for. I also think its a tad big for what I need to do. I am going tomorrow to look at a case 450C. I know parts are easy to get for them and priced decently as well,and its quite a bit smaller than the FD7. From what I understand, the 450C has the Cummins engine which I like, and it also has the donut style torque converter which can be replaced for around 400 bucks.
As others have posted the big issue with Fiats/Allis of that kind of era is not "are they good or bad" but getting parts for them. They are probably no better or worse than many other machines that were around at that time, the issue is if you can't get parts (esp. undercarriage) you can't keep anything rolling.
I agree with these guys. Last job I had we ran a bunch of fiat tractors. 7's, 14's, 145, 175's, 255. They were good machines and not bad to work on but we had to start buying salvage tractors to keep them going. And more times than not whatever we had wore out was also wore out on the donor. It just became a big hassle, and what parts we could get were astronomical.