Another Track loader

[b116757]

I believe I’m going to go look at a Cat 955L track loader this weekend guy is asking $17,000 for it. I have a Cat 951C already but I could keep a track loader on each farm this way and not have to move it between farms anymore.

 

[rocksnstumps]

There is a 977 parked in a farmers yard since last Fall about 3 miles from me. Looks like a beast. Not sure what the deal is. Hasn't been moved in months but see no sign either

 

[b116757]

I’ve got a couple 977K for sale near me and they are beasts for sure but the 955L’s seem to way more plentiful and I believe I could pick up an entire parts machine relatively cheaply if required for some reason. There was a 977K with new undercarriage for sale last week that got snapped up pretty quickly for the price the guy was asking. I looked over the ad several times before it was marked pending.

 

[Turkish]

I believe I’m going to go look at a Cat 955L track loader this weekend guy is asking $17,000 for it. I have a Cat 951C already but I could keep a track loader on each farm this way and not have to move it between farms anymore.

I’ve always felt like these were the ideal machine for heavy duty habitat work. I’d love to hear what you look at on these to get comfortable buying one with a lot of age on it. Are you set up with heavy equipment to work on these if something goes wrong? $17k seems like a great price for something usable, until you get a $10k repair bill. Is that a realistic concern?

 

[b116757]

I’ve always felt like these were the ideal machine for heavy duty habitat work. I’d love to hear what you look at on these to get comfortable buying one with a lot of age on it. Are you set up with heavy equipment to work on these if something goes wrong? $17k seems like a great price for something usable, until you get a $10k repair bill. Is that a realistic concern?

Yes motor could easily run $10k or under carriage.

On crawlers and dozers the undercarriage has to be in decent shape because they are expensive to replace. I look at the final drive sprockets the rollers and chain they are in contact with and the track pads. Replaceable final drive sprocket segments are a plus but not a deal breaker to have as long as the other style sprockets are in good shape. Turbo machines have more HP but don’t last as long between engine rebuilds so there is a trade off for that hp and turbos can run $5k. If you’re not mechanically inclined and don’t mind tinkering on the old equipment I would not recommend it because there is always something that needs fixing. Also with the small older machines a decent sized bobcat is a better choice way more versatile for most folks all sorts of attachments or possibly a mini excavator.

We built 1 3/4 mile of new fence last year alone. I’ve got 8 miles of perimeter fencing not including all the cross fencing and 11 farm ponds it’s much cheaper for me to own heavy equipment than contract out all my dirt work this is likely not the case for most people. Now if your looking to do some major dirt work on your property than buying a piece of equipment doing all the work and selling it again isn’t a bad way to go if again working on equipment doesn’t bother you. You could spend way more money on some newer low hour machine do the work and sell it again so you don’t have $70k sitting in your yard rusting if I decide to build another larger pond I may go that route myself.

 

[jsasker007]

Undercarriage for some thing that big might be $20,000 now. I put $10,000 into a kamatsu dozer for undercarriage and that was only a D3
Almost 10 years ago

 

[b116757]

I bought it $15,000 for it.

 

[rocksnstumps]

You now have two of them?....lucky bastard. Been always partial to the track loaders since the ole man had an International T6 with Bucyrus loader. It was actually the first thing I ever got to drive as a kid trying to help jumpstart his equally old and tired dump truck bought on the cheap at a county auction.

 

[b116757]

 

[b116757]

You now have two of them?....lucky bastard. Been always partial to the track loaders since the ole man had an International T6 with Bucyrus loader. It was actually the first thing I ever got to drive as a kid trying to help jumpstart his equally old and tired dump truck bought on the cheap at a county auction.

Yes two of them one for each farm

 

[drycreek]

I used to have a D5 LGP dozer. Had it for several years while I was cleaning up a place I had. It was a leftover from when I owned a construction company. It was mighty handy at the time, but when I was through with most of the work I found that each time I needed it for some small project I’d have to jump it off. When I sold that place I brought my dozer back home. Again, almost every time I used it, I’d have to jump it off. I just didn’t run it enough to keep the batteries up. Someone wanted to buy it so I let it go. I figured if I really needed a dozer I could rent one. I still have my backhoe though, a JD 310, and it is as handy as a pocket on a shirt. I’ll never sell it, I’ll leave it to my son.

 

[bjseiler]

What size tree can you knock over with one of those?

 

[b116757]

What size tree can you knock over with one of those?

Depends a lot on species of tree to be honest. Osage orange is what I deal with the most and they are a shallow root system tree so pretty much any size of them. Oaks, hickories hackberry and honey locust are a tap root tree and limits me to probably 12 dbh with no digging out root system with digging you can take down anything but that takes time. Often on fence rows if I run into very large trees I just saw cut them down Tordon RTU the stump and roll on its faster than digging out a root ball. If I did this for a living I’d run a Cat 963 most likely but that’s a 45k weight machine much larger that a 951C or 955L that I use for my farm use machines. I will say these track loaders for farm use are really handy the ability to lift is the bomb diggity and I can push in 11’ pipe posts as long as I’m not in a rocky area.