Thoughts on a D7H Dozer

[McQueen]

I am looking at buying a D7H to to help out our D5N and 320 excavator.
We are clearing cut over timber land. The D5 and 320 are doing an ok job but I think we would do a lot better with a bigger dozer with a stronger blade. our D5 has a six way blade not so good on working around stumps.
The D7H that I'm looking at is a late 80 machine with leaver steering and a simi u blade.
I am needing advise on how you think this dozer would work in what we are doing.
I had thought about a D8 size machine but we only had a 35ton lowboy and this is about as big as we can haul.

 

[Rajbir Lorriet]

Hey congrats! Enjoy your new one!

 

[Shimmy1]

7H is a tough old dozer. Only problem we had with ours was the hydraulics would heat up if you were doing a lot of leveling. The hydraulics were a little slow, I would guess a worn out pump was probably to blame. Getting on a 7 from a 5 will be a treat, if you get one.

 

[D6 Merv]

D7H is a brilliant machine; heres a pic of one and a big Monterey pine stump I pushed out

 

[nicky 68a]

I was often curious on this question as I thought many years ago about replacing one of my D8H tractors with one.I saw the 1st D7H lgp one winter pushing cat 631's over sticky soil tip w.It was a monster and didn't know when to stop pushing.I then drove a few over the years and was highly impressed with the beasts but never jumped in and bought one.Problem was that I did alot of hire work and you couldn't get the right money for them but on your own work they would be priceless.

 

[nicky 68a]

I've heard it say that they are expensive on fuel......Perhaps, but so what?,it does the work of a d8,it's also as dear on tracks as a d8,maybe even more so....but it does a great job and looking at the overall running costs per hour,you have to remember that any engine parts are easy to fix and diagnose,very easy to source.The finals are fast to remove,as are the steering clutches and transmission.This is a massive financial bonus if you are paying for a self employed fitter to do the work.The parts will be just as ball clenching to pay for as any machine,so,if it's your own job,I'd go and buy one!!
Bear in mind I've never actually owned one.

 

[McQueen]

Thanks for the advise. Sounds like it would do a good job for us. How much should someone charge for the D7H hourly? We also do work for the public, we are getting $100.00 per hour on both D5 and 320. In our area that is kinda the going rate some even less.

 

[Shimmy1]

Oh my. We were getting $120/hr for 200 how 15 yrs ago, BEFORE the oil. 5 yrs ago, we were getting $160 for the 7H. I don't know if you could afford to run it under $125/hr. That dozer is going to burn 15-20 GPH. It's a lot, I know. If I remember right, I think they have a 235 gallon tank, and you could empty it on a long day. But, it will move a mountain in that DA, too.

 

[McQueen]

I was hoping to get $140. Reading some of the post on here for the past year or so it amazes me how much different the pay scale is from state to state. I guess it depends on where you are located. But we all pay about the same for parts,fuel and cost of doing business.

 

[oldirt]

According to Cat literature a D7H fuel refill capacity is *125* gallons. NOT 235. Factory hp is 215. operating weight is shown as 50,225# open station bareback.

I will say this, an old road builder was quoted as saying "if you need more than a D6, go get the 8".

the tractor you mention does not have differential steer, and after running one I would not be interested in the clutches, unless at a rather steep discount, best of luck.

 

[McQueen]

oldirt that is what I kinda thought when we realized we needed a bigger dozer for what we were doing. Moving up to an 8 but then I would have to hire someone to move it. So that put me to looking for something bigger I can still move. I have been looking at older D7Gs They also have steering clutches. If I understand right the D7H high track is quite a bit easier to work on if you had problems main drive train. What are the down side to having clutches? The dozer is not at a steep discount but it is a one owner. $55000 and 13000hr has had torque put it and under carriage is 90+

 

[Nige]

Absolutely no downside whatsoever to having a steering clutch/brake system versus a differential steer IMHO.
Personally I'm not a fan of differential steer at all, I think the system is far too complex and finicky compared to a clutch/brake system which is pretty much bulletproof.

We had 9's with differential steer and got shot of them and replaced with clutch/brake machines at the first opportunity.

 

[nicky 68a]

I would take a look at it at that price.If tracks are that good,then it seems a fair price to get me looking at it.
I have run a few D5/D6H tractors with steering clutches and never even touched them in 12000 hrs .They were sold on at deacent money.I have,however,kept the D5H with 14000 hrs on it.This tractor has worked on batters for most of it's life and suffered with the brakes being tired at 13400 hrs.We replaced the clutches with new clutches etc at around £600.00 per side including the fitters bill.Thats about $1500 US for the entire job both sides.
Can't argue with that as the job was done over a couple of days.

 

[nicky 68a]

Back in the 1990's I did quite alot with D5H/D6H and D9N tractors.They were all pretty bomb proof and amongst some of Cat's finest and simple engineering.My own tractors consisted of D5H/D6H and 9 x D8H/K tractors.I never took the plunge on any hi drive D8's as I was mainly towing scraper boxes and I didn't fancy trying to make money out of D8L or D8N tractors , but If a ripping job had arose,I may have plumped for a series 2 D8N

 

[tctractors]

The D7H/R is a blistering bit of kit that can push in a D8 way, in the U.K. we tend to run LGP tractors as they have more power and like to work in rain, I used to get involved with a Company that ran 3 D7's (2 R series 1 H series) the common issues involved Fan hub bearings that cost very little and Air Fuel Ratio rubber bits that cost even less, the 3306DI motor is about as good and as cheap to run and work on that you will find, I used to even pop the F/Drives down to clean out the bit of oil that fails to drain in the back bearing, we would run these LGP's on super steep work with no trouble, the blades being well over 14ft wide shifted a good amount in a long day (12 to 15 hours) the fuel they used was very good against the level of work they managed to do, a D5?? is not any good for pushing yardage muck as its built for squaring up areas and is not a player in yardage-earth moving, a D7 will always earn its Oats and not need a Bank lone to run.
This is only my thoughts and experience with the older High Drive D7's tctractors

 

[McQueen]

Hey Thank you all for the advise. I have decided to leave out in the morning to check it out in person. If it checks out ok I will get it, from what you all have said I think it will be just what we are looking for. Oh yeah D6 Merv that is a nice looking tractor you have there and pushing a big ol stump. We have some big old hard wood stumps in our area. And they can be a bear to get up some times lol gives the ol 320 a work out.

 

[D6 Merv]

Had a 320C helping too

 

[McQueen]

Sorry I had doubled posted

 

[theironoracle]

D7h is a very well balanced dozer with good horsepower to the ground. D5h is a tinker toy built to square things up as TC says. Cost of hourly ownership is in the $75/hr range add fuel at 10-ish gph plus operator. I second the bit about clutch and brake being a better mechanical design than diff steer. Show us pictures or better videos after it shows up....TIO

 

[Shimmy1]

I was thinking of the HP when I was guessing fuel capacity. Only other thing about the 7 is they like decent ground under them. I had ours stuck numerous times. Every time it was the front-end falling in and there you are, hung up on the nose. But, it was situations where you have to back up. Pushing out a tree next to a pond, pushing dirt into a hole with water in it, stuff like that. As far as the diff-steer vs. clutch discussion, don't think it applies to a 7. Chances are you're not working around obstacles with a machine that big, and that's where diff-steer comes into play. JMO.