I am looking pretty hard at a CAT D6C with the 3306T engine. Serial number is 10k13318. I was wondering if there is anything specific (known problems with this model) I should look for. I am hoping someone out there has the measurements for the undercarriage. It is a 2 owner dozer and was farmer owned its entire life. It has 4,000 hours on it. Everything looks pretty good with it, I just like to have more opinions when making a purachse like this. I will post up some pictures and give me your honest feedback!
Here are some more...
Sorry for the upside down pictures...I don't know why it did that. I can re-post them if necessary.
The old D6C is pretty bulletproof, the biggest issue you might face is parts availability. Cat used to make parts forever, but have started with phazing out some of the older parts that don't have a good volume of sales. Pull some oil samples of the drivetrain, engine, trans, finals etc. See what kind of wear metal levels there are, will give you a good indication of something on it's way to failing. Well worth the money before you buy. Feel the bushings on the tracks for wear, maybe run the machine around a while and feel each bushing looking for hotter than the others, will indicate a dry joint.
It would be nice to have the mud off the frames but from what I the UC looks pretty good. UC and fuel are your biggest expence. That model of tractor is very good, tough, big enough to do a lot of work yet small enough to move easily. Pry the sprockets, side to side and look for play(hub bearings). Later Bob
I was worried about parts too, but I called CAT and they said they still have parts for it. Who knows what the future holds though. Time for a dumb question, where are the bushings at on the tracks? I know people talk about the pins/bushings but I didn't know what they were referring too.
Thanks for the tip!
Many parts now have been changed over to Classic(cat aftermarket) I would rather get good used cat original parts, lots of them around. Later Bob
pitch of track links is 8 inches I believe.
Looks like the head has been off as it's not painted. Might have a bottom roller leaking and looks like some rollers have been replaced (newer paint). You sure about the hours? Overall it looks to be in pretty good shape and that's a late serial no for a 6c.
Yair . . . d5cat The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. The bush is the component that fits into the teeth of the sprocket and is subject to external wear. The pin is the component on which the bush pivots and in this day and age runs in oil hence the acronym SALT tracks i.e. S ealed A nd L ubricated T rack. That's a tidy looking tractor and you have some knowlegable replies . . . you need to keep an eye on those top carrier rollers if you are working in that sort of clay. They need shoveling out or running through a puddle of water to keep them turning. It doesn't take long to wear a flat spot. Cheers.
Speaking of the head.Nearly every 3306 in a dozer has been replaced for some reason.I was working on a D6D about 3000HRS and the head and one piston had been replaced.I'm guessing maybe a dropped valve.My dad run a D6B that done this while in warranty.Still a good engine.
nice pics, thanks for sharing.
You have a good eye, the guy said some of the bottom rollers have been replaced recently. How big of a deal is the leaking roller? Are those supposed to be sealed or can it just be greased? I guess you can never be sure about the hours but if it was a farmer owned machine, it is believable. I had a 1973 D5 that only had 4000 hours when I bought it, and they had the maintenance records to prove it. This one doesn't have the maintenance records though so who really knows. This is going to be a farm dozer, so it is going to see some tree clearing, building terraces, and maybe a pond or two. I might put 100-200 hours on it a year.
Thanks for the reply. So why do people talk about the turning of the pins/bushings? How do you tell if they have been 'turned'?
d5cat, I didn't want to sound like I was nit-picking the machine...It looks pretty nice to me. Much better than mine when I got it. (had to do the head gasket on mine too...along with 100 other things....it has been used pretty hard) The bottom rollers are sealed full of oil...might run quite a while without problems. Most people just replace them when the bushings go out.
Feel, look, at the bushing, you will see wear where the bushing engages the sprocket,, then look 180 degrees from that wear point and see if the other side of the bushing has been worn. If it has then they have already been turned.
Oh, by the way I've machine ser. no. 10k12511 which I bought new in 1976 for 47,000 bucks... gramps.
You are not nit-picking at all. I didn't notice the leaking roller and that is why I posted all the pictures so you guys would catch stuff like that. Is it hard to replace those? I am guessing you have to take off the track.
Normally you can loosen the track and block it so the track slacks at the bottom. That usually gives enough room to pull a roller out.....IF the bolts will come loose. Be careful...lots of heavy steel that likes to smash fingers. Everyting on my 6c was very rusty and the rollers were poor so I took it to the track shop. They pulled the roller frames, flipped them over, and torched out the bolts. (Almost the worst one they'd ever seen) I put a good-used set of rollers on that should last as long as the rest of the undercarriage.
Overall great looking machine. The only issue I see other than the roller is sprocket looks to be worn which will wear the pins faster.
I noticed the sprockets look sharp and pointed (worn) also. The rest of the machine looks pretty good from here. The D6c is my favourite dozer I've had the opportunity to run. For me it is the "just right" size, not too big and not too small. I haven't had the opportunity to run them all, but if I found a D6c or d in good shape, locally and for a reasonable price I would be hard pressed to pass it up.
The sprockets didn't look too bad to me, but I don't know what the measurements should be on them. I can get some better pictures of them too. I am not sure what a fair price would be on the dozer...what would you think? I guess you are up in Canada so prices might be different.
Greetings from the great white north , yes I am from Canada and D6 dozers are common here as are D8's. I've seen D6c's for sale, anywhere from $10k to $30k around here is typical. Usually they all cost the same in the end, by the time you fix up a low priced tractor, you end up paying about the same as a clean unit. There are what appear to be some good deals in the US right now from what I have seen online, but the cost of transportation of a 20 ton tractor is a factor which needs to be considered. If you are not sure about the condition of the dozer, I would recommend you pay a heavy equipment mechanic experienced in working on dozers or your local Cat dealer to check out the machine and let you know how much it will cost in needed repairs and an estimate of how many hours you can hope to run it before major repairs are needed. On a dozer the most costly repairs are usually to the final drives and undercarriage. Good luck!
May be just the picture, but I thought the sroket looked good. Does the brass spittoon on the floor in the first picture come with the machine? That could be worth an extra few thousand. Nicer than the pop bottles of spit my guys leave around.
Yeah, I noticed the spittoon too Well I am heading down tomorrow to see the dozer first hand. I will take some more pictures of it and report back (including a couple more of the sprocket). As fate would have it, I just found someone else who also has a D6C for sale and it is on my way down to the other one. Lucky me, I get to test drive 2 of them tomorrow!
c's were a good tractor, motor is indirect injection, brakes are not boosted so you will have to have some pretty strong legs, transmission oil cooling was kind of an issue with this series tractor, D series addressed that. That seat was a killer for me. This tractor has no limb risers, you will need those, I would lose that skin kit. It looks like the rollers are getting close to hitting the rails. I would run it one hour and push to full load as constantly as you can without a break then check oil again, look for blowby etc, look underneath to see what is leaking and how bad. I imagine they want around $20G for this so I wouldn't waste any money on oil sampling, it is a 36 year old tractor, if it needs a trans you replace it with another one and go on. How loose is the blade? Expect your track frame wishbones to have a bunch of wear and it might not drive straight. I doubt the 4000 hour thing, maybe the hour meter turned over at 10K.
I appreciate everyone's response, it helped me greatly when looking over the dozer. There were several good points with the dozer, but in my opinion the bad outweighed the good. It had a significant transmission leak. It was down several gallons and was visibly dripping from the skid plate when just sitting there. I know these old tractors will leak some but I don’t feel like adding a gallon every 50 hours of use. It also had a leak in the left final drive. Of course I was told it was a ‘dry’ tractor. The hydraulics were ‘sluggish’ and the throttle would not stay wide open (it would creep back as you use the decelerator). The radiator was pretty mashed up on one side of it. The rails were worn, the sprockets were below 50%, and the top rollers didn’t look very good. It also had blow-by. Everyone who said it had more than 4000 hours was right…there was no way in hell it only had 4,000 hours on it. Maybe the seller just didn’t know better, but I feel he could have easily disclosed all these obvious problems. In many cases I asked specific questions and I found the opposite to be true. I wasted 8 hours of driving to see this machine and was pretty disappointed, especially given the price tag ($25,000). Again, many thanks to everyone for their advice!!
Sounds like you made a good call....there are lots of machines out there, just keep looking until you find the right one.
The machine had 11,300 hours on it when it was at a dealer in Springfield MO back in 2009. It has alot more hours than shown on the meter.
Wow, that is crazy. I tell you what, I am extremely happy I posted this on here. There were alot of good eyes out there pointing me in the right direction, thank you.
I found that finding a "good" old tractor was just about impossible. They all get used as hard as possible and this means wear. The older they get the more neglected the problems become till usually the number of problems equal selling or parting out, but almost never fixing it back up. I found a 6D that from a distance looks pretty good but there have been many issues-usually not very big-that I have had to address, trans pump, a zillion leaks(not all fixed, but it is getting there) new radiator, reman head, turbo, injection pump and injectors, rails, a/c compressor and hoses(yes it works very well now and does not leak down). The blade pins are really loose and so are all the cat ripper pins, bosses, haven't got to them yet. Now though, it runs very well, does not have one computer on it, and the trans cools fine on a hot day. I guess what I am saying here is if you really want to get an old tractor you will never know how much you will have to fix till you run it. I was lucky, finals do not leak, trans/torque is ok, motor does not use a bit of oil. One of these fails and repairs immediately will total in the thousands for each component, so purchase price must work for you if you factor this all in. Good luck, I would be glad to talk this over some more at length if you want..I do enjoy running this old girl.
a little late here but i would buy it just for the spitoon!!! thats classic farmer there..as far as turning pins&bushings, if they have been turned you will have wear where it doesn't contact the sprocket, the sprocket is what wears the bushing so they will "turn" the unused side down and the worn side away from where the sprocket touches it, this takes removal of chains from machine and taken to a large press to completely disassemble chain and reassemble again..................theironoracle
I've pretty much had the same experience as "olddirt"....I think I've literally worked on every major part of my D6c except for the trans and torque converter. The only way to find a "good" old tractor is to buy it from someone who bought one that needs work and spent time/money on it.
yeah theyre like the perfect woman they don,t exist. All these girls are basically 26 plus years old. Well mines a young one 1986 D6D. All you can do is look at them evaluate them, try and quizz the owner or owners; ask yourself how rich you are, or how clever with spanners are you; i was the later; and decide then weather to go or whoa. Plus side, no electronic poop, choice of genuine; classic; pirate; 2nd hand parts, all readily available, a good honest machine, fairly easy to fix, they still do a honest days work,easy to transport, and with a good operator will do most jobs asked of them. And at the end of the day what else is there to replace them with ?? Although this obviously depends on how deep your pockets are and how much workload you,ve got. I,d love a early 3306 powered D6R, but just can,t justify it. A wise man told me years ago, put some of your money into something other than machinery, otherwise one day all you will have is a mountain of scrap steel. Besides we all need some land to park them on and play on ! ! Anyway keep looking D5. Theyre out there; like good women im told, but theyve been abit more elusive to find for me anyway ! Cheers merv
From the picture,this dozer is still stronge,but as the olded one,you should consider the parts replacement problem.Is it easy to get the parts from your local place? If yes,that is good,we are the parts supplier for excavator and dozer. . Sometimes we have the parts the customer need,But it is too far from us,have to consider the delivery problem.Hope my suggestion is useful to you.
D6 merv..mine has serial # 4X9152. Like you, I have found parts for this tractor laughably cheap and easy to come by, repairs are quite easy to accomplish with only a moderate amount of AMERICAN tools mainly a 9/16, 3/4, and 1-1/8". undercarriage can be bought at whatever level of dollars/hour you want to spend, several places will send you a complete rebuilt ps transmission with core return for a very affordable cost, and replacement is not a big deal with a lift. I am surprised they don't still make one of these for the U.S. market. Probably would sell so many it would put their computer programmers out of work. The blade on mine has a lot of wear and has been sort of plated but not correctly, with two-1.5 foot wide steel planks that go clear across the blade. This works but I imagine without a curl on the first half of the blade dirt will fracture instead of peel and I know this takes more fuel. Someday I will fix that..
Gidday oldirt. yeah afaik they stopped making them stateside in 1986 when the H came out. Last D was 4X10629 But they kept making them in japan up till 96.Alongside with the D6H. Both mine are japanese 78 and 85 yr. They also obviously had a niche market for the D7G as last listed year of production i had was 2005 for 65V series in japan. Yeah mine still use good 'american' tools too even though made in japan ! Oh you forgot about the 15/16 ! ! Cheers from the bottom of the world mate ! merv
D6D pics
Hi Merv, Very nice tractors there, did you convert the scoop to hydraulic or is that one of blackmores ( I think that was there name ) old ones, They used to tow them behind d6h`s. We`ve got 2 up here set up the same as yours except one has a pcu instead of a logging winch. The pcu one tows a big cat 60. Brainzie
Hi Brainzie, no bought it converted; is a birtley 70 [cat built in pomland] ex hopper construction. Handles it ok, yeah a D7G/ D6H would be better, but if its difficult going i just 2/3 load it. Another contractor here when i was a kid towed a string 70 with a 76A D6C; loaded it ok too.
Nice scoops those, I thnk they`re better than the our cat 60 with the wider tyres, better floatation. Our one only has the same size tyres on the back as the front. Good in the clay but a bit of a #&*%# in soft ground.
whereabouts you hiding in nz brainzie ? You got any pics your girls ?
Up Whangarei area
Hi Brainzie. Both tidy looking tractors. see theyve got to side covers, where they both sold NZ new ? Don,t know who,s they were originally do you ?. Wasn,t many new ones sold up there. Bob schmansky got one, and john leathwick got his D5B when i worked up there in the mid 80s. Both mine were japanese imports. Still 31X series but only had the short engine covers. One with winch is a PC model others DI.
The one with rippers was Jan Mooreheads and we got the other one from roadstone. both are 31x both around 79 models I think. About this time last year we just rebuilt the motor on the one with tha cable control, Thats when the front sweeps were made up and the engine side panels went on, we just got those form that fulla that wrecks gear at Paeroa off a bush riged one there. The one with rippers has had them from as long as I can remember Jan owning it. John still has that D5b, Was Lyndsy Sterling at goughs when you were there.
I am with you Merv. I can definitely live with some problems, but most of the machines I have looked at have more problems than I know how to fix. Unfortunately, getting people that know how to work on these old girls isn't easy...and my wallet isn't big enough to call CAT out to work on it. That is a really nice looking D6D you have there!!
Hey oldirt, I just noticed you are from Iowa too. What part of Iowa are you from?
Well I figured I would keep everyone updated on my quest for a dozer. I got a line on a nice looking 1993 D5H XL. It is quite a bit more expensive than some of the older girls I have been looking at. Do any of you guys have experience with the D5H models? I will be sure to post up pictures of it when I go see it. Also, is there a good place to look up U/C measurements? Usually I can eye-ball it and get a general idea, but I wouldn't mind putting a tape measure and caliper to it.
You can get the new specs for it at your local Cat dealer so you can measure it and see where you're at on wear. Ask for your PSSR (Product Sales and Support Rep) for your area and tell him or her that you're looking at a machine to buy. They (PSSR) are a wealth of information at certain times.
D5cat..little ways north of sidney.. you?