Looking at a 2006 850J WT (30"pads) with 3100 hours has semi U blade, ripper, limb risers and is asking 120k. Also looking at a 2012 Cat D6T set up same way but has 8600 hrs. Cat is priced at 140k but not trading anything and salesman said he can get very aggressive on price. All the emissions stuff bugs me on the cat but i guess we get along ok with our green tractors. Im leaning towards the cat just because the deeres are not popular in our area and i may also want to sell it in a few years when my work is done. Main jobs are clearing medium to bigger trees and need to push alot of dirt. The deere is a 2 owner machine currently owned by a farmer. Cat is 1 owner machine traded on a large excavator at a dealership.
Which machine can you get parts & service for the best..? That would be the first question I'd be asking myself, because you'll surely need both at some point.
Have Cat and Deere very close and both are great as far as service and parts. I use to work for the deere dealer 20 yrs ago.
A few years ago I was getting pretty serious about buying a used D6 size dozer. I ran into a friend of mine who has been an operator (mainly dozer) for over 30 years. I was picking his brain a little about the different brands (cat, deere and komatsu). He was telling me the company he worked for at the time had just bought a Deere 850J. He said that Cat had brought out a D6T and Komatsu brought either a D65 EX-15 or a D65 EX-17 ( I can't remember which). But I do remember him saying the Cat was short on power and didn't turn well at all. The Komatsu had power but didn't turn well either but it turned better than the Cat. The Deere had plenty of power and would turn on a dime. I'm sure there were other factors that came into play but that was his conclusion from an operators point of view. Just my $.02
That kind of surprised me as the place I got my d7R from was buying d6T's to replace them and the operators said it was like driving a hot rod. Almost the same hp and less weight.
To me if the price was close to the same I would take the Deere. 5,000 less hrs and no emissions to cost you time and money. I am not really in favor of one brand or the other. I own a few of both.
It surprised me as well. I guess there is a chance that the D6T they brought out for them to try was not quite 'up to snuff' for some reason. I ran a D6T for a couple hours one day and I was pretty impressed the way it performed.
The 850J with that low of hrs sounds like would be worth looking into. Few months ago I got a 850K but don't have enough time on it to give you a good comparison. Handles nicer than the 6R I ran a little quite a few years ago and has plenty of power.
Buy the Deere machine with less hours. We own both 850ks and D6Ts and both are fine machines. As Nige stated parts and service are paramount and you will need good access to keep your machine making you money. Good luck.
Ask if CAT will give you a lifetime warranty on that emissions system. That should guide you pretty quickly.
Before you buy either of them ask for a complete down load of the operation history from the machine computer. If either won't do it then walk away. It's time to start holding the manufacturers and dealers feet to the fire on all this electronic stuff. My other question concerns the drive type on the Deere. Is it hydrostatic? If it is, that would explain the differences in operator comments about the steering.