Hi there, Tomorrow I'm going to go look at some dozers. The one I'm most interested in is a 2001 D5M XL with 6 way blade. I am going to come out with it right now, I know absolutely nothing about dozers. BUT, I want to "look" like I am an expert. What can you teach me? I assume you should be able to lift the front of the machine off the ground with the blade, as well as tilt the blade fully in both directions with the front off the ground. Is that right? Is there some sort of a computer diagnostic display somewhere in the cab that reads out hydraulic pressures or oil temperatures or something like that? My CX210 has this so I'm curious if a dozer might as well? Oh yea, could someone please give me the basics on how to properly operate a dozer? Like what the hand controls do? I really don't know anything about them. How many hours could you expect to get out of a D5M? Well, thanks. Warren
if i was in your shoes id be finding someone that knows dozers to come look at it with me. Someone like the local cat dealer's shop foreman, or the guy that does the dozer trade in apraisals. If might be nice if they had the right stuff to check the computer fault codes. Also I'd have the undercarriage evaluated. Alot of money can be spent putting a new bottom on a crawler. Things to look at are the chains, sprockets, rails, rollers, idlers, pads, and more. Again, check with your local dealer, they have the right stuff to measure all the previously mentioned items and let you know whats left. You can check out the pins and bushings in the blade arangement if you have a helper along. basically you have him put the blade thru the functions slowly and look and all the motion points and see if there is any slop. If there are points that have shims, see how many shims remain, as the contact points wear, shims are removed, once your out of shims, it gets expensive. See if the owner has his maintence records handy. Most of all, look at 3 or 4 machines before you buy so you get a general idea of what your buying.
Wow! nothing quite like a baptism of fire I am no dozer expert though I will happily put one to work I think I am safe to say that the biggest expense and the thing you need to check over and above anything else is the running gear, essentially track chains for wear. I understand that C@t and other folk provide a proffessional service and can tell you how much life ( hours ) you have left before it gets expensive. A grope of the pins will give you a very rough idea of wear but very rough Once you are happy with the running gear then checkout the rest of the machine, next wear point I would suggest checking is the pivots on the blade. As you suggest movement in all planes under slight load should give you a good indication of excessive wear. I wont insult you by trying to tell you how to check oil levels and engine wear, but be aware C@ts used to have marks on both sides of a dipstick, one for cold and stopped the other for ticking over and warm/hot, I do not know if this is still the case, I havent touched one for quite a few years I dont know the cab layout enough for specifics but its pretty safe to assume your LEFT hand will control forward reverse and gear selection, your right hand will control the blade, probably one lever that will be quite easy to understand as you operate an exc, up, down (forward back) twist to angle, lean left right to tilt the blade. This is not guaranteed Probably a main throttle lever on right of centre consol and a decellerator on floor to your right. I dont know if it will steer by pedals on the floor or by your left hand suck it and see Dozers tend to run with the throttle LEVER at max but held off full throttle with the decellerator until you want it all, then lift the foot Dip the decellerator to drop the revs and if rolling free, dab the brake pedal before selecting other travel direction, it not only looks proffessional it saves you breaking anything including you neck If you are on softish soil the machine will come to a gentle stop anyway without the brake. Hope all this helps, and good luck. :drinkup On edit, I agree with all above, it just took me too long to type.
There's a few quick pointers for looking at the undercarriage, get someone to drive it slowly and check for any bottom rollers bobbing up and down, ones doing this are shot bearings gone Rear sprockets with square teeth are good, sharp ones are worn For chains look at the front idler adjusters, if there showing a lot of chrome the chains are nearly shot, feel the bushes underneath there should be two groves if theres more the pins have already been turned or in bad cases you can feel the pin through the bush Check how far the rails are running off the pins on the bottom rollers for roller wear, if there nearly touching the pin ends there nearly worn out. Depth of grouser is pretty obvious, most stuff that size sets off with 2" or 50mm of grouser Chech for rounded plates missing ones etc for signs of abuse, sloppy and baggy tracks etc
Here Warren, check these links... you might have to do a little searching, but you should at least get some information. The second link does have some video. You'll notice that I just typed... "how to operate a dozer"... into Google... http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Caterpillar_D5M_Crawler_Tractor http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=how+to+operate+a+dozer&btnG=Google+Search&aq=o&oq= OCR...
oh, and i forgot, take some pics, more the better, so we all can help you spend your money...
Buying your first dozer can be a great experience,If you take someone along that has operating and mechanical knowledge of a dozer.Take time to reserch the different models & different sise tractors.when I go to look at equipment ,I like to run it for 1 or 2 hours or let the owner operate it while I watch.This lets the tractor get warm gives you time to get the "feel" to it.The used dozer market is big so shop around and take an operater buddy with you.Good luck dozer hunting!
Find a dozer operator or a dozer mechanic and hire them to take a look at it for you. Buyer beware.
Ohh and don't forget to pull that throttle lever back a little bit to get it cranked.....and you have to push it all the forward to cut it off! I found out the hard way a long time ago.
Maybe armed with a $50 bucks and a case of beer you can talk an experienced operator to look at it for you. That's what I did And it was worth it to know how much you need to spend after you made your investnent
I strongly suggest you take someone who knows something about dozers and undercarriage. A bad undercarriage will set you back several big ones. If you decide to buy the dozer, you'll have plenty of time to learn the controls without looking like someone who's never been on one. There's nothing more embarissing than someone who has never used a decelerator pedal.
Here's another thought, how about going to ironplanet.com and looking at their reports on the dozers they have up for auction. you can also look at their auction results to see what things are going for
Do you mean something like... "I'm pushing as hard as I can on the damn thing, and it still won't go"... LOL OCR...
I can't add to much to what was already said. I did a complete UC replacement on a Komatsu D41P for a customer last summer and it cost $14,000. So the cost racks up quickly. Take a look at the breather tube from the motor. I don't know where that one is located, but if there is a large amount of oil getting "blown" out, it is a sign the motor is shot. Also if you have a wrench with you loosen up the oil pan plug and let just a small amount of motor oil out. If there is anti-freeze in the oil don't buy it unless you are willing to drop $10,000 on a rebuilding the motor. Look at the air filter, if you can, pull the filter out and look down the tube leading to the turbo and see if there is any sign of dirt. Poor air filter maintenance is a quick way to ruin an engine.
Yeah, it's a sight to see. I used to service a Fat Allis HD-11 for a fellow out in the country that never did figure out that decell pedal. He used the hand throttle for every operation of the dozer! I didn't try to train him otherwise. As the old saying goes "if it ain't broke...don't fix it".
Thanks everyone. I'll use all the tips. I don't know if taking an "expert" tomorrow is an option, but I don't think any plans to buy tomorrow have been made either so its not a huge deal. Don't worry, I've used a decelerator pedal before. Our Caseih 9250 4wd has one to slow things down on the headlands while turning. I'll take a lot of pics tomorrow and post them up here for you all to "spend my money". Warren
D5M should have the fingertip controls. Which means you steer with your left hand using your fingers on a rocker type switch. Never ran a machine I hated more. Jerky and underpowered. Very hard to operate.
What are you going to be using the dozer for? Ask to look at service records and don't believe the hour meter, they do tend to stop working now and then especially the ones owned by owner operators who have put a fair few hours on a machine and then 'accidentally' break the wire going to the hour meter and only fix it just before they want to get rid of the machine. If it has service records by a reputable company with the hours at the time of service recorded you should be pretty right.
Lift the blade up off the ground then watch the pins as you drop it to the ground again, if you're getting alot of movement in the tilt/lift cylinder pins the bushings are shot. Try loading up the blade as much as possible and seeing if the engine bogs out or if the tracks start to slip, you should be able to spin both tracks without the engine dying down (not a good idea to spin them alot as it wears tracks down, just making sure they slip a bit without the engine dying is fine). Also keep a load on the blade and try turning a bit to the left and right to make sure the steering clutches/brakes are functioning fine. Check to see how much grouser is left on the pads (bring a tape measure and write it down), the height of the sprockets and the rollers from bearing to outside. You can take those measurements to a dealer and they can give you a pretty good assessment of the undercarriage wear. Taking a digital camera and getting pictures of all of this is an awesome idea because even if you have no idea what is good or bad you can show the pictures to someone who knows later on. Other than that just the usual look around for leaks/dents/scratches/frayed belts/fault codes. If you are serious about buying the machine I'd look at getting samples of the oil/tranny/hydraulics done at your cat dealer, they can tell you if something is about to blow up inside just by the amounts of contamenents in the samples.