Just want to get some oppinions on this dozer. I know it's not going to be a cat or a JD but I need something bigger than my takeuch 150 skid steer sometimes. I found a 98-2000 model New holland DC 80 LGP dozer with just under 2000 hrs on it. It's going to need a new U/C soon but it sill usable. Hydrostatic 2 Speed. It's around 20,000lbs, 24 or 28" pads. Fellow wants 20K for it. he said come out and test it whenever I want. He has about a acre pile of dirt i can play in for a day and see if I like it or not. I'm not going to use it everyday but I will have it when needed. What do you think? Not the actual machine in the picture
I owned one of those for a few years and never had a problem with it other than the muffler mount kept breaking. Don't let it idle at 800 rpm the cummins really has a vibration at that rpm. It has really good cutting edge visibility and is very agile. The only downside I found was the cost of a few parts, hydraulic and transmission filter where about $300 and the cutting edges use to be $1200 for the set, compared to $400 or $500 on a cat. If you are going to do finish work with it you won't be disappointed IMHO.
Ive never run one, but Ive never heard anything good about them either. Not real sure about dealer support. It may work out for you. I take it your looking for something to push piles with more than anything. More than likely mud, judging from your pictures. I would think in your area you shouldnt have a problem finding a good used Deere dozer. 550 or 650G dozers would probably suit you nicely. Simple machines, fast, extremely reliable.
Thanks for the input! I've got a dealer close by that's been there a while so hopefully part's want be a problem. Dozer with probably be used mostly for just pushing bulk dirt.
x2 about everything he said.. If its really cold put the water heater plug in on it or it messes up the computer (it was -15 when we did that) new computer was about 4k... We have the dc80 with the 9'4" blade and the wider tracks. I love it, its fast, smooth, powerful and you can make some nice grades with it, only thing i dont like about it is the roll over protection rattled like crazy, we ended up just welding it solid and if we need to take it off we'll cut it.. Also when removing panels the bolts like to break but thats not a huge deal, we just drilled most of them out and put grade 8's in it, But I like running it and it does a good job, so i dont complain,, 20K is a very decent price, ours only has 1200 hours on it though... You can see the whole hill we had about an 18ft cut and had to push it about 300 feet to fill in a low spot.. Did all the rough work after it was stumped in a day and shaped it in another day.. The machine almost has too much power and will just spin if you hog into something.. Iv learned to be easy on the hydraulics and let its weight push it self and it really works good, when we get back to the development project where we have another 1600feet of road to do with some 20 foot cuts ill get some more pictures up
Here are a few pictures of the machine. I Could not work today due to my little accident earlier this week but I could still go look at equipment. I was going to do a test drive but someone tried to steal the turbo over the weekend and ripped the oil line off in the process, so It looks like no test drive until next week we have a couple job comming up where were going to rent this machine and give it a good test run for a week then decide it we want to by it. For the price they are asking for the machine it's a no brainer, It's about a 3rd of the price of a JD or Cat the same size.
rear end pic
Not thinking of putting a root rake on it are you:wink2 Test driving is work too Looks a nice little dozer, what kind of jobs would you be using it for Chris?
hush... Actually I was thinking about how good a root rake would be on this size machine, but I'd be damned if I would be around it while taking if off We'd use it to push dirt No we would use it probably for building pond dams, pushing bulk dirt around and finish grading lots or area we have cleared.
Yeah to push dirt Good answer:falldownlaugh
whats the vertical bar on the blade for?
I've driven one for a few days it thought it had a cab and satalite radio. It was a good little machine it spread the loam as fast as the trucks could haul it. (read really fast). but as far as pushing dirt with it, its just to small for any serious dozer work i would just consider it to be a triming up machine. But hey the A/C worked great; not that that will be an issue for you Thats just my 2cents anyway Rick
Well the dozer arrived today for a test drive, were just renting it to see it we like it. Ran it an hour and I was not really impressed, actually I was dissapointed in the machine. Compared to the John Deere's I've ran this thing is a the bottom. I'm pushing nice dry, loose, sandy soil and it's having trouble pushing what i think It needs to be pushing. I'm by no means a dozer operator, have not been on a dozer in two years and have only a couple hundred hours on them in the past. I think the skid steer could move more dirt than this thing, dozer can push more but the skid steer could make two passes for every one pass with the dozer. when it first arrive I started to see signs of this " good deal machine" started to grease it and none of the grese fittings and seen grease in a 100+ hrs, used it for 20 minutes and it started overheating, only has a low and high speed, won't push crap in 2nd gear I think will just use it to finish out the job and return it. I'm going to start looking for a nice JD 650!, maybe with a cab! Eating dust sucks! Don't laugh It's been at least 2 years since i've been on a dozer, not the best in the world, plus I've only used it for about and hour.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWj6BKvnCaw
looks like you could put a dozer blade on the skid steer and run circles around that...we have a bradco 84inch blade for ours and it suprised me that for sure...
does it seem like theres only that many hours on it? Or did some one tamper with the hour meter and set it back? Could be a weak hydraulic pump? I know mine will never bog down, it either just pushes or spins if your in soft material. Our DC80 only has about 1k hours on it all being used by us, i know we had a d4 a few years back and i think the newholland pushed better and is smoother.
The fact that it overheats is a clue as well. You might be able to take it to the dealer and have it looked at (for free), go back to the current owner and negotiate the repair to get it running right off of the 20K. That is a great price even if it needed some work.
Dirtman, if you are going to be building ponds I suggest a different dozer. You will be wore out by the end of the day trying to maintain speed and direction with the joystick, that is why I sold mine. It is a great machine for finish work but when it comes to cutting and pushing it can get annoying. You need something with detents for forward and reverse so you don't have to try and guide it straight all the time. Like you said you need to look for something better suited to do what you need to do. If you are cutting grade,finishing or spreading topsoil though I don't think you can beat the DC 80's agility.