Are the JD 550 dozers very common? Maybe I haven't been paying attention or either looking in the wrong place, but seems like there are many more 450's and 650's. Is there a reason to avoid the 550?
I have a 550G LGP. At that time i was looking for a 450. But then the 550 pooped up at a real good price, so i bought it. I have since bought a 450J. The 550 has always been a good machine to me. It mostly just sits in the yard now, unless i have a land clearing job or nasty mud. anywhere i dont want to send the new dozer to. Its also a little harder on fuel than the 450. i think that might be because the 450 is hydrostatic and the 550 is TC drive. If you know anyone looking for one, shoot me a PM. Jim.
My old boss has a 550. It doesn't turn right while going forward put other than that it's a good machine. I used to push our belly dumps with it when they got stuck.
I bought one last year and have put around 700 hrs.on it and love it. It does anything I would want or have need to do with a dozer. I have had no trouble with it so far.
I think you need to have that machine adjusted. Is it a G or older, or a H or newer? I have always found the 450, 550, and 650 G H and J dozers to be good reliable tractors. At one company I worked at, that is all we used for a finish dozer. Most of our parking lot finish crews ran 650s. A lot of our sewer crews, and topsoil crews ran 550s, and they got great production out of them. Finally, we had a few 450s that were bounce around machines, and used on those little touch up projects. Most of them had well over 10,000 hours on them and were still trucking along.
There is really no reason to avoid a 550. But to answer your question about why there are more 450 & 650 models than 550's. The answer is the same as why are there more Cat D3 & D5's tha there are D4's. There isn't a whole lot of difference between a 450 or 550, and a D3 or D4. The 550 and D4 maybe have 5 or so more horse power than their little brothers and are basically the same size. Usually the same track length on the ground, same under carriage, and sometimes the same track pad width in similar models. The 550 and D4 usually weigh a little more, about 600 to 1000 lbs. But the big difference is the price when new, a 550 and D4 are usually $20,000 more than a 450 or D3. I just went through this a couple of years ago when I bought a new D3G. There wasn't enough of a difference to me to justify the $20,000+ higher price tag for a D4G
I think that he even sent this dozer off to a dealer and they couldn't get that right clutch to work. I think it was a G because it was old, 80's maybe with no cab just ROPS. IIRC it had a six way blade, good machine and would start in the dead of winter.