I have been thinking of upgrading from my D7G. I was looking for a D7H/R but they are few and far between. Anyway I found a D6Rxl set up as a xw in my area for a good price. How will this machine perform compared to my D7G. Will it be a noticeable downsize?
Being it's a newer technology, I'd bet it would out work your D7G. The county my land is in went from an older D7, not sure if it was a D7G or earlier but their new D6N out worked it by a pretty good margin. I have heard a D7G is one of the easier machines to work on.
Depends what you want. The D6R will be a leap forward in technology compared to a 7G, the downside of course is that electronics issues (and how capable you are at dealing with them) raise their ugly head with a newer generation machine like the 6R. As Dave says, a 6R will most likely far outwork a 7G.
What do you mean "XL set up as an XW"? I just bought a D6R XL this week to replace my D7E (which, by the way, was purchased new by my dad in 1966- I bought it from his estate). I hate to see the old gal go, but I need a jump in productivity and ease of operation. Anyway, I figure I will have to sell my V-blade shearing blade with the D7E because I don't think it will fit the D6R XL. But if there's a way to modify the D6R or the blade to make it fit, then it would save me a lot of headache and money over trying to find a good used cutter blade specific to the D6R XL. I'm thinking that the D6 would handle the weight of my blade because it has a heavy winch on the back and it's only 5 hp less than the D7E. Anybody got any thoughts on this? I would rather have bought a D7R but they are nearly impossible to find, and D8Ns and Rs are a big step up in $$ and moving logistics.
a 43,000 pound machine with 180 hp will not in any world outproduce or even keep up with a 200+ hp 50,000+ machine. electronics are pretty to look at but they do not translate into rimpull. I have been around both, and the only way a 6r will come close is to jack up the hp. a lot. I wonder about longevity after you do that.
why don't you keep the D7E and leave the V-blade on it you will be glad you did in the long run.If you have had it in the family that long you will miss it. With the V-blade you will still keep running it and it won't be setting rusting away
That is my thought too. It take weight and horsepower to move dirt. But there isn't much difference between them, maybe the 6 is faster. I was wondering if anyone with experience with both machines would comment. ETMF The machine has 30" pads and the wider blade like an xw. Have you put your 6 to work?
What are they doing??? Pushing gravel around? First the claim is a 6R will outwork a 7G, then possibly a 6N??? What, are we talking a 7D? Or older? As a finish dozer, I believe the 6R will be faster, but faster does not always translate into increased productivity. JMHO.
It is an expense to own it even if I drop the insurance and just use it occasionally to shear a few small tracts here and there or use it to help out on pushing dirt on some jobs. And there is the issue of getting a qualified operator for it as the older hands drop out. I think I would be better off taking $30,000 or so for the tractor and all the blades and putting that money back in the business. On the other hand it would be handy to have around and I don't guess it will depreciate much more as long as it's alive and well. I haven't used the 6R yet; I picked it up Friday and moved it out to the job. The tractor had no issues when I bought it earlier in the week but when I loaded it it was flashing a red transmission light and saying "service code" on the display, so I guess Nige is right about electronics being a pita.
Not exactly a PITA, you just need to know how to diagnose them.
I thought you diagnose them by spending huge sums of money for someone to come with their laptop, all to find out a wiring connector is at fault..
Most diagnostic proedures require nothing more complex than an electrical circuit tester.
I've run a D6T XL and a D7G and the 7G will outdo it in everything in my book. The 6T is definitely smoother though.
you had better keep it so you will have something to run to make the payment on that tracked computer while it's in the shop for rebooting. it never hurts to have a spare around.
In my experience, a D-6R is a great tractor. mine is pushing close to 17,000 hrs, and much of the time is spent doing work a bigger machine would be better for. It is very reliable, and has few electrical faults. The productivity compared to the D-7G will depend on the task. If it is bulk pushing, the heavier tractor with more power will win out, but for most tasks the faster more agile D-6R will hold its own quite well.
The early D6R with the 30" we not called XW machine back then,was marked with XL,but was called a IM machine on paper and was an option IM meaning (intermediate gauge).XW marked machine came later 30" pads and different design blade,with the hump on the back of the blade. XL machine unless IM gauge machine has a 10' 6" blade compared to the IM and XW machine has a 11' 6" blade.
I have worked around D7G and D6H+R.Weight and power isn't always better.Traction is tho when it comes to working in mud.Was cleaning out ditch side beside D7G and my D6R.In good dirt it was pretty well even.As we cut the ditch down then things got mudder he had to keep moving over or would bury the 7.I would cut at least 2 more feet of mud out before i had to move over.Both machine had same size standard pads. Ss far as working slopes of any kind the 7 was always at a disadvantage.Plus ad mud to the slope then they tore up more then they did good. Hydraulics are better on D6R and lift higher.Plus the mantainace and labor to work on both machine,goes to the D6R again.Computer s are not all bad i have seen Cat man come and connect laptop to the machine read the code and have it fixed in less time then it di to get pressure gauges out and doing it the old way. D7G has had there troubles over the years they have eaten up plenty of final drive gears and transmission.
I don't what the county was doing. I do know their D6N has differential steering that I think would make a difference if you had to turn with a load. I think productivity wise it was just a lot faster. Less weight but faster cycles might more than make up the less weight. They tried Cat, Deere and Komatsu side by side and were most impressed with the Komatsu. They said it would boil the blade and just keep pushing without slowing down and said the JD couldn't do much with a blade full of dirt. A couple reasons they went with the Cat were Cat has exchange final drives, etc, at a huge cost saving over having to buy new from Komatsu and being they are a county/municipality they got about $100,000 of the cost.
I am not aware of any problems in either of those areas, except when they are clapped out.. For interests sake, how does the D7G Series 2 rate compared to the D7G? Still available new here...
denny.. I hadn't thought of soft ground, but that would sure make a smaller tractor look better. Were you running the tractor that had the lgp blade on it? wish you lived closer..
Dave my D6R XL machine was the one i put the XW blade on, it wasn't a LGP blade.Hope you had a good harvest.
well, now that you say that I remember what it looked like and of course it wasn't an lgp blade with that tall top. harvest was good for us, no injuries. been converting some broadbases into bumps, got about halfway into it when track adjuster failed, took several days to get parts put back together, now rt side final has developed a nasty noise that sounds like the intermediate gear is losing tooth parts so I guess I will have some spring work. dirt is really wet underneath.
Consider a Komatsu D65EX-15 as they are a really good Machine and would suit you. Komatsu dozers are just as good as caterpillar if not better.
Until you have to buy parts for them that is..... At that point you'd better have a good pile of cash.
Cat parts are expensive as well and cat machines drink alot of fuel. Komatsu machines are just as reliable.
Whether a machine is "just as reliable" as another brand is not the point, neither is the comment "Cat parts are expensive as well". Komatsu parts in my experience are not just expensive, they are eye-wateringly expensive, and I don't care how reliable any machine is at some point sooner or later it's going to need parts. It's the nature of the beast.
the amount of aftermarket parts you can find for cat is unreal. the same cannot be said for kom. competition is what keeps price down. I also think the kom. is just as good a rig as any other, till it breaks. they all break, this is the rub.
I'm really surprised that it took this long for someone to suggest the komatsu. Thanks, but no. I'm thinking that I'll keep looking for a really late d7h or a d7r. The 7g is really on the small end of what I want. But an 8n or r is more than I want to move regularly. Thanks for the replies.
I would like to change the blade on my D6R XL from a C-frame A blade to an SU blade. It seems that an SU off of a salvage 6R XL is pretty rare, but there are plenty of SU blades off of D6H's out there. My Cat dealer can't tell me if it will work or not. Does anyone know exactly what I need to be looking for? Are the push arms on the 6H shorter? One guy told me that the 3ZF D6H had 7 track rollers and was the same length as a 6R XL, but I'm not sure about that. Another option is to look for an S blade. This is what I have on my old D7E and I've never had any problems making the dirt boil, and once I get a slot built I can carry a full blade and then some. But I've never had an SU blade so I don't know how much better it would be. Any answers to these questions from someone who's been down this road? Construct'O, why did you use an XW blade?
I used the XW blade because it was like new and the price was right.Also i liked the tall blade and extra foot of width.Plus i sold my old blade for half the price i gave for my XW blade .So the cost was very reasonable.Plus my old blade had a lot of wear from being in rocks and used to push scrapers. As far as the D6H blade working on your D6R you would have to get one off a 92 to 96 year machine serial starts as a 9kj....... late model 96.On the 3zf the blade sets closer to the grill, arms are shorter.Not sure you couldn't use it but would set closer to the grill and when clearing the extra length helps keep the brush away from the grill ,radiator. Putting the XW blade on the D6R XL machine i had to use the factory outside spacer and make another spacer about 2" more to get the arm to line up with the trunion ball.The spacers bolted on under the trunionball and i had to get longer bolt to go through the extra width of the off set it made for the blade to boltup and line up. You have about 6" more clearence between arm and track frame.Makes it nice in the mud it don't build up on the top of the dozer arm. Long story but machine perform very good even with the wider blade and 24" pads. Factory XW machine has longer final driv hosuing for 30" pads you have to have spacer for the blade to off set the cleareane difference in final drive housing for the wider pads.Hope you understand what i'm saying .It's late.Good luck
Blade on the D6H which i replaced with same size blade off and new D6R,but used the D6H arms.Just got the blade not the arms and everything like i did on the R.The blades on the new H and R are a lot heavy bult then the early D6H blades. I do have a pretty good semi U blade for sale of the D6H,orignial with no plating and always been i the Iowa black dirt. Picture of blade i took off the R and sold.The new blade i put on the R was a new take off blade ,complete with tilt cylinder and arms and blade
great pictures, Denny.. I wish we had some black dirt!
Send me a PM and explain if you have what I need to make it work. I may have located some D6R XL push arms and cylinder if that helps.
PM sent
I c reluged grousers how many hrs has she done