I am going to look at two dozers tomorrow and was wondering if anyone her has ran them. One is a case 1999 650 GLT with 3200 hours a recently replaced tracks, sprockets and blade bushings. The other is a 1996 cat d3c series III with 3000 hours and a recently replaced undercarriage and a 3 point ripper on the back. From the pictures both look to be in about the same condition and both are asking the same price ($35000). The case is at a dealer and and has been checked out says it should be good to go for a while. The cat is a private party sale and the only thing I see wrong from the pictures are one leaking angle cyl. and the steering pedals are about a half an inch difference in height (hopefully this is just an adjustment). The cat dealer said he would come out and look it over for me if I wanted because he wants to sell the guy a new one with a cab when this one is sold. The main use will be cleaning up around a farm. By looking at the specs it appears the case may be a little better. When I asked the case dealer he said the case had stronger hydraulics than cat and the two speeds per gear meant you could do full power turns. The cat does come with rippers which would be handy. Anybody have any opinions on prices of these machines assuming they are in good condition? Personally I think they are both a little high compared to what others are going for at auction around the country but there are not many machines locally that are reasonably low hours with a good undercarriage. Anything $20,000 and under I see will need and undercarriage in a few hours. Thanks
All I can say about the Case dozer is they have rock solid tranny's. Basically did not change them a whole lot from the E series. The 4T-390 engine was a good engine as well. The 650G will have the smaller 7mm injectors than the older 4T-390 with 9mm, no head cracks. We have lots running around here with well over 10,000 hours. As far as price they are running about $23,000-29,000 Canadian here so you are in the ball park I guess. I guess the final decision would be how good is the Case service and parts vs Cat. If it's the same you probably can't go wrong with either one but if one of them has terrible support that would give me my answer.
You really need to keep looking. Both of those machines are WAY overpriced IMO.