Buying a dozer, tonssss of ??????????

[Calebmanning]

Forgive me for I am new to this forum, extremely excited to have this forum for another valuable resource.

Anyways on to the BIG question,
I'm looking at purchasing a cat D4c, now I've been around dozers for quite some time, (operating that is) primarily operating excavators though but never ever have I been in the buying seat. Now obviously I'm going to be buying used but my big question is simple, what in the world do I need to check before buying??!?!?!? I don't want a piece of junk so I wanna be cautious when I buy. Is there a check list of things to look for? Hopefully y'all can help thanks.

The dozer I'm looking at is a:
1991
D4c (not sure on the series)
5500 hrs

(Seller stated that the sprockets were almost due for replacement)

Thanks in advance for the help.
This forum is extremely informative.

 

[d9gdon]

Measure the undercarriage...don't let someone tell you that it's 50, 60, 70%.

You get the new specs for an undercarriage for a D4C from the Cat dealer. You probably need to talk to their PSSR(product support and sales specialist) for this info. Take some calipers and a tape to measure the wear against the new specs(or get someone to measure it for you). Undercarriage is the most expensive part of a dozer.

You also can take oil samples from the different compartments that will shed some light on what kind of wear a machine has on engine, transmission, and finals.

 

[Calebmanning]

Okay good deal much appreciated.

 

[Construct'O]

From my experiences if they say 60 to 65% then it is closer to 30% and is shot,Good luck

 

[stathamj]

Construct'o,

Amen to that. I went to look at some, that they said were good and "ready to work". But, the bushings had completely worn through on some and was wearing on the pins. On another, the rollers were so worn out, the rollers were wearing out the pin boses at a high rare of speed. I gues some have differant view of "good & "ready to work". And they still wanted 18-25K for them and wouldn't come down on a late 70's and early 80's machine. Needless to say, I didn't get either one.

James

James