surferboy120
Active Member
You can get bolt on teeth adapters and teeth or bolt on cutting edge segments for the bucket. They both use the same holes that are on the existing bucket. The bolt on edges come in 3 pieces, center and 2 ends and are reversible. I think they're 8" wide, maybe 10" so will last a long time. I have both but took the smooth edge off because I found my skid steer is better for finishing things like the jump faces on my MX track. I'd recommend teeth for general purpose work and digging. A smooth edge is good for loose material and finish back blading. You'll just wear the bucket edge out the way it is. If you go with teeth I can't tell if your bucket has holes on the side for corner guard teeth where the adapter straddles either side of the bucket side plates and uses 1 big bolt through the side plate. These style teeth save the front corner of the side plates.
I've heard the JD G series are pretty good machines. The 455 in the pic. looks to have lever steering which would be a hindrance for loader work. Pedal steer lets you have 1 hand on the bucket control and 1 hand on the trans. or throttle at all times. The JD has wet steering clutches and brakes. It may just need adjusting but could be more serious if it's slow to respond until warm on only 1 side. With 3000 hours it will probably need undercarriage in 1000 hours or so. In small track loaders I'm not sure if there's a lot of difference in resale between Cat and JD. The JD is 10 years newer and track loaders are similar to skid steers. If they still work they come down to a certain price and stay there unless they're in really poor shape. It might be good to check on parts availability on the JD. Cat generally has much better support for older machines although some say it's not as good as it used to be.
Thank you Welder Dave I would be really interested in getting teeth for the bucket as I also have a skidloader its a SV340 and I have a nice smooth and also toothed bucket for it and also know it will be much better for finish work. This Cat would be used for digging holes pushing juniper over and pushing piles of it around and loading piles into a dump trailer. I also have a limestone hill which I hope to query some dirt and such from.
I will keep this thread going once the purchase is done so I can work towards getting some teeth.