Brand new member here although I've been lurking for years. I'm looking to make my first real dozer purchase and I have lots of questions. I'm not an operator and I don't work in the industry. Oddly however I do know enough to know exactly the machine I want. I'd like to find a used cat D4K or K2. I don't subscribe to the "if you want anything lesser than a D11 you're wasting your time" non-sense. I have to maintain a few miles of what can be loosely called fire road. The big dozer just tear things up too much to be useful. And the job of grading out small slides, creek crossings and occasional new road segments just doesn't justify the bigger machines. Ok so what I really have questions about is the process of buying a used machine. With my inexperience finding a machine that doesn't have major service on the near horizon might be hard. What can I do to improve the odds? I see Cat has "certified used" machines. Is that just an excuse to jack up the price or is there real value there for someone like me? What can I do to really dig into a machine before buying? Could I get a Cat mechanic come and look over a machine for me? Are there third parties that do that? What the heck does the % life number actually mean? % relative to what? As you can see I have lots of newbie questions. Many might have been asked and answered but a forum search didn't prove very useful. Let's start a conversation about the process and not the machine. Thanks in advance, Griz
Looking at a specific Cat machine helps. If it's originally from your neck of the woods the entire history could be available. You can get Cat or an independent mechanic to come take a look. Check pressures, pull oil samples etc. Cat has all kinds of nifty tools to measure undercarriage wear. A good start is just the overall condition of the machine. Look for leaks, bent or broken stuff, functioning gauges, wear on the cutting edge of the blade, grouser wear on the pads, segment tooth wear, locked up or missing track rollers, welded master links, missing parts etc etc. I don't know what your budget is but having one checked out by a good mechanic or Cat is money well spent. Im sure the other guys will chime in with guidance. As far as D11's go don't get me started! Haha. Junkyard
Thanks for the tips. I know this must seem elementary to a lot of people on here but we are all newbies at some time. One confusion I have is about the results of some of these tests. Let's say they come back and say the undercarriage is at 60%. I nod and stare blankly while trying to figure out what that means. Can I simply take the hours on the machine and and divide by 60% to get the expected life? Wouldn't it depend on how the machine was used up until this point vs how I'm going to use it? If so, what's the point of the number? Another question is about the service intervals. Is there a way for me to find on the internet when the service intervals are? I can imagine that a dozer would get traded in just before the next major ($$$) service. Let's say the dozer has 1400 hours on it and the next major service is at 1500. Sure would be nice to know while I'm searching around. Griz
When I refer to undercarriage percentages I typically mean what's left. You're right in that it's subjective to how it's being used. Our D5G has 2,000 hours on it and the undercarriage is just about shot. Partially from previous owner, partially because it works on slopes a lot and also because it has an earlier smaller pin in the rail which wears faster according to Cat. As far as service intervals go my rule of thumb is 250 on engine oil, filters and fuel filters. Air as needed based on conditions, hydraulic, Trans oil and filters every 1,000 hours. I put stickers in the machines and often show less hours so by the time the guys tell me it needs it I'm not way past the interval. I also started samples of every fluid at each oil change. As far as major components that will be based on total machine hours, maintenance and useage. Finding one that Cat has worked on with a history will answer a lot of questions for you. Beyond that I would suggest somebody looking it over, check pressures, measure undercarriage and pull some samples. If it comes from a company it may have a fair amount of records as well that will give you an idea of how it was maintained, used and/or abused! I don't have SIS yet but one of the guys on here that has access can tell you what the intervals are on that machine as well as specs etc if you supply them a S/N. Junkyard
I just discovered that Cat has a section on their website for maintenance schedules. You put in the serial number and it spits out the maintenance items for each interval. Pretty cool. Now it's not SIS but at least it tells me what to expect. One of the machines I'm looking at is a 2008 D4K with serial number MMM00320. Maybe someone with SIS access could help me out with the information for that dozer? Please and thank you.
Junkyard has covered it pretty good. It is definitely worth having someone help you look it over if you are not very versed in the machine you are looking at. all the machines that I own I bought used. some from small dealers and some from private sales. In my opinion I would pay a little more for a nice machine than get a cheaper one that is a little beat. I have done both. and will still take on a rough machine and fix it up. I would rather get a nice one and just use it. You can do a lot of work with d4-5 size machines, one thing that may be useful to you is a ripper on the back. works great for loosening harder packed soils. (beat you to it Scub puller) big grin.