New or Used

RonL · Mar 5, 2002

I suspect that construction equipment are like motor vehicles in that new equipment loses immediate value as soon as you "drive" it off the lot. I bought a new Caterpillar 416C IT . I got it at a reasonable price ( compared with a comparable Deere ) and financed it at 0%. I put a substantial down payment on it with the idea that if I had to sell it I would at least be able to sell it for what i owed on it. The machine has an integrated tool carrier on the loader, a quick-tach if you will. I am using it to do a number of small jobs on my rental property in the city. Later this year I will be moving it to my land in the mountains. I expect to put hundreds, if not thousands of hours on this machine building and maintaining my house in the mountains. I am somewhat compulsive about maintaining my equipment and expect to keep this machine for the rest of my life. This is a long winded way of segueing into my question. I expect to bring in a dozer when I start clearing my land. I'm considering looking at a D4 size dozer. I'm thinking of looking at a machine with 2 or 3 thousand hours on it. I do not want to get involved in doing heavy maintenance ( ie undercarriage ) if I can help it. I expect that if I had a dozer I would put a couple hundred hours on it. I suspect that if I bought a new dozer I would lose too much value to be worth it if I sold it after doing the work I need to do. I am, however, toying with the idea of hiring out after I take early retirement.
Any comments would be gretly appreciated.

RonL

Robert_in_NY · Mar 5, 2002

You can always rent a dozer for a month or 2.

gerard · Mar 5, 2002

Buying heavy equipment like a dozer can be a problem if you don't have some experience with that type equipment and don't know what to look for. As you said you don't want to buy and get stuck with a big bill right after you get it. I think for dozers the big wear item that's hard to see are the steering clutches and the undercarriage (which you can see). On the treads check the pins that hold the track together - they should be round without flat (wear) spots and the drive gears shouldn't come to a point, if they do that shows a lot of wear and less time left until replacement is needed. You should be able to put the blade down into an earth berm and spin both tracks in place, that's a bear minimum to check transmission and clutchs. Best is to go with someone who knows equipment and I wouldn't hesitate to go to some auctions. Some of the really big stuff goes cheap because it's too big for the average operation but if you are just going to keep it on your land and don't have to worry about transport you can get something bigger for a pretty reasonable cost.

Jag · Mar 5, 2002

Ron, some good questions..... I moved back up to the hills of my dad's place 5 years ago. Needed a dozer to clean up a lot of the place, did some rough figuring and deciced I would need about 400 hours worth over two to three years... Rent, hire or buy... With that many hours I figured that the cheapest way was to buy a good used dozer use it at my own pace and maintain it well and be able to sell it for what I had in it.... I went to a lot of auctions and did not know what I was really looking at, went and looked at a lot of junk... Found one I thought was good, made a deal and was going to get it delivered, the guy sold it to someone else the next day for $2000 more when he showed up with a rig to haul it off.. The motor I found out blow with in 5 hours use....

I did meet a couple of guys at a auction, and asked what they thought about a D3 I was looking to bid on. They showed me what was wrong with it, and that was the first time I really found out what I did not know about dozers... The track was tight, real tight, why just so it would load and pull off the truck just one more time with jumping the tracks... After a couple of months they put me in touch with a JD 450c dozer that had just gone through a transmission and new undercarrage. less that 150 hours earlier.... I picked up the dozer for under $20k and now have about 220 hours on it... It is running great and I am getting a lot of work done.... Outlay oil, transmission fluid, filters routine PA, only other thing is two hydralic lines ($40) . Another year or two and may sale it... My father-in-law says it will never leave the place and my wife thinks I am having too much fun and getting too much done..

Yes get you a good used dozer, get you some one who knows what to look at with you. Check with the brand dealer who is local to your place, a alot of them will check the used dozer and give you a complete report on it at a small charge.. Also it lets you get to know what the local dealer and how he treats his customers. you will need some parts and maybe sevice at some time in the future... I would go with a John Deere or Case dozer, cost and the amount of knowledge that local maintance people have... more people have worked on them, more people have parts for them....