Going back through some old brochures and looking at used dozers I'm wondering why Case dozers with the power turn didn't come to dominate the market or at least get a bigger share especially in the utility dozer segment 10-20k lbs, was it just that the powerturn feature wasn't all it was cracked up to be or useful, or they didn't get the word out, or did it have problems? Been looking for a finish dozer and thinking I couldn't go wrong with a 550e for example with the 4-390 engine (to match my 580e) but figured I'd pick folks brain on how handy the feature and the dozers actually were. Have a 70's D3 I also have an in on, that I'm considering that was my grandfathers. Thanks Erik
If its talking about the 2 speeds for turning, they are pretty maneuverable little machines. Also they and all the fancy diff steer dozers just prove the old fashioned way was just as good doing powered turns. I hate the diff steer dozers. They turn too slow, especially for clearing and cleaning the debris for chipping, also most of them lockup with engine off.
My guess it was the lack of marketing, but Case did some strange things like having hydraulic angle with manual tilt, just crazy ****.Other than that they were a good tractor once you got used to them
They are and were a good machine for the money, especially the later models (450C with the GBE serial prefix and up and all 550/650 up) that had the Cummins, wet brakes, modulation on the transmission, etc. Power turn is useful in some but not all circumstances. With a full blade and a hard push it's only marginally better than standard steering, but with a light load it works great. It also turns the machine at just the right angle so if you angle the blade fully to one direction and power steer that direction the blade makes a perfectly clean sweep around the outside. Handy for finish work and cleaning up inside small areas. I have a Case 450C wide track, 1987 vintage that I like a lot. It's well balanced, pushes well, easy to work on and easy to haul. Mine has the ~9' wide blade and 20" pads, great finish dozer and hangs on hills very well. On this and later models with wet brakes you can run them just like a standard pedal steer dozer or use the hi-lo power turns. FWIW I also have a Case 480E backhoe and 1854C skid steer and there is a lot of interchangeability in parts between them, same would be true with a 580E or 580K.
Also as to their popularity, it may be regional but around here almost 80% of the 450-550 sized dozers or track loaders from the '70s and 80's were either Case or JD. Case was a pretty big player in the small dozer market back then. You'd see some D3, D3B, 931B Cats but not a lot. Once you got up to the D5B, D6D, 953 size Cat pretty much ruled the market.
The Case 1150 counter rotation feature is unique. Mainly used in very tight locations, such as selective logging.
IIRC Terex made a few with that feature, or maybe just the big one with Dual 6-71 Detroit's.
Seems I remember a 450 with dry brakes. If a pair of the levers accidentally got in neutral on the slope, it went downhill backwards at warp speed until it hit something to stop it.
All Case 450, 450B, and 450C (made before ~'86-87) had dry brakes. Starting with the 450C with the serial # prefix GBE, had wet brakes, as did all the subsequent models.