Hello everyone,im looking to convert my 955k bucket over to a blade.Has anyone ever done this or have any ideas on what I should do?
you could pin something on that gives you a blade, but there really is no converting a rigid frame crawler loader to a dozer. It won't have track oscillation, and It has narrower tracks to fit inside the cut the bucket makes. what are you wanting to do that it can't do now?
Ive already cleared out 5 acres,stumps,rocks everything off the top ,now I have to grade it all out lots of high and low spots,much easier to do it with a blade
Heres a picture of my 955k
She’s a helluva rig.
Do you have a third valve on it? I would want a 6 way blade. Trouble is it would take a lot more work than makes sense. A bolt on makes sense, even then it would be hard to do more than roughing out flat. Even then it would be a lot of extra work and $. This is a poor example of a home made Q-tach strait blade. www.ironplanet.com/for-sale/Crawler-Loaders-1973-Cat-977L-Crawler-Loader-Alberta/5837464?h=5000%2Cq%7C1973+977&rr=0.5&hitprm=&pnLink=yes
you might want too contact Spyros33 he did a major overhaul on a 955 and added a front dozer blade HeavyEquipmentForums
I'm guessing you want to end up with something like this?? I will take some better pics of the backside of the blade
Hey bam looks original where did you find it?
The blade was modified to fit the loader. I bought the machine from a local contractor with that blade and a bucket. He has run 977's for years and knows them inside and out. In my area loaders with blades on them are pretty common. When building terraces from the bottom side with a regular dozer you tend to bring alot of dirt back down with you on each push. Where as using a loader you have the ability to get rid of all of the dirt where you want it.
If you look in the back of your parts book they're may be the blade set up Cat sold for those loaders. It was a C frame manual tilt and angle blade. The trunion ball mounts had to be welded to the track frame. If I were you I would rent a late model dozer and be done with that project be fore you could find any info on a blade setup. Bad Bob
Nice looking Ride!! It has the newer cab but older roll over protection. How wide is the blade? It seems a waste when I use my 8' 4in1 as a dozer, but still handy.
It is a homeade cab not exactly sure who built it. I believe the blade is 11 1/2 ft wide.
Cab looks darn good. Single grousers, big blade bam, bam how much of a bite can you push in 2nd gear once its loaded up? Did you have to modified those pads? Must rip up the ground something fierce on soft ground!!!
I don't have that particular machine anymore. Been running a little newer one (14x serial #). The one pictured seemed to have a little more power than the current one. It would push a blade full in second gear easy enough. As for the pads, IIRC they were originally 20" and they had torched an inch off the inside for clearance to make them 19".
Did you sell the blade with it? It would be nice to have the blade option if the change over wasn't too difficult. Hanging a hoist off another machine might be ok if you had a way to park it proper. Did the little wider tracks ever make using the bucket difficult by making you ride up on the dirt? Do you like the 977's a lot or would you like a 963/973 better?
The blade went with the machine. If things go smoothly it takes about a half hour to change them by myself. Level ground is your friend when switching them out. I don't think the tracks were wider than the bucket. If they were it wasn't by much. About 20 years ago I worked for a local contractor/farmer that had an early model 973 that had a blade on it. I ran it for about 3 years until he decided to retire due to his health. It worked very good building terraces. Looking back I should have bought it but I guess I was just scared of the hydrastat trans probably because he was constantly telling me how much it would cost if that trans would go out..... I would like to try a 963D mainly for the 7 roller undercarriage vs the 6 roller on the earlier models
I have terraces and a couple of switch backs to do a 12 foot blade would be nice!! I tried out a early 973 10-12 years ago I think it was only $8500, pretty worn out. Nice view from the seat lots of power, $12500 asking price. Funny what can happen when your heading for the parking lot. I'm curious what the extra roller would do for the 963D. Not that I have the money 963B and earlier if any. The 963C why oh why did they leave out the hinge over cab...... think, think!!!!
Look for a straight blade off of an old D7. Make it to mount on your 977. Then either find some single grouser pads or weld some grouser bars on your pads and you will be all set to go. I would go with a 963B if I could find a decent one. But they are getting pretty old now so to find a decent one at a decent price is like finding a needle in a hay stack. IDK what they were thinking with the 'no hinge cabs' on the C's!!! From what I can gather, it is alot easier to hold a nice even/smooth push with the 7 roller frames than the 6 roller frames on the 963's. Personally, I rented a 963B with a blade on it a few years ago for a couple months and it didn't really seem to be an issue once I got used to it. YMMV