Well, another purchase i wanted to make went way over my head. People have more money then brains these days. Was looking at the classifieds and came across a track loader, a size smaller then one i use at work during the summer time. It's a 953c, i don't know if they came in a waste-handler model, but if it did this is most definitely that. A 4 in 1 bucket with a Guard on the top, track pads with the holes to eject mud and debris, cleaner bar on the back by the final drive. It was put on a classifieds close to me, but turns out it's in Alberta north of Edmonton. It has 13,000 hours, which feels like a lot, but he said it had $25,000 in hydro-static work done. Told me that this was government owned and operated in a landfill. Anyone around the Edmonton area available to take a look at it? Unless everyone thinks its a money pit. Here's a couple videos of what i do during the summer time, excavate paved back alleys. http://youtu.be/5ruwJQIA77o http://youtu.be/OAPoc_gpt-I http://youtu.be/dLihZqnUx4k
13,000 hours is a lot of hours for a machine that size. It would have to have been really well taken care of to still be reliable everyday at that age.
There is a waste handler arrangement available from Cat for 953's. One thing to keep in mind is a landfill is a very, very harsh environment for a machine to work in. At 13K hours, I'd walk away.
There is a lot of heavy rust on it. That tells me they have not been using it for some reason or reasons. I would be ahead of CM1995, I'd be running not walking away from it.
If the machine was used in an industrial or MSW landfill there are all sorts of nasty, caustic things that can come to rest in the belly pans that wreaks havoc on metal.
Good point, after seeing leaching coming from our landfill, purple and neon green water coming out could imagine what that ones gone through. I found a more local 973a but one drive motor is gone out of it. I was debating on going to take a look at it, it's a 1984 CAT 973, the first model, and it has a ripper, double grouser pads(need some material added) and a GP bucket. It's hard to find any track loaders around that's what I want, but dozers are a lot more common. If I could I would take the CAT 963d I used during the summertime! But someone already bought it from the dealership we leased it from. To get a drive motor rebuilt on our Wilmar high clearance sprayer it cost $2,500 a piece. If that's all it would cost to get the one on the 973 rebuilt I might think about this one. $10,000 is what he's asking but I wouldn't pay anything near that I was thinking more so around $5,000. I'd write the check right now for its worth in scrap but it's looking in alright shape except the undercarriage getting a little thin. the ad mentions something about 6300 hours don't know if that's on the motor or the unit as a whole or if motor replaced at 6300.
Final drive or drive motor? Either one is going to be way more than $2500 to replace. Just guessing on a 973A but I'd say $6-8K for a final and $10-12k for a drive motor, although I may be way off.:beatsme An undercarriage for a '53 will run $15K with OEM Cat parts last time I had it quoted.
It'd like to pay scrap price for it but I know that wont happen. What would you think a used drive motor or final drive would cost? Are the 63 and 53 interchangeable with the 73? I found the classified ad again. http://www.kijiji.ca/v-heavy-equipment-machinery/swift-current/cat-crawler-loader/1054038427
we bought a used final drive for an 86G 973 about 6 months ago, paid 7500.00 for it with 90 day warranty. it was a good used take off that had been inspected and resealed.
Also, the 53 and 63 are definitely not interchangeable with a 73.
Can you access the drive motor from underneath the unit on these? Or do you have to take the track group and final drive off to get at it.
So got in contact with the guy on the 973. So he said the track loader has 6300 hours total, had the dealership out in July last year they rebuilt the other drive motor, then two months the other one crapped out, they got the dealership to come out and the service mechanic thinks it was drive motor. The undercarriage was around 50% according to serviceman. Anyone think it would be worry it to buy a replacement drive motor? Does one need to press off the final drive to get at the drive motor?
Drive motor drops out the bottom ask what the other side cost ?
He said it cost $25,000. But by the sounds I it they had the dealership come get it with a trailer and then sent it to the city to get worked on. I don't know what else was done at the time. I seen on a parts website a drive motor was $7,500 through them. 6,300 hours isn't too bad I don't think. Undercarriage 50%, I should ask him if the bushing have been rotated yet.
Can't speak on price of drive motor. I'd inspect equaliser bar ends, center pin, pivot shafts, track adjusters,idler guards/brackets,lower bucket pins sprocket segment hardware( are the welded on or bolts falling out). A 973 is good machine but there not cheep to maintain. A new ones like 400000 so be prepared for major repairs along the way. Most likely you got between 1000 and 2000 hours left in undercarriage in normal conditions if that's and accurate evaluation.
Is there any common problems on these first generation units other then the drive motors?
Hi just thinking after reading your posts, what are you planning to do with your new track loader as it seems to be a big gap from a 953c and a 973! Not the sort of loader that you would just tidy up a back yard with! ?
We have a few projects on our farm. Over a mile of creek needs to be cleaned up deepened. A few old building burried, land cleared along fence line, and loading gravel into our belly dump to bring to the yard, my dads friend has a gradall that he said he could use help on some jobs. But main thing is I want to approach a potash mine to offer services stripping too soul for lease sites and anything else. I do excavation on back alleys with undergrounds during the summertime so I'm confident in my abilities. I just use a lot newer 963d which is a Cadillac. There's not much for selection on track loaders up here theyre such s versatile machine I find it weird no one has them. A 4 in 1 bucket would be a Swiss Army knife of machinery on a track loader.