John Deere 655 Crawler Bucket repair

KennyV · Nov 6, 2009

You can take out trees easy with a crawler loader. I had a Cat 933 and it took out hundreds of trees. Working on track is heavy hard work, most everything else is not so bad. Big yellow iron is built to last a LONG time, if you take reasonable care of it.
It is more fun to operate but not terrible to work on...

Did you find out what this thing did it's first 7000 hours? Is the guy selling it the same guy that has had it all those hours?

When you move the dirt for your road, 150 feet dose not sound like much ... but with a small (around 1 yard) bucket that is going to take a LOT of trips, half the distance traveled you will be empty... I would borrow or buy an old farm grain truck or a single axle dump truck. You can haul 5 times easily per trip. Use your loader to load and the truck to transport. If you buy the truck you will have it when you dig your pond. Same thing lots of dirt to move. When you are all finished you can sell the truck, or keep it, always handy.
I have done it both ways, after I bought my dump truck I couldn't believe how much faster using a truck turned out to be...
I Kept the truck and just use it on my place now. Quit tagging it and just pay prop tax on it, a handy thing to have.
KennyV

Smitty 747 · Nov 6, 2009

Kenny,

What size truck would you recommend? I don稚 have a CDL. How hard is it to get one? I would probably want a truck that I could move heavy equipment with. How large of a dump truck does it take to move a 40,000lb machine? What type of trailer hitch does a dump truck use for this task? I see them on the road all the time but never really thought about a dump trucks towing capacity.

The owner told me that it was used in construction. He has owned it the last 10 years and paid $30K for it. He has used it for farm use and has only had to do minor maintenance on it. He fixed a track tensioned and put a new oil cooler on it. According to him, this is all he has done to it in 10 years.

I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but I have talked to 3 people (all farmer types) about their long term dozer/loader maintenance costs and have been unbelievably amazed that none of them have had to do much of anything for maintenance.

MarkV · Nov 6, 2009

Have you considered leasing a machine for a month? You would end up with newer equipment, no maintenance concerns and could still finish you projects for about half of what the estimates were.

MarkV

KennyV · Nov 6, 2009

Don't know about your state bit Kansas is rather lenient on farm use... BUT you have to keep it farm not farm & construction use. You usually will not need a CDL if you are driving your own truck, without Air Brakes. Pintle hitch trailers are usually used and can be had reasonably at city, county & state auctions.... BUT why are you looking to haul your equipment be careful or you could turn your fun into real work.
If you buy good used equipment you can work it for years if not decades with very little down time, that is mainly because you are not having to work anything hard or at it's max output... if you try to beat something to death, eventually you will break something... and sometimes things just break.
If you are not afraid to repair your own stuff you will be able to handle almost anything that will come up. When you are finished and don't want to play in the dirt anymore you can always sell the equipment and come out WAY ahead plus you will have had the incredible convenience of having big equipment at hand 24-7...
Buy an old truck big enough to haul your dirt & rock, you will not need to haul your tractor around very much. KennyV

some zilch · Nov 8, 2009

for the relativly small amount of work you have outlined, you'd be better off renting a modern, known-reliable machine for a month or however long it may take. They will be glad to deliver it for you.

For the amount of work you are going to be doing, the last thing on my mind is going to be pin/bushing movement on boom and buucket linkages. a 7000 hour machine, especially an older one, in general, can be a constant money pit. little things here and there that go wrong can get really expensive when it comes to repairing heavy machinery.

I may be wrong, but it doesnt seem (by the tone and questions in your OP), that you are set up tool and equipment-wise to deal some repairs that may be associated with owning a mchine this large. machines that large almost require a 1-inch drive impact wrench, large sockets, torches, etc. taking off large heavy parts gets old if you are doing it by hand. The last thing you want to be doing it paying someone road-service rate to come out and fix your machine everytime something happens. I work in the heavy equipment repair industry, and know what costs what.

I think your best bet is rent a dozer for a month-$3000 or so. if it breaks, they fix it, or bring you a new one. Or rent the biggest tracaked skid steer you can. It will push like a dozer, lift like a loader, and carry any attachment you can imagine. crawler-loaders are an odd-duck in the equipment world-they're undercarriages are lighter duty than a dozer, but not quite as light as an excavator. they cant quite lift as much as a conventional loader, becuse of the way they steer and move. certainly a jack of all trades, but ceretainly a master of none.

KennyV · Nov 8, 2009

I have found just the opposite to be true... older equipment is VERY reliable, and used with consideration of it's age will last for decades. Will generally be cost effective to own and are not a constant money pit.

If you do not enjoy working with or on heavy equipment then don't, but don't say the reason is because you will always be repairing something.
That is similar to saying lease your daily driver because a lot can go wrong with a car and you don't want to be repairing everything that could go wrong.

Cars and heavy equipment are very dependable today. Even old cars and old equipment.
If you don't own tools you MAY have to be open to buying some someday.

If you live your life owning things that you can only have others repair and maintain for you... you either have too much money or too little confidence in your own abilities and capabilities.
We are not discussing the space shuttle here. This is after all a tractor, larger than some but not a mystery to understand or work on, I don't believe in magic and I have found most people very able and capable to do most anything. Now if the thought of owning something causes you grief and fear of work, then by all means cut yourself some slack and do not put yourself in that situation... but for those that enjoy tractors and playing in the dirt, get to it... YOU will have FUN. KennyV

Smitty 747 · Nov 8, 2009

Sorry for the slow reply. I spent the last couple days out of town Pheasant hunting.

Zilch,

Let me tap your specialized knowledge. How much money in parts would you estimate that I need to put into this machine to keep it operating for another 3000hrs? Parts only.

I did consider renting the equipment but the prices that I was quoted were nowhere near $3000 a month. I only checked my local rental place, but their price was $6940/per month for a CAT 953C not including delivery or insurance. If I could really rent something for $3000 per month, it would make sense. I checked online and $7K-9K seems the norm for mid-sized dozers/loaders like the 953. I don't believe that a skid steer sized machine would be an option based on the amount of dirt I need to move for my driveway. Another problem with renting is that I am quite slow at finishing my projects due to the fact that I work a full time job to earn a living. A month may not be enough time to finish all of the planned work let alone any future projects that will undoubtedly come up. However I am still considering renting.

As for working on the machines, I view this as arming myself with invaluable knowledge to apply to future endeavors. Sort of adding a layer to a never ending pyramid of knowledge. As one example, I started my mechanical background working on my bicycle as a kid which has slowly progressed to being extremely proficient at automotive repair. In fact, I have not had a mechanic touch any of my vehicles for over 15 years (other than body work, exhaust work, and alignments). Each time something broke I purchased the necessary tools and still did it for a fraction of the cost of taking it to a shop. My first home repair was a burst plumbing line. After numerous plumbers told me it would be the next day to repair it, I went to my local hardware store, went home with the parts/tools and fixed the leak with no problems. Currently I am in the designing phases of building my own home with my own hands. My point is not to make myself sound like some mechanical whiz, but to instead point out that most people shy away from such challenges not because they couldn't but because they believe they couldn't. I am disappointed that society has lost the DIY and the "help your neighbor" spirit. Perhaps an economic depression would bring back such beliefs.

Kenny,
I don't see a need to haul my equipment, but I figured that I may as well purchase something that will handle it in case the need should arise.

As for the machine that I was looking at buying, the owner e-mailed me that his bank would not allow him to sale his machine yet. I am not sure what exactly the problem is, but I am guessing that the machine has a lien against it. Which would have been problematic had I already purchased it. I am guessing that the bank would have owned the machine and I would have had to file suit against the previous owner to get my money back. I probably would have never seen the money again. So thinking about this scenario, I wonder what a buyer could do to protect against such a loss.

So I am back to watching for good used machines to pop up.

crashz · Nov 9, 2009

Smitty,

My father owns an excavating company and over the years I helped him with many repairs of his equipment. One thing I can tell you is: find a good reputable mechanic who will help you with the machine that you choose with his help. The best guys to know are former machinsts who have retired and are always looking for a new challenge. We've had a couple and we've trade work or cash for their services.

Not all construction equipment will need major work and cost tons of money, but the reality is that some will. Design, operation and maintenance of the equiment decides that, and some things are just not apparent until they break. Seems like you have a good ceiling to the amount of money spent on maintenance, but a major failure will cost much more $$$.

BTW - most joints on construction equipment contain bushings that can be replaced. If not, the holes can be bored and new pins and bushings can be installed. Much cheaper than replacing the bucket or loader arms.

tlbuser · Nov 9, 2009

Smitty 747 said:
I don't see a need to haul my equipment, but I figured that I may as well purchase something that will handle it in case the need should arise.

If you don't have plans to haul, then I wouldn't invest in the equipment to do it. It would be much cheaper and easier just to contract that out when/if needed. Having a dump truck on hand isn't necessarily the best plan either. Load the truck, secure the loader get off, get in the truck drive and dump. repeat how many times a day? I can keep a truck w/driver on-site for 400 or less per day.

After rereading your task list and with the news of non-purchase, have you considered a wheel loader such as a JD 544 or even a full size tlb?