D8K or D9N need advice!

Looking to buy a dozer. Right now I have excavators. I’ve only run smaller dozers before but looking to buy something for myself.

I do excavation work, land clearing, house pads and I have 50 acres of my own I need to rip a house pad and rip my pastures for better drainage.

my options I’m looking at now are a D8k for 55,000. Machine runs good, undercarriage is about 70 percent. Pins need to be replaced sooner than later.

other option is D9n for 50k. But has a cracked head and need some other work as well.

any ideas?

thanks!

Those sound like very large machines for moving, unless you own or have access to a heavy float? What type of soil are you ripping?

Perhaps a D6 size would be adequate & much easier to move around?

Located in Hawaii. The transportation for either machine is pretty similar here. I need the 8 or 9 to be able to rip the lava rock.

some more background info on the D9n, apparently the back half caught fire a few years ago and they replaced everything on the back, new valves, hoses, seat, all that stuff. Then they blew the motor and put a reman motor in it, ran that for a few months and then overheated again and guessing that the head is cracked. It runs good and doesn’t miss except that the water just blows straight out the exhaust.

I’ve read some other stuff that mentions the Ns were always trouble so wondering if I should avoid that project all together

The 8K has a D342 engine. They are getting pretty slim for some parts. The 9N has a 3408 still lots around.
What is the serial number of the 8K ? that was a machine which had a lot of updates to it. It was a souped up 46A. which cat spent 7 years improving.
9N was a 8L with longer undercarriage and a paralagram ripper instead of the 4 barrel hinge ripper.
The 9N will be a far superior rip cat over the 8K close to 13K heavier and most importantly, suspended undercarriage.

I’m not sure of the 8k serial number.

I understand that the 9n will have much better ripping ability as well as be able to move more material. However not every situation I will be in I will want the extra weight that comes with.

As far as machines go though it sounds like the 8k was basically upgraded and thought about for many years to get to what it is, however I have heard that they have something fail in the engine that drips oil pressure?

And the 9n seems like the youngest generation of that style and has its own issues.

If you could pick between the 2 machines what would you pick? The 9n could have a lot more going on then a cracked head but will never know until it’s too late.

The 8k is a bit over priced but currently running, although it too could have major issues without knowing

I love D8K’s and D8H’s and I’ve had about 11 of them at last count.
But,no more.
Engine blocks are very scarce in the UK (they may be easier to find in your part of the world?).Other parts are getting harder to find allthough non oem parts are quite readily available.
I’d have thought D9N parts were readily available and they were a good tractor as far as I recall.
However,the D9N you have in your sites sounds like a lemon to me.
Perhaps,look elsewhere for another tractor.
Perhaps a nice D8R?.They are a world apart from an old D8K and would give you the weight and rip ability factor you require without the higher running costs of a D9.
Just a thought

nicky 68a said:

I love D8K’s and D8H’s and I’ve had about 11 of them at last count.
But,no more.
Engine blocks are very scarce in the UK (they may be easier to find in your part of the world?).Other parts are getting harder to find allthough non oem parts are quite readily available.
I’d have thought D9N parts were readily available and they were a good tractor as far as I recall.
However,the D9N you have in your sites sounds like a lemon to me.
Perhaps,look elsewhere for another tractor.
Perhaps a nice D8R?.They are a world apart from an old D8K and would give you the weight and rip ability factor you require without the higher running costs of a D9.
Just a thought

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in your experience with the d8k is there anything in particular that I should make to check before buying? Any thing I should walk away from the deal if I notice?

appreciate the advice!

Here's a little factoid for you ,I was at the Cat store last month and the engine bay had a D342 engine almost put back together.
I asked about 45 and the shop boss said at 55k and not put back in.
And this was just a heavy overhaul not a blowup.
You are looking at a 40+ year out of production machine.
Bob

There is a new D342 complete engine for sale in northern Ca. looks like ex military. $33000.00 been for sale for some time. i would have thought it would of sold by now.
Kind of shows that most 8Ks are not in a high use or need application now. I owned one for a very long time. They are a very good machine if maintained well. Now most are very tired.
Cost of repairs are high on them. Not a modular machine. Transmissions, rear ends and finals are high labor projects.
If I were considering one, component hours, serial of the machine is big. What updates does it have, total frame hours.
You could be looking at a 30 to 40 thousand hour machine. Keep in mind the design of that tractor put lots of working stress directly on final drives. The high drive machines frames have a longer life span because of the design.
The High drives cost to remove components is much lower. Example 8K final 40 hours to r and r. High drive 2 hours. Transmissions and rear ends are the same ratio.

They were a great tractor in their day. I know a couple of big dirt contractors who had around 40 of them at one time. But the time for them has passed. I agree with Nicky, we had 8r great tractor. You can find series 1 machines for a good price.

We have a D8L, basically it’s the older version of the D9N. It’s a whole different class of machine compared to the flat track D8. The 3408 engine seams to be good overall. I believe it shares a lot of parts with the 3412 and there are a lot of those still running every day.

And with all this good info, why the crazy high prices for 40 plus year worn out high stressed major parts, dozer like a D8K or H? I've seen some real messes with some crazy prices.

bcole4 said:

in your experience with the d8k is there anything in particular that I should make to check before buying? Any thing I should walk away from the deal if I notice?

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I think they are just too old really.
If it’s a hobby machine or a show machine,then fair enough,but other than that,they just aren’t for me anymore.
They are just as expensive to repair as newer ones,but the resale peaks at some point.
I’d rather spend £50k repairing a D8R than spending that money on a D8K.
Hope that helps sir

Are the machines on the big island or over here on the main land? Anything there is going to be beat up real hard because all they do is rip volcanic stuff. I did a job over there a couple of years ago where they used ripper shanks on the end of excavators instead of the big dozers. Apparently ripping with excavators wears out the ripper shanks and not all the undercarriage at the same time. I have a friend in Hilo that might be able to give you some direction. Send me a PM if you would like his phone number.

Thanks for all the info everyone. Options are few and far between over here unless you want to bring something in from the mainland which means at least $20k just to ship it.

and usually if people are selling a newer machine they probably beat the hell out of it and still want a premium

Any one there you can hire to do the ripping for you?
Bob

Nicky has a very good point. No matter how much money you put in a 8K it will only be worth so much. Like around 50,000.00

When I finally made the decision to replace the 8K it was based on looking at PMing components and not increasing the value of the machine. I needed to do the finals and rear end again. With a cost around 40,000.00.
It made more sense to sell the machine 55000 take the 40000 and put toward a 8R series 2 machine. which at the time was the current production tractor.

Bluox said:

Any one there you can hire to do the ripping for you?
Bob

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I was quoted 25k for the work I need done at my house and I have 40k of work for my business through March so I figured I might as well buy a machine to expand my capabilities instead of throwing the money away

firedozer said:

Nicky has a very good point. No matter how much money you put in a 8K it will only be worth so much. Like around 50,000.00

When I finally made the decision to replace the 8K it was based on looking at PMing components and not increasing the value of the machine. I needed to do the finals and rear end again. With a cost around 40,000.00.
It made more sense to sell the machine 55000 take the 40000 and put toward a 8R series 2 machine. which at the time was the current production tractor.

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thats very true. Would you guys consider the 9n worth it even if I have to put 30k into it after the 50k purchase price?

I don't do dozers, much less big ones, but I'd have a hard time buying a riding lawn mower from people with as bad of luck as the 9N sellers.

bcole4 said:

thats very true. Would you guys consider the 9n worth it even if I have to put 30k into it after the 50k purchase price?

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Yes.It’s worth a look