just bought a nice little D3B lpg today. around a 83 with pedal steer. only thing i'm not sure about on it is it has pyramid shoes on it. never had/ran one with them on it. they sounds like they are goin to work just great for the dirt i'm in mostly. just gotta be carefull around some of the rock we have. heres a pic of it still sitting at the dealer. should be gettin it delivered tomorrow.
Aw man, I'm so jealous!!:drinkup She looks real sweet!!
Thats a nice looking dozer ya got there. :drinkup Will be waiting on some action shots. Did the dealer do the paint and decals?
I love those older D3B's. Pyramid shoes are used for extra flotation/traction, they provide a greater contact area with the ground.
Nice. Hi, SouthOnBeach. Neat looking little rig. Gudunya! The pyramid track shoes are high flotation but are not specifically LGP shoes. They are actually intended for use in extremely wet conditions, eg. swamps, saturated sands, etc.. They will give quite good traction in condition where normal LGP shoes would simply clog up and spin or just dig long holes in the landscape. They will usually work quite happily in normal but not hard dirt but don't like crossing windrows, turning into banks, etc.. They tend to wear pins and bushes rather quickly when these sorts of activities are engaged in on a regular basis. Any situation where there is more load on one side of the shoe than the other is to be avoided if at all possible. Happy dozing.
i'm thinking they will work good most of the time for me. we have some hard ground, but other places get a little spit on it and it turns to muck. dunno how many times i'v loaded up the tracks with mud and slid down a hill. well i'll be back later, time to go do some work while i wait for it to get here .
yup they did do it. was imported from japan. its got a bunch of sticker that i can't read :beatsme seems like a nice machine. not just trying to cover it up with a dupont overhaul. we'll see when i start working it hard.
Hmmmm... A gray market machine. I didn't think there was much of that going on any more. Still a nice looking rig, hope it works well for ya. Oh, stay clear of rock with those swamp pads. They are not built for rock work at all and will come apart on you real quick. They are also expensive, and it's very rare to find good used ones. Good Luck!
Hey Joe, This D3 is a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine (now made by Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi.) but I believe it is near identical to the D3 sold in the states.....although back in 83 it may have been different. Later models where identical and parts/certification where 100% common. With Cat grays you just have to watch those machines destined for South America. My first 246 was supposedly a "gray" market and the only differnce was it didn't have a piece of paper for EPA in California?????.....everything else was 100% identical, part No's, ROPs etc and seeing as I wasn't going to drive the machine in California i didn't give a Rats backside. Sorry for the side tracking.
Side tracking is all good. Supposedly all D3’s were made in Japan, or still are made there. So people have told me. :beatsme First thing I did before I bought it was call the cat dealer up and have him run the serial # to make sure I could get good parts support. He said it was good to go. I know, been caught there on that one. I have a gray market Hitachi trackhoe. A few parts have been a bear to get on that thing. :Banghead Others they have had in stock for me. Go figure. Was out working it today. So far I love it. Was playing in some muck that would smooth out a single grouser in a second. The pyramids stayed nice and clean. It just keep on pushin like a cat should.:drinkup
Dang! You're not getting it dirty are you!? It looks way too nice to get it dirty.
yup i am! gettin it all nice and dirty. though i'm thinking i might need to go preasure wash it clean again soon. it looks soooooo nice all clean :cool2
Nice dozer. I ran a D3B with peddle steer for a few months back in the late eighties. It was a widepad but regular grousers. I thought it was a nice machine.:thumbsup