I am thinking of buying a 2003 Deere 755c, and would like to hear from somebody familiar wit them and loaders in general. I grew up in the dirt business working on farms and ranches, but have never had a trackloader. We have always run dozers,graders,scrapers and now an excavator. I plan to use it to help the excavator cleanout stock ponds. Ialso clear a lot of mesquite and thought it would be good for raking and some clearing. I would appreciate any info on pros and cons on the loader vs dozer. Thanks
Do you have any thing in particular in mind that you want to know. Not a bad machine for the size and horsepower for the $$. If it was me I would just be sure to keep the belly pan cleaned out to keep any wires from shorting or chasing. Get a good feel for the steering system because on most of them they are quick and still turn after you let off the pedals.(just how these things work, Not a bad thing)
I went ahead and did a rental purchase on the loader, and so far have been very happy with it. Plenty of power and it seems like it will do what we need to. I haven't got to run it much though. One question I have is on track shoes, I am used to the single grouser on a dozer and wonder if that is what I need on this machine. We use it more like a dozer than a loader, we are in ponds with 4:1 slopes and it is kinda helpless. We don't do any tight turning so I think singles would be fine. Any advice on grousers would be great!
I think a wider pad would do better depending on what it has on it now. They have a 22 inch option.. I have seen people put the singles on but I don't know how your drive train will like it for a long period of time.. But if you do let me know how you like the differences. And just a guess but if you do go singles try clipping the corners off??
As far as working the ponds , we use a 953C with double bar grousers. We usually cut a ramp back far enough to take the steep out of it or cut the center of the dam the lowest point and load the mud out that way. We always cut it a bucket and a half wide so we can walk it back in when filling the damn back. Shouldn't take long , thats a big machine.
We used to clean them out the way you described with our dozers. We would drive into it and backdrag it out. Right now I have it working with a 690elc with an 18' add-a-stick. They work really well together, the hoe can pile it up and the loader can haul it off. Being here in Central Texas, I get calls everday to clean out ponds. I am going to rent a couple months and then see about the shoes on it. I know it has 22" pads. I will try to get some pics up sometime soon. Thanks for everyone's input