I M looking at opening up a compost yard for the growing umber of organic farmers in the area. I was given the keys to the towns leaf and chip dump. Its got about 10 years of leaves and chis that need to be reomved and its a too tight to repeatedly get a truck into that spot. Its gonna be a load haul dump type operation so and excavator is out of the question for now. Not many track loaders around here and their all in a small JD form. Ive never operated a Cat rear enginged loader but spent 2 years on a Komatsu D66E. I really enyoed it and It had a few problems that were easy fixed. It seemed like a well balaned machine I think mine had a 2.5 yard bucket. I know a fellow thats retiring and he has a 943 and 953 for sale. I have about 4 to 5000 yards to move at this site and Ill have another site a bit larger. I would take a wheel loader but but this stuff is wet and slippery. I also wanted hydrostatic to push a windrow turner. I d take an olders conventional trackloader but they are scarce here missed one last year that sold for 800 at a county sale ran good but was rough shape.
Homeowners here pay $50/yard for our sweet peat for landscaping. Farmers....might try to beat you down a little more
Hey Taylor- I see you are in the northeast corner of Miss. I sold a small manlift that I never used to a company making dog food in Red Bay, AL Friday. I would recomend the Cat for a hystat loader as I don't know anything about the Komatsu other than they don't make them anymore and I would worry about parts availability. What is your price range? I have a couple of contacts in B'ham plus there are several used equipment yards with some rear engine machines. Shelby County, AL at one time had 132 track loaders (953,963,973) that my Cat product support rep called on, no telling how many more older ones are out there.
Sunshine Mills, Was it the grove or the other one they got. I run a landfill for Tiffin Motor homes right next to them. I work 6 mileswest of that location. Im gonna have to talk with the the banker after I seet what a turner will cost. The old stuff in the dump is great aged but needto be aerated and screened I will rent or build a trommel. I really liked the Komatsu it was a super tough machine did have electrial problems, the alernator wire had gotten damaged in a vandalization and it took a while to figure outthat it would come undone and the low voltage would cause it to fly into reverse with no steering and and stopping other than kill the switch key. Then It would lock up when you hit a bump. I noticed that it did it when the bucket was atthe return to dig mode and you hit a bucket and the slack popped the in the roller switch. I just tied it off till I could get another one. after those 2 things were fixed it was a great machine, just hard to find them around here. It was the first rear engined track loader i ever ran Ive run a Leibherr and a Cat but the Cat was an ex military and I didnt get the numbers off it.
I believe it is the plant next to Tiffin Motor homes, that's what the guy that picked it up told me. He said they were running around the clock and even had volunteers to work over the last Holidays to keep up production. Dog food business must be good. Tiffin makes very nice motorhomes, how is business? I found 4 D66's on machinery trader, 2 are in GA. http://www.machinerytrader.com/list...Grp=D66&GUID=A24D100362C242319DEE3ACACF91F42D
The D66s is equal to the 963 cat. If you decide on a D66 make sure the serial number is 1400 or greater.
we have an older 941b that is in great shape that we would let go for 15,000. good ole machine. we replaced it with a 943 then a 953. all three great machines. love the cat loaders
I accidentally ran over that man lift lol. an accident had traffic rerouted aroundthat plant and I couldnt make the turn with the roll off. bumped into it. Bob Tiffin is the best person Ive ever worked for in my life. When we went to work when they bought the landfill and belmont site from Cavalier They hired us back to run the landfill. Told us anything we need to get it. He even parks outsidethe gate and signs in if hes in a personal vehicle like everyone else. When we wentthere almost 5 years ago they were making 7 a day and boosted u to 12 trying to make 17 units now they are only making 2 per day. Its looking bad but Mr. Tiffin says theyll survive, he told me in 81 they even built strage trailers and log trailers to pay the bills. Been hearing a rumor about them making a few spin off products from their patened wall laminating process. They do make a fine bus though, the first time I ever gotto go inside one I was blown away. Working at the landfill I may get to Johnny Cash me one together one piece at a time. Im gonna have trouble borrowing for a loader right now one banker didnt want to hear about it saying that compost was just a fad. Ill talk to my other banker tomorrow. I wanted to buy a small trommel and a trackloader but since its slow and Im starting out they want to be tight. lgammon What year is your 941? and is it a power shift. Ive never been around a Cat loader other than a 955 or two. Dressta whats with the numbers on the D66. I found a bargain in a 175 IH loader with a 4 in 1 but it was tied up in an estae for now. I guess the real reason I was interesed in a 66 was the fact I was more familiar with them as I did all the mechanic work to the 2 I had at Huffman.
When they first brought the D66 over they failed HST's ( hydrostatic transmissions) as fast as we could put them in. The engineers came over from Japan and literally ran a machine in the back yard at wot and going forward to reverse until the HST failed. Suprisingly that only took about an hour. They would then pull the units and ship them back to Japan for failure analysis. 1400 was the serial number break for the machines with the newest components. I absolutely loved to work on them because they were a machine ahead of their time, but they can be dangerous. They seem to have a mind of their own. You do not ever run this machine without a seat belt. But it is a very strong and powerfull machine.
Thanks Dressta, I dint didnt know that. I really didnt know that they had made a rearengined loader till I worked there in 01. I really loved mine I words in alot of places with it that a tlb couldnt backfilling an internal foundation. I built a set of fork hooks on the top to use a set of slipp on forks man that was the thing to use on wet days unloading pipe from trucks no more sliding around. I did almost go into the Tennessee river, they had ecvavated some large shot rock from a cut for an intake tower to a treatment plant. We reomoved them and that was my first time on a rearenginged track loader. Then later we too the same boulders and had to make a cofferdam. road around the excavation to work in. It was my job to pick the boulders up and tote them and chunk them out over the bank . I was about to dump one more and the ledge I was one broke out and we all slide into the river. I backed out but was sliding sideways so we put an excavator bucket next to the ripper bar and he guided me back. He second time It taught me to respact it was I was toting a rock out of an excavation that was too big. When I got it I rolled the bucket back to clear the ground and realized my tail picked up but i was balanced I moved it out of the way so the hoe ram could get to it later and the I dumped th bucket out too quickly eventhough I had my belt on I still went up and hit the crossbar in the rops. Hurt like he** but totally my fault. I did everything from clear to off bear for hoeram in a giant underground tank out to a dump. THe few electrical problems we had with the run away nd the locking down was slved whith a new return to dig switch. I worked ne a JD 755 front engine loader and I could out work it all day long and the visibility was great.
yes it is a power shift, it is a 1975 model and we bought it in 1977. so we know that it is a good machine. the motor is on its 5 rebuild and its 11th undercarrage. dad bought this machine when him and my grand father started in 77. i think it had 1000 hours on it then. anything that the machine needed it always got. it has paid for every other machine/truck/farm that we have. and last spring i even dug out my basement with for old times sake. it is a good machine. it does use oil though right after the last time we had the motor build the torqe converter/ trans came out of it, i can't remember which, but it got a little hot. so now if you run a long hard day you need to put a gallon of oil in it. but we have ran it that way for 10-12 years now. i hope i haven't said to much but that is the story on our ole 941b