I am (hopefully) in the process of fixing a Kobelco Excavator, then plan on purchasing a dozer. I am leaning towards a Cat or Deere - D4 size. Looking to spend about $40K and will need LGP. Are there any words of wisdom that you would tell, or nightmare stories of buying a used dozer? I am educating myself on how to evaluate the UC thanks to Utube University. Any help on what to check on before buying would be extremely appreciated!!!!
What's wrong with your kobelco
Here is a link to start with. Wide pads make for loose links. Make sure to check for dry joints and how far forward the front idlers are adjusted.
Undercarriage is a killer cost. Every seller is going to claim lots of life left in their undercarriage. Spend the money to have a qualified mechanic check it out thoroughly to include warming up to operating temperature and running it plenty. this forum is full of threads “oh I got a great deal on this dozer and got it home and it won’t move right when it gets hot” and then it’s off to the races.
Yes, what are you planning that you want an excavator and a dozer for? An excavator putting on twice the hours is not much more maintenance. Two machines, is often much more than twice the maintenance.
LGP machines tend to wear out the pins and bushings so you can have good rail height but will be wore out internally. check to make sure you have the correct number of links they like to take a link out when wore. need to measure the pitch and look at how far the idler is out
Not sure if it's the case in NC, but Cat dealers down here can do undercarriage inspections for free... it's actually part of a product support reps role. Called a CTS (Custom Track Service) inspection. Failing getting it done for free... it could be worth paying someone to do it.
So, I picked up the hydraulic rebuilt pump today (for the Kobelco Excavator) and mentioned to the older gentleman that I was looking to buy a bulldozer. I told him that I hope I don't see him again as that would mean I purchased another "project" with potentially a bad pump. I was ten minutes down the road, and the gentleman called me and said "you know I was thinking about you buying a bulldozer and I have some advice for you". He stated to stay away from Kamatsu especially models 29 or 39 as you cannot get repair parts for their pumps. He stated his floor is littered with pumps he cannot get parts for. I explained I was leaning towards John Deere or Cat. He stated that they are both good machines, but JD has a stamp on some parts making them proprietary and you can only get those parts from JD - and they are expensive. So, it looks like I am going to be looking at Catapillers.
For me,stick to Cat.It’s a global currency. There is almost no difference between an undercarriage that’s 70% good and one that is 40% good. It’s impossible to guess the percentage wear yourself. I’ve been doing it 30 plus years and allways tell the inspector what I think before he measures up,just to see how far wrong I am. I’m allways wrong