I am brand new here. My first post and I am not a professional operator. I am trying to buy a dozer to have on my farm I just purchased. It is 46 acres and about a 60/40 pasture to woods. There are hills and a creek. I want to use the dozer to keep the road leveled and clear brush and maintain the creek area. Anyway, I will not be using it as a professional so it won't be used daily. I looked at a 2001 Komatsu D31E 20. There are 3500 hours on the clock and everything seems to be in pretty good order. I am wondering if there are some things I need to know about Komatsu? Are they a good machine? What should be a good price for a decent machine that has no apparent issues. Should I steer clear and go with a Case, John Deere or Cat? Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Howdy, unable to advise on your model but if your only going to have one machine most all recommend having a track loader. Dozers are nice but they cannot pick anything up.
Thanks for the reply but I have a Kubota front end loader and backhoe for the picking up thing. I need that blade and angle to shape some things and want a dozer to build tracks and clear wooded area.
I like the komatsu dozers I have a D31P-20 96' it's a fine little machine but in gona sell it. I bought a bigger D41P-6. I've had real good service out of them. The one thing I don't like is they have they're own hydraulic fittings. Not a lot of aftermarket hose facilities carry these size fittings. Having said that I wouldn't let that stop me from purchasing another one.
Must be a US thing, I have a 1999 D31-20 and just gave it a birthday with a full fluid change and replaced a few hoses and rams resealed, just took them to a local hydraulic shop and had no issues or comments about them. If your motor is the 4 cylinder it is the Cummins 4BT made under license by Komatsu.
I like mine. It is very handy for the things you describe just understand that if you are trying to build road through the woods it is very limited on the size of trees that you can push over whether you cut the roots or not. Mine starts very easily in all weather (Komatsu diesel) and is easy to learn to operate. If you have a dealer nearby and it seems like it steers well I'd go for it. Since i took this picture i built brush guards for the sides and back, you will want them if you are working in woods. You will pay more for the same weight of dozer if you go with a Cat or Deere.