I'm looking to buy a small dozer. Found one, seller said it is in excellent condition with good undercarriage. Late 1980's, unknown hours. From the pictures it looks good, but pictures can be deceiving. I'm wanting to clear some small trees and brush, 6 inch diameter and less, rocky terrain. Seller thinks it may be to small for what I want to do. I,m limited to a 12000 pound machine. Price is $10500 firm. I would like to be very serious on this machine before I drive 800 miles to look at it. Is there a web site that has the specs. on this machine? Thanks for your opinions.
Did you read through the multi-page D20/21 thread? If you haven't, I recommend you spend the time there. I was initially looking for a 10,000 pound machine like a D20/21 but decided it would be too small to push rock around our small ranch. Based on my research, I think that model would be fine for pushing dirt around, but not sure about knocking trees down. Here are the specs on the little Komatsu's.
How smalll is small? I have one of simular size. Probably about 4" dia tree is all you will push over. Depending what type of tree and soil conditions. These little dozers will suprise you but some trees really come out hard. As far as condition, dont take his word. Most of these dozers are pretty well rusted (especially undercarriages) and have been painted over. This will not show up in pictures. When you start taking bolts off. they will all twist off. Alot of times some of the sheet metal is rusted through. I've been on some of those 800 mile trips too, and to find out they looked good enough in a picture to eat, but when you got there, they were rusted, worn out and patched up junk. Just made a 1000 mile trip over Christmas to look at one. "junk". A rusted well worn dozer can be a big money pit, and when you do get it fixed up, you have way more in it that you can get out of it. Your price sounds like a reasonable price. There are a few of these dozers out there that are in very good shape. I paid $16K for mine. I thought that was alot, compared to the ones that I saw listed for !0k. But mine was a 98 with only 700+ hrs. I didnt have to do a thing to it. I've seen others pay 10K then another 3 or 4K to get them fixed up, especailly if it needs new chains, sprokets and rollers, which most do. There are a few dealers in Okla. (probably closer) that sell these dozersl, check with them. Kent Baugh is one. In N.Y there is a another fellow that sells them "Darwin". You can see some of their listings on E-Bay. You might look in the "Komatsu grey market dozers" here on HEF. There is a section devoted just to these dozers. You can get alot of information there and I am sure others will advise you.
I have had a Furukawa CD5 Dozer for 12 years and it is 10,000 lbs, 40 HP. It pushes over trees much larger than 6in, some up to 2ft. It just depends on soil, tree type and technique. I generally prefer to push trees after Winter when the ground has thawed and the leaves have not grown yet. These are mostly Oaks and Hickories with some Pine. Larger trees require cutting the roots by digging away at the base of the tree. after doing this a build of of soil on one side can give you extra leverage for pushing. Always try to push down hill if possible and use the weight of the dozer to help. Some people will put a tree pusher on a dozer blade to get extra height for leverage. I find some of the small scrub oaks and elms to be much harder to get out since their roots are long and at a angle to the tree trunk. With not much width to the trunk, the tree just bends over and makes removal difficult. So as to condition of the Dozer, that would depend on it, it is almost impossible to know with out going and looking. Do not pay attention to those that have a hatred of the Gray market dozers as to their worth, many are good machines and well serve you just fine once you get your experience with operating them.
Hi Tbone, The series 5 is an old machine.It is a little smaller than Matt's Furukawa & I reckon it's a 70s model. The seller is correct...it may be too light to push trees of any size. There seems to be lots of good deals on used gear...maybe look a little more. Jim
6 inch trees are rather puny things, unless they are tougher in Australia :beatsme. I used to clear small stuff like that with a old jeep and chain. I just knocked these ones down today with the dozer.
Tbone, I have a D20P (manual transmission & pyramid pads) and have been very surprised by what it would do - even though I had never operated a dozer before. I have taken out some fairly large tress with mine - you just have to dig out from around them enough. My advise would be don't be afraid of a particular model, but be sure you know what a good machine (or a wore out machine) looks like when you see it.
Matt, The trees here do indeed hang on to the clay & rock,& the tap roots dig in a long way. I imagine you guys get more moisture in your soil than we do.....but even so,a D21 is at the low end of the tree pushing scale,especially if it has apex plates. T bone needs a small dozer,but on rocky ground,a standard grouser dozer is the best machine....for both safety & cost factors. I'm fairly sure the 5 series was a 70s machine & had the older style fuel tank on it.I think they were lighter than the series 6 & 7 machines that replaced them. Jim
we have a late model 21p in our fleet. do a lot of backfilling and grading in urban tight situations. would not recommend using it for clearing on a regular basis unless you are prepared to do fabrication of blade structure.