I've have 2 IH/Dresser 515B Wheel Loaders over the past 15 years that have treated me good most of the time but now are getting to the point where they have a lot of wear on them and major parts need to be replaced. One is already a parts loader for the running one. I'm in the market for a loader of the same time frame or a little newer but without all the electronics that can give more problems. Also could use a little more power and for sure a larger bucket, at least a 3 yard+ light material bucket to be used for dairy silage. I've seen a few Dresser/Komatsu 525's, and 530's for sale in nearby states and was wondering if the parts on my 515B's could be used on either of these. I am thinking some parts could fit but maybe they are totally different altogether. I don't have access to any parts manuals to compare at this point. Also looked at my neighbors John Deere late 80's model 644's. He has 4 of them as he used to run a landscaping/snow removal business a few years back. I believe they are D, CJ and E models. They are a little larger loaders and have the bigger 4 yards buckets. The problem I have is I have no experience with John Deere loaders so I'm not sure if these ones are reliable machines and worth investigating further. Any advise on which loaders would be the better ones to look at?
It is getting harder to avoid electronics, but they are not a scary as people think. I remember my grandfather tormenting my father to keep his stuff going because there was no way in hell that he was going to have something with electronic ignition on his farm. Not sure about the older stuff, but I think John Deere is fairly reliable, and I have heard good stuff about Komatsu. A cattle farmer here has a Ford versatile with a big bucket for silage. That thing must have a million hours on it. I think it was one of the first years the versatile came out.