Hey all, I am new to this forum as I am new to dozers. I am hoping to gain all the knowledge I can about these old machines. I have recently aquired 104 acres of timbered land and I will be clearing some of it, making roads, building pads, etc. I have a D6 C that I was able to get with the property then I met a local dozer guy who has operated and worked on these machines for 40 years. He bought a D7 E that he has been working on recently (rebuilt engine with approx 40 hours and a new transmission). I have been to his house and seen him working on it in his backyard. Seems like a real nice guy. Question is, he wants to sell it for $9,500.00 when he gets it all put back together (transmission not quite done yet) and I am thinking about buying it since me and my brother could put them both to use. But since I have no experience with dozers I don't know if it's a good deal or it just sounds good. Any advice to educate me towards the right decision would be greatly appreciated. I hope I haven't run on too much. Jess
Woops, a guess i'm a novice at this too! So Please ignore this post, I was meaning to start a new thread, not hijack someone elses. I'll start it somewhere else. Sorry guys.:Banghead
No you did the right thing, I think you need like 3 posts before you can start a new thread of your own, so make one more and you should be good to go. And remember this......If your going to buy another dozer, and you are new to dozers, you might want to think about a few things 1.)What happens when they break down? 2.) Are you skilled enough to perform maintance on both of those old beasts? Just some things to remember before you buy:drinkup O ya and I dont think you hyjacks anyones thread, its like a year old now.
Balzomedic, I split this discussion from the "Caterpillar Forums" thread for you. Now that you have three posts, you should be able to start your own threads at any time. And welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums.
Thanks for the help guys. I have thought about the maintenance issues, I have made friends with a local mechanic and he is willing to help me with any problems. I also plan to learn as much as I can so I can do most of the work myself (some day). I just don't know if $9,500 is good for an old dozer that has been rebuilt. Because I know that while the engine and tranny may be new, the rest of the dozer is still old. Anyway I'm still thinking about it. I will probably sell the D6 eventually if I buy this D7.
http://www.machinerytrader.com/list...txt=D7E&GUID=F1DB3A63DAD94868AE298EC4B5A7E0F6 Heres a list of d7e dozers on machinery trader, mabey this can give you an idea of what you should be paying. If you can give us an year that you are looking at, and some pics of the machine, mabey some others on here can help.
id say if it has decent undercarriage and everything works, go for it!!!
As far as the year, doesn't the letter E indicate when it was made? Im looking at the dozers for sale on that link right now, thanks, that should give me a ballpark price. Any tips on how to check the undercarriage? Jess
My Dad has two 7E's and he would not sell his for $9500 apiece. As Bigg said if it has a decent u/c on it and with a new motor and new tranny it would be a heck of a buy. You need to find out what the serial number is. Is it a 17a or 47a or what? That will tell you more about the value than anything. Also is it a hydraulic or cable dozer. Hope this helps. Good day. Peg
When made? Hi, Balzomedic. If that D7E is in anything like reasonable condition, it would be a steal at $9,500. Machinery Trader commonly has them listed in the $20-30,000 price range. They are a good, solid, reliable performer, although the low hp ones were no 'speed machine', and they hold their value well. If this machine IS a D7E, it should have a serial number prefix of either 47A - direct drive - or 48A - power shift. I think these serial number prefixes covered both the early 160 hp tractors and the later 180 hp tractors - and before you ask, I don't know where/when the change was made. How-wevver, the 160 hp machines had a 6" dia. exhaust stack and the 180 hp machines had an 8" dia. exhaust stack. I think the air cleaner was changed at the same time, to the set-up where the air cleaner body sloped down and out toward the left side of the tractor and the actual air intake above the hood was made bigger too. Hope this helps.
i had a 65' d7e. it was bought for 6,000 and sold for 12,000 after a rops sturcture was added. it was a super nice machine for being that old. only down side was that it had a pony motor to start it. That being said it takes a little finesse to get it started. if you've never run that big of a machine i'd be leary of a pony start model. i understand now though, that you can equip it with a battery box and an eletric starter. i'd be intrested in seeing some pics of the machine if you have any. the machine i ran had next to new tracks on it. it was owned by an utlities contractor that used it to pull a large cable plow.
If you can, post some pictures on here showing the undercarriage, blade etc, I'm sure you'll get plenty of opinions! My caution to you would be to check the final drives out closely; they are the achilles heel of these tractors. I would strongly suggest removing the outer support cap and making sure the dead axle nuts are installed and tight. These things are notorious for "spinning" dead axles, and trust me, its alot worse than it sounds! Good luck.
Gday all, I think the change in Hp that Deas was refering to happened in 1966-67 both 47a and 48a were increased from 160 to 180HP. The earliest ones were made starting in 1961 and went through to 1969 then the F series took over . Cheers.
All this help is great! I know that it is hydraulic with and electric start, no pony motor. I want to say that it has a 6" stack, but I can't be sure. I'll try to get some pics up along with the serial #, but the guy wont be home for a few days so i'll have to wait.
The number 1 thing that I always look at is the under carriage. Escpecially if it s a larger machine like this. You could buy this machine for $9,500 but end up spending somewhere around $30,000 just in the undercarriage. Some easy pointers to look for is the rear sprocket. Is it sharp at the edges or does it have an inch or two of flat surface at the edge of the sproket wich would denote that it is in really good shape. Do the rollers (the part that makes contact with the rear sprocket) have excess wear? Both on the top and on the bottom, I say the top because rollers can be turned by your local cat dealer at half life in order to be like new again.
Some auction results for you. Good Luck! =============================== Serial No. Auction Auction Year Description Series Date Location Sold For 1968 CATERPILLAR D7E CRAWLER TRACTOR 48A10000 Mar - 2008 USA-MN 15,500 USD SU/dozer w/tilt, canopy 1968 CATERPILLAR D7E CRAWLER TRACTOR 48A11000 Jul - 2008 USA-TX 15,000 USD U/dozer w/tilt, canopy
I agree with everyone else here. If the undercarraige is in good shape go for it. I know if I found one around here at a price like that I'd be hard pressed to pass it up.
Okay finally got those pictures, the old boy wasn't home, then I was busy and what not. But anyway, Here they are let me know what y'all think.
Here are a few more. OH! and I forgot to mention it comes with a winch that bolts to the back, he wasn't using it so it is off right now, but he said it goes with the dozer.
Not bad............. Hi, Balzomedic. All in all, it doesn't look too bad. The wear line appears to be getting pretty close to the top of the drive sprocket teeth and there are no belly guards under the engine and transmission. (It's not a good idea to go into clearing or rock without the belly guards.) The grousers appear to be around 50% or perhaps a little better and the blade moldboard needs re-skinning or at least some fairly extensive patching. That 'tree pusher'(?????) is not the most 'robust' that I have ever seen, to put it mildly. Panels appear to be pretty straight and it looks to be direct electric start - if it's not D/E start, somebody has a problem 'cos the pilot motor is missing. I'd suggest getting the wear limit specs for the D7E crawler and a track wear gauge and checking the tracks a little more closely. Measuring center-to-center of the track link pins over four links - five pins - will also give an idea of just how much life might be left in the tracks. I don't have that information but somebody on here will have it and may even let you have it for a small 'consideration' - maybe a 'slab' of beer. LOL. I'm guessing that the winch is a double-drum power control unit from the missing paint around the PTO outlet. If so, it would allow you to run a drawn cable scraper behind the tractor. More fun. Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions - - - and post more pics.
A "b*****d" D7? It seems that this machine might be a mix of the older 160 hp version and the latter 180 hp. The 180 version had a circular shape dry type air cleaner like this one and the fenders had the outer edge bent down to vertical, also like this one. However the fuel tank was placed assymetrically on the latter models and the hyd. reservoir had a smooth curved shape (like the D8H and D9G). This one has the old fashion style hyd. reservoir and controls. But maybe Deas knows more about this than I do....
That is not the hydraulic tank and system that come with the machine.It was probably a cable dozer and has been converted to hydraulic.Noticed there is no hydraulic tilt cylinder,just manual tilt.:usa
i wish i could buy a D7 for that price here in australia
That D7 looks like a bargain if it operates well. Wish I could find one like that around here. Almost any major repair will cost as much or more than the price of the machine, so even if you get a few hundred hours out of it, you should do OK.
That Allis Chalmers. Hi, GeorgeP. Welkum too ther 4um. Most A-C crawlers that I have seen had an I.D. plate screwed/rivetted to the back face of the steering clutch case, under/behind the seat, usually on the left side. If that is missing, check the firewall and also look on BOTH sides of the engine block for an I.D. plate OR an I.D. stamped into the block itself. You may need to do a little(?) cleaning on the sides of the block to be sure that you can see whatever might there. A-C crawlers often had the model designation on a cast plate screwed/rivetted to the sides of the hardnose - the radiator surround - about 2/3 of the way down from the top. If it is still there and the tractor is a diesel, it is highly likely to have the letters HD followed a 1 or 2 digit number. If it is an older gas tractor it will most likely have a 1 or 2 letter model designation. If you can post some photos of that Allis Chalmers - after your mandatory 3 posts (I think) 'initiation' period - we'll see if anybody here can come with an I.D. on it. You can find photo posting help here: If you have MS Office installed and you need to resize any individual photos, MS Office Picture Manager is a good tool, especially as it has a set of pre-defined sizes to select from - 640 x 480 works for this site. Just click 'Picture', 'Resize', 'Predefined width and height', select the size from the drop-down menu, 'OK' and 'Save As'. Alernatively, you can download PicSizer 3.0, a freebie pic re-sizer, from here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/PicSizer_d5046.html (Note. the author's site is down at the moment - select one of the alternative downlaod sites.) Another good place to look for information about anything A-C is here: http://www.allischalmers.com/ I have found them quite helpful on a couple of occasions in the past. Hope this helps.
Here's one not too far from you in Valentine, NE.... listed on the GSA Auction. 1981, CATERPILLAR D7E, SN 75E654 Looks in good shape, but who knows...If I didn't have my D6 I'd be looking at it pretty serious. It sells Sept. 30th. http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/ (listed as "1981 Dozer" under "construction equipment")
If its got desent rail, grab it.
I have bought quite a few old cats over the years. And if you are planning on buying it to make money with it, i have some advice for you. 1: Don't get discouraged. 2: Have a good banker, preferrably the small town type you get drunk with in the pub on saturday nights, that makes borrowing money easy. 3: Have lots of tools, a hard head, and the upper body of a gorilla!
Boy did you hit on the head on all three points. You forgot to mention the tech manuals, the parts books and http://www.machinerytrader.com on your favorites list where you can buy a lot of "new old stock" Cat Parts for pennies on the dollar too. I bought all of my CAT fleet starting back in the mid 1970's and still have all of it. The off breed stuff is all long gone. I have cut way back on the projects I take on now but my iron has paid the bills, the mortgage and put two daughters through college. Some years were good, some not so good and some just plain rotten. When I was a kid you could earn a living around here with just a medium size dozer, but those days are long gone. Now you need a diversifed fleet and must be able to do it all.
Thanks Deas Plant - Sorry for the delay have been out of pocket. Will down load pics, Thank you Digger for your advice,instr and help try to get them posted this P.M.