Neighbor farm is being reborn, new owner going to build a new house. Yesterday wife comes home from work, says truck hung up in ditch in that farms drive entry so as Curious George I grabbed the keys and took a wander to see for myself. Sure enough local grade contractor was hung up, asked and he admitted failed to swing wide enough for the entry, dropped Both rt trailer duals into the ditch, beavertail high centered and he had buried the L fr tractor steer in soft side of drive. His boss on the way told him may be of assistance then I went to the barn to start Fat Allis. As I got aligned to start it the Boss shows up, Son of the contracting company owner, known him now some 8 years, he put our first roads in on our place, as Allis warmed we spoke of what would try and set off to a gap gate between farms, BTW Old Fat Allis busted Right Off! I have a drag cable either 1 1/8" or 1 1/4" cable with swaged eyes, discard from work some time back, makes a great dragging cable for the crawler, get all hooked up and give it a go, all Allis would do was spin rails and dig holes, Not enough ass. We step back and re-evaluate, decision was to cut the side of the entry, fill up the ditch and attempt a side drive off of the machine so that plan was put in place. I let the operator do what He wanted as to the berm cushion then he unchained and pivoted then Lunged off the trailer as smooth as Cactus thorns but clean and effective. His hands were STILL shaking as he got out to ready to drag the truck out and straighten the mess from us using my old AC in the road and berms. All was good took old Fat Allis back to the barn and put her back to bed. Rig was a few years old Corn Queen Conventional, long WB, 42' tandem float and a almost Brandy New Deere 755K, all 46000 lbs of it, no wonder Allis could not move the mountain!!. Pretty tractor, Pilot controls, smooth and quiet with a REAL cab and REAL AC/Heat and a Radio. somewhere I asked and learned right at $300K sitting there. YOWSA!!
You should have got a little turn in that new JD. But then again, maybe not. A person might get spoiled.
I would NOT even consider, too much shine on that 755, too much MONEY sitting in one heap!! Watched operator run it, two joy sticks minimal movements and after it!
That 755K might be all shiny and $300K but the fat Allis filled the ditch in so it could get off the trailer.. I couldn't justify allocating $300K to a track loader. That's roughly $7K a month for 4 years, $1750 a week for the machine payment. Add labor, fuel, maintenance, insurance, ad velorum taxes and I couldn't make that investment pay out.
The first thing I would ask on a $ 300,000.00 JD 755 deal is …. How many acres of ground come with it ? We gonna need a deed to make this deal work . LOL .
Made note today, second day digging hole, with grade off of sod for driveway in. Two full days to set the hole 45x45 for a 40x40 foundation, add a little for the haul out ramp 9'6" deep tall corner and around 5' at lowest. Machine was actually a bit big for that hole, was dealing with recovery of spoil at center of hole more than not. I dug out 40x 70, all at the edge of a terrace 9'6" at long edge, set up truck unload ramps for concrete and separate spoil piles, took three days with less than $6000 invested to that date in my old Fat Allis. Half the tractor, still moves dirt and NOT $300K.
I ran a new 755k a couple years ago for a season. Was a nice machine, stiff controls in comparison to the CAT 963D, directional control, steering pedals. The bucket was more sensitive and responsive then the CAT. Variable speed control for the transmission that 20 different gear ratios if I remember correctly, 1.0 all the way to 3.0 going up in tenths of an increment. Which was nice, but annoying at the same time, so I just left it in 3.0. The bucket was a flat back edge with the teeth being being lower then the bottom of the bucket, which made for a little learning curve. They always wanted to suck the bucket down when you’d put it flat. I ended up liking the flat back edge more then the rounded bucket. Back blading gave it a nice finish. My machine had a ripper on it which was extremely handy when breaking through the asphalt first thing. Added a nice counterweight to the machine as well. Machine was relatively quiet, but the back up alarm was less then desirable for the ground workers. Track noise was also higher then the CAT. But the undercarriage design having a triangular shape allowed for material to fall off instead of build up. The cab was smaller then the cat, no storage for lunch, hard hat, backpack. The fan was CONSTANTLY running, and man was it loud, and kicked up so much dust the machine was always filthy dusty, so it was an every day event cleaning the windows twice a day to see when it’s sunny. All in all, the Deere is a nice machine, but I’d prefer the CAT 963d or maybe the new K model over it. They have their pros and cons but the CAT with the operator controls attached to the seat, two speed hydrostatic, larger cab, shovel and grease gun holders, quieter operation, and quieter cab are my favourite.
Great write up ippielb. I would love to have a 963K or even a 953K but for now our 953C with almost 7K hours will have to suffice.
I’m the same way with my 973c, it would be nice to have a new machine. But having a new machine doesn’t make the job get done $300,000 faster. Or make me feel $300,000 better. I’m happy with my loader. Gotta make the best of what you got.