I've been eyeballing a terex 700a for awhile now. Undercarriage looks good, but the engine needs some attention. It definitely doesnt have aftermarket, but I see you can adapt a d7 undercarriage, and the trans parts and engine pparts are easy enough to sort. From research, they are basically a 82-20b. Everything I've read seems to lead me to them being a pretty good dozer around a d6 in size. I haven't been able to find any fuel numbers for it, but I'm thinking close to 9gph for that 210hp version of the 6v71t? I'd love to hear feedback from anyone who ran one of these. I'm just getting started out, and was thinking it wouldnt make a bad first dozer until I can work to something else better down the road.
I don't own one, but I've got a Terex TXL300, and it's been a solid workhorse. Had a few minor hiccups with the engine, but nothing major. Replaced a couple of worn-out belts and did a quick fix on the hydraulic pump, all within budget. As for the 700a, adapting the D7 undercarriage sounds like a smart move. From what I've experienced, Terex machines are pretty adaptable, and it's cool that they're similar to the 82-20b. Fuel-wise, I'm averaging around 8.5-9 gph with the 6v71t in my TXL300, so your estimate for the 700a sounds about right.
I'd have to say Yes, you are crazy to try and go do contract work with a 40 year old obsolete tractor. People who hire tractors in for a job want to see something that looks good, performs, and provides good value for the money they're paying out. They don't want something on their property that is likely to break down, and then hang around their place for maybe weeks, while you go looking for and rounding up, hard-to-find parts. The engine and transmission parts are quite likely reasonably easy to obtain - but it's the other obsolete parts of the tractor that will give you grief. You could be laid up with it for weeks while you look for a small obsolete part that is stopping the tractor from going. There's a big difference between buying an old obsolete tractor like this for your own work, as against trying to carry out contract work with it.
We have run a 1964 Euclid C-6 since 2013 on our small placer mine; it is a really nicely balanced machine with a full U blade and ripper. A real pleasure to operate! The nearest town is a 100km away so I don’t have to worry about disturbing the neighbors! However…..I fully agree with OzDozer’s comments above regarding commercial/contractor work. For instance we were fortunate to locate a new old stock front idler/tensioner from C&C in Ohio but with shipping etc to B.C. the machine was down for a substantial amount of time. In our situation this is of little concern as it is not our primary machine and only sees occasional use. The track tensioners can be problematic (not sure if the newer machines have a more conventional design). If the grease side (used for slacking track) fails then the nitrogen side will severely over tension the track. We set up some valving/hoses with a nitrogen tank so recharging the nitrogen side is pretty easy. Our machine came with fairly new Berco rails…Sprockets are really hard to source.…
Thanks for the replies. the Parts are my one concern. I've found a few getting broken down, but of course, they are used parts as well. Honestly I could buy 2 of them and still not be in the price range of a d6 in this area. I was thinking, maybe if I could get enough work out of it that I could work up to something better over the next year or so. It probably is a bad idea.
Used dozers up here in BC tend to be excessively expensive….ours came out of Bonners Ferry Idaho in 2013 and cost us $8750 USD (plus low-bedding)It has paid for itself many times over. We mainly used it for stripping overburden in long slot pushes. Also plowing open 10km of steep mountain trail in late March. Heat: reversible fan blades lol! The Allison transmissions are really smooth, steering and braking similar; pretty good I reckon for a 60 year old machine!
yeah, they are pretty spendy around the pnw. Especially finish sized dozers
If you want to go contracting or carry out commercial work, you need to establish an image that reflects quality work and superior value. One of the ways of doing that is to have equipment that looks good, and has nice paint. When I was an earthmoving contractor (for over 30 years), I made sure our machines got regular paint jobs - usually about every 3 to 4 years. The dozers would come into the shop, get fully cleaned down, dents and buckles taken out (most incurred from clearing timber), sanded back, given a good coat of lead-based Cat yellow paint, and fitted up with new decals. For months after, I could roll up to a job with a 10,000 hr D6 or D7 and the client would say, "Hey, you got a new tractor, it looks sweet!" Then I'd have to tell them it was the same tractor they'd hired last year, it was just a new paint job!
I agree with everything that has been said except for the part about how equipment looks. In my experience customers don’t know or even care what kind of equipment I have or how it looks. I have some equipment that is brand new and some that is 30+ yrs old, all the customer cares about is that they got a good final product, on time, and for the agreed upon price. If Cat is too expensive for you (it is for me), there were lots of other good D6 sized dozer that will have far better OEM and aftermarket parts support than Terex.
Side money you say? is your day job operating for someone, and do you have access to the lowboy? That would be a factor for me.
In my neck of the woods 'age of equipment' and 'image' has very little value. It is ALL about the quality work at a competitive price. A competitor of mine has some fairly new equipment that always looks amazing. He spends most days driving around in his new pickup seeing what all the other contractors are doing because he has no work. His finished product is consistently very poor. If it wasn't for his inheritance he would be in the soup line!! Basically saying, if you can consistently do good work at a competitive price word will get around and you will be busy regardless of your 'image'. Can you buy that machine and get it in good running order without borrowing any money? If so, I would say go for it. Run it for a year or two then you will have a better feeling if it is going to work or not. Starting out with a sizeable monthly payment is a recipe for for disaster in my opinion. Just my $.02
I'm not sure a 50 year old dozer in any condition is a good piece for making some 'side money' If a dozer is moving it's costing the owner money, maybe you'd be better off with a stump grinder or something along that line. jmho
Wanting work as a side job puts you in a conundrum. You need low cost equipment because it sets most of the time. But you absolutely need very dependable equipment because you are planning to do a job on the weekend when there is no extra time and parts typically aren't available.
Contractor I knew always had nicely painted equipment and not in the best working order. His exact words were " if they look good the customer will feel sorry for you when it's down"
What are your intended customers like , are they wealthy ? If they are get a newer dozer as it will be them paying for your tractor . When I was contracting mine were not , late 80' early 90 ' were hard times for NZ farmers . Work was still needed to be done . Its far easier to operate an old dozer cheaper than a newer one when your parts supply can be found in overgrown hedges . Its not a good idea to turn up and not be an experienced operator , if you can't gain dozer time on your own land get some time operating someone else's dozer . You can pick up the odd client working for somebody else as well . Nobody likes paying transport and I found my dozer had work lined up soon enough on other farms when I turned up to work on one . I had the privilege to see my work on Land Agents photos used in part to sell a couple of farms as the years have ticked by .
Just remember “side work” is drying up. Especially here is the PNW. Every dump trailer contractor is hungry for work right now and it’s getting slimmer by the day.
I'm a millwright, and I travel for work spring and summer. I have summer and part of winter off. Lot's of time to do side work I figure. I'm just looking to get into something I've always been interested in. Who knows where it will lead down the road. I do not have a lowboy, but I do have a guy I can rely on that runs a few trucks. I don't do a 9-5 type of job. I usually have the summer off. The parts I can see being the biggest issue. What I kinda look at it like. I could pick up this 1981 700a, has full rops enclosed cab, and looks actually nice, and pick up a second 82-20b for parts and still be ahead rather then buying a 70s to mid 80s cat of the same size. They are both going to be older machines. I honestly don't know how easy it will be to get parts for a older cat, but it's gotta be easier then the terex.
Is there a specific type of excavation you are wanting to do that requires a dozer of that size? Or do you just want one and looking for a way to make it earn it’s keep? What other equipment (including trucks/trailers) do you currently own, if any?
The reason I was looking at something a bit bigger. Not everybody can store or move larger equipment. It's much easier to run a f350 and a dump bed and mini excavator around, but I'm not really interested in that. I've been looking at some land clearing this side of the cascades, but I also have some good contacts for some work out in the yakima valley area. I also have property out in tampico I can operate out of as well as some here in nw oregon. This machine just sparked my interest, and I figured it may be worth getting. I'm currently shopping for a late 2000s 120 sized excavator. I'm buying everything out of pocket so if it sits, it sits. I'm single and already have a good career, plus no kids. It puts me in a pretty good position to spend some money on side hustles when im off.
The dozer was just a side thing I was thinking about. I've got a freight shaker coe with a big cam, but I don't really have any intentions of using it. I really don't wanna go big enough to where I need a low boy. Im shopping for a late 2000s 120ish sized excavator with thumb and a few buckets. I'm also kicking around the idea of a high flow ctl around 90hp. I've already got cash for the excavator, and a partial for a ctl. I figure by this summer after my work season I should have enough to get a dump truck and trailer. The dozer sparked my interest, and I could use it on some personal projects. The under carriage was in great shape and it kinda got me thinking it might not be a bad piece of equipment to work down the road. It would open up some stuff. It should weigh in at around 36k I believe. I should be able to get a tri axle trailer that could move that as wel as the 120.
Ok that clears up a lot, your situation is different than many of us may have been envisioning. If you can swing a 120 excavator, dozer and dump truck you should be well set to make some decent side money if you play your cards right.
I've always been "odd man out" in my beliefs and I say if it's something your interested in and think it will fit in the plan, you should give it a go. Nothing ever gained without risk, or effort. You are not going to send a marginal old tractor out onto a jobsite "hoping" it will finish the task in good conscience, but it would be prudent to have a contingency plan in place regardless. If that tractor breaks, (and what doesn't) you could have another tractor deployed from a rental place within the next day. Most people are considerate, or tolerant of mechanical breakdowns and setbacks if your pricing schedule isn't exorbitant and you don't hawk abilities you cannot produce. That just makes you look a fool. I have a farmer friend with a Euclid dozer of some sort I can have if I'd move it. I'm foolish enough to grab it once I have an RGN trailer (in work now). This one has a 6-71 Detroit and powershift but I think, (can't remember) some of the u/c needs attention; but it may be a planetary. Regardless, it still will move under it's own power. Just need to keep oil in it. They said they were done with the tractor but was reliable. Have another farmer contact that will let me have his HD-19 Allis tractor if I'll move it. It needs winched as the powershift pukes oil again he tells me. Probably if fixed right it wouldn't do that but supposedly it too runs, (or did) well. There's always jobs for those not too good to do them. I don't have any problems lining up work and I don't even look, or solicit for it. Just get your name and reputation out there and stand behind your word.
1693TA - That can't be a HD-19 if it's got a powershift transmission. I believe the first Allis-Chalmers with powershift transmission was the HD-21 in 1963. The HD-19, HD-20 and earlier HD-21's had a Twin Disc torque converter with a sliding gear transmission behind the converter. Just remember new A-C undercarriage is non-existent and is the reason why so many A-C tractors have been scrapped. For the OP - being able to move your tractor is a critical factor in doing contract work. Being reliant on another haulage operator to move your tractor is a factor that will add to your operating costs or create delays. Of course, some contractors charge a movement fee to transport tractors. I always had trouble trying to introduce such a fee, and making it a fair charge, so I elected to charge a higher hourly or contract rate and didn't charge for tractor movement.
You are correct Oz. I think it is a HD-21 and he told me it has an HD-19 rear installed. It has a Detroit 110 in it and I don't know if that is original as I've never seen another except in an older HD-20 IIRC. All the HD-21's I've seen had 844ci Allis-Chalmers engines. Kind of a cabbaged affair too. Said they pulled this one apart years ago and resealed it but apparently didn't hold up. It is a powershift for sure.
The HD-19 came out with the Detroit 6-110, and they're a rare beast today. I don't know that there's much parts support for them now. Yes, the HD-21 came out with the Buda 844, which was then redesigned into the "Thousand Series" A-C direct injection engine - but still basically a Buda 844. Sounds like the tractor is a real "bitza", bits of this, bits of that. A powershift tranny sure does make it a HD-21.
There is another tractor there with trees and vegetation growing up through it in various places. I was a few hundred feet from it so didn't get a good look. Lots of parts removed and on the ground for years. Thinking about it that tractor was probably the donor for the parts to keep this one going. That property used to be a coal mine and both tractors were left when the mine closed.
Thanks for the replies. I eyeballed a few older alice chalmers machines, but parts didnt seem any better to get.
They are about the same no doubt. Used parts sources have about dried up also. Need to rebuild what you have in a lot of cases so running to destruction is not a good option any longer. A parts tractor is always a good option if one has the room.
I have a Terex D700A. I mostly use it personally but I have also done several side jobs with it. I have done a lot of work to mine to get it in good operating condition to reduce potential down time and repairs while in use. If I see anything that needs attention, I try to go ahead and make preventative repairs while I don’t have much going on with the machine. This obviously doesn’t rule out a problem while it’s working but keeping these machines maintained and not abusing them will keep it reliable and running well when you need it. I have been able to source the parts I have needed for mine, one way or another, but in most cases it does take time to get what you need, even for some of the Detroit and Allison parts. If the machine you are looking at is in good condition and you don’t mind doing some general maintenance to keep it in good working order you’ll be fine. If you can find a reasonably priced parts machine to go along with it, I think that would be a plus.
Whats your budget for a dozer?
Hy, Sorry to dissapoint, but i guess many others here have touched the live blood of the prey, From where i come from, one does not buy anything "antique" besides CAT dozers/JD wheel tractors/MB trucks/JCB back hoes/Komatsu Excavators, and reason to this is parts availability, much more than prices... Anyplace in the world u can get a CAT genuine, and if not interested buy aftermarket cause they exist, and same for the other brands i mentioned. The operational side of things tell that, that dozer or anyother with 30 plus years will fail, and soon when put to work 8h a day, i´m not saying its the engine or TXM or HYD pump... sometimes its just a stupid hose... or a wire or a sensor or freking alternator, this beeing in mind and working/living 100k away from civilization puts strain on the working time available, or dwn time. In the end u´re not making money, and u´re speending and most important is your costumers are not getting happy. My sugestion, if i was in your shoes i would buy a D6H or R, one with a 3306 engine, and with conventional TXM ( no diff steering or finguer tip control) and elaborate a plan to rebuild the components every down season. The magic of this machines is they are modular, one can repair the GB just by removing the axles and disconect controls, push it out and repair whatever is to repair, components are on thousands available every one in aftermarket. But if u like the Terex just for sake of the sound , it will give u all those assles ppl described , but its like a fat womam, some like other don´t. good luck
Hello??? WHATS YOUR BUDGET?
there really isnt one for the dozer as it isnt on my priority list. This ones under carriage is in good shape, but will need some engine work. The dozer itself is in very nice condition, and is a fully enclosed cab which is a bonus. I do love the sound of a detroit, but I'm for sure not buying it for the noise maker. Everything I've read on these make them out to be a solid machine. Even if I buy something cat, it's still going to be in a similar era. I'm going to go look over the junk at the upcoming richie brothers auction tomorrow to see if there are any decent excavators worth bidding on. I might pick this thing up anyways. I'm definitely all for preventative maintenance. Addressing issues before they fail is a huge time in up time in everything mechanical. I still don't get how half the people that run equipment run them into the ground never lubing or paying attention to anything. Then again I've come to the realization that most people do not have much mechanical sympathy or real knowledge.
How much is the Terex going to cost ya?
A good story below about a guy who almost completely restored a broken-down Terex D700A. The transmission and final drives were about the only things he didn't touch. Don't forget, those 6V-71's make more more screaming noise than you ever thought a diesel engine could make! The Detroits always sound like they're turning 4000 RPM when they're only doing 2000 RPM!! Video: Restoring a 1980s Terex D700A dozer after a long search Tim Davis fell in love with the green Terex dozers as a child and searched for years to find one. When he finally did, he spent 5 years restoring it. www.equipmentworld.com
Kind of what's in store for mine, (Allis) along the way but, I have a good steady and known base to start with.
Regarding repairs we did have to replace idler/tensioner on one side. I am a bit concerned about other side as tensioners seem a bit of a “weak” link. The 6-71 is okay but certainly doesn’t have the torque of a cat….needs to be wound fully up.