i know out here in CA it is somewhat rare to see a track loader. but i know in PA they are common. In your area do you use track loaders on a daily basis??
You dont really see them around here.
I know of 2 around here. One is used on a farm and the other for logging. Not sure of the model but both are old Cats.
We have 3 track loaders and use them quite often.
Not many around here. There are a few old ones scattered around, but I can't think of any newer ones.
We have a Case 455C track loader & it may go a couple months & only get a few hours, but for the past month, it has been one of most used machines. It just depends on the jobs we have going on. Several times we have thought about selling it, then something comes up where it is the perfect machine for the job.
Thats all they use around here to dig foundations with. When I lived in boston everyone had a dozer and an a excavator to dig and grade lots. Here everything is done with a 953 or 963. Aka why all the grading looks like crap.
A lot of guys have them down here in Socal not some many new ones, but old 977s. There all over the midwest and TX.
Down here in centeral Texas the is a lot of 953's, 963's, and a lot of 973's. Don't see to many older ones any more. On ranches the is a few older John Deere 555's. Most people dig and load trucks, and clean up with a dozer or blade.
here is some cool pics
The only ones i've ever seen in SoCal are are mainly used to dig swimming pools.
That is when they made real track loaders.
977l The old 977L is an awesome machine. Love to run one for demo. It's got power that just won't quit. and fun to run too, you gotta do something, feel your way through, not all electonic gadgetry inside. Just love 'em. By far my favorite "wrecking machine".
Only seen one in my life and it was a Cat 977 sitting at a used equipment dealer a long time ago, would love to have tried that ol boy out though!
The newer Cat's are quite common in my area. But then again, with the tremendous amount of development around here, you can find any machine somewhere close. Most 953's and 963's are used in the big sky-rise developments doing backfills, loading trucks, working in the parking garages, etc. Also fairly commonly seen working in conjunction with graders in parking lots, residential streets, etc. The 963's and bigger 973's are often seen working on the heavy highway and reservoir projects up in the cuts on the canyon walls. Once you put a crusher in the cut to process the material, there's not enough room for a 966 or 980 to turn around, and the track loaders have more power to dig native [rock] material than the wheel loaders.
Never seen a trackloader in person. Ever. I thought they were dead 30+ years ago.
really? there are a good many of them around here.
How about this probably from the late 70's... radio controlled track loader by Komatsu
And a big one... D155S
Should be IMO they are outdated, but they are fun.
A 941 and a 955 CAT. I put lots of hours on both of these machines.
Here in PA track loaders are all over the place, and some people in other parts of the country have never even seen one. So why is there such a wide range of use of track loaders around the country? My uncle works for an excavating company in Michigan. I remember my unlce telling me that the owner told him that he would never own another track loader. I think the company has 80 or 90 pieces of equipment, I know he has excavators from mini's to a pc600 and everything in between. I think each piece of equipment has its own advantages and track loaders have theirs too but in most cases there is probably a better choice of equipment that would be faster and or cheaper.
I had no idea that there use is so is so varied. Every excavtion company around here has atleast 1. One of the companies in town has a rebulit 977L, done up in new style paint and everyting. For a long time I didn't know that people actully used wheel loaders to load trucks except in quarrys, plants, anywhere tracks would get torn up. I think the company that has the 977L doesn't even own a wheel loader, or they never use it.
There is a couple in my local area but old. You'd have to ask Deas if they are using many over on the East Coast. They were quite common but you see them less now. After the day I had spitting off tyres and getting bogged I would have taken any #!*^%!#:cussing ing thing with tracks on it.:spaz
Track loader uses - and abuses. Hi, Folks. I too have put in the odd hour or ten on track loaders, mostly Cats with the odd Kummagutsa, Case, International or JD just for variety. The biggest I ever ran was a Cat 983 and the 'littlest' a Case 310. Track loaders are fairly high maintenance compared to 4wd loaders and excavators and they won't produce like either of them or a 'dozer in the applications that those machines are normally used in. However, there is NOT - in my humble oppinion at least - another machine type anywhere that will do ALL the different types of work and odd jobs that a track loader will do, especially if it happens to be fitted with a 4-in-1 bucket and rippers. You can have the nicest 'dozer you can possibly wish for and a scabby, work-worn, beat-up old track loader and the track loader will be out doing all sorts of things while the 'dozer is eating its head off in your barn. Track loaders are seldom the best tool for the job for any of the jobs that they can do but there is nothing else that can do so many jobs and still be only ONE machine. Just my 0.02.
Our guy we use for backfilling big houses has a track loader. He can dig into piles and dump faster than any other machine. Comprable 4wd loaders will not dig into packed dirt the way these machines can IMO. -Eric
they r used to dig pools here they can bang out a pool in a day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHzldCUwuAM&NR heres a video
You mean a 310 like this one? (I apologize for the quality of the picture. somewhere along the line it got wet, and the back of another picture stuck to it. It's the only one I have of the old 310, taken back in about 1979...)
BTW, as a side discussion about safety, no ROPS, and a LOUD diesel, with a straight pipe, about 4 feet in front of the operator's head. Part of the reason that "huh?" is so much a part of my vocabulary today... 3 speeds forward, and 1 reverse, through a dry clutch. Steering was by wet brakes in the transaxle. No sealed bearings in the track rollers, but they did each have a grease fitting. A big threaded rod for track tension adjustment, not some sissy pumped full of grease setup. And note the round bottom of the bucket--not much help when backdragging. I still have one of the ripper teeth...
He seemed to be doing pretty good till I saw the back of the machine 3ft in the air. He should have eased it back down right away. I hope he didn't let it drop back down.
I had an AC HD4...& a JD 555 for awhile neighbor had a Int. TD-14 on the farm...sold it to someone i know...has just set for quite a few years... back in the early 70's, you were big time if you had a trackloader & backhoe...
Thats all you see around here for basements. The machine can do so much and easy to move that it comes to convience. Why haul 2 or 3 machines to do a job one can handle? I have been told by the local CAT sales man that KC sells more track loaders then anywhere in the world. I dont know how true that is but from reading everyones post it could be possiable.