I may have the opportunity to get two old dozers, I am going to find out what the situation is on them to see if they are salvageable. The 9 looks as if it was driven in and parked judging by the material in front of the blade. Am I crazy for wanting to put them to work or should I leave them alone? Everything looks to be there when I looked them over. I attached two photos.
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Graveyard Cats
- Thread starter Bdiesel_
- Start date
skyking1
Senior Member
If they had coolant and not water, and you can get things to move you might be OK.
R.D.G013
Senior Member
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- sunshine coast qld australia
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- Heavy equipment operator/foreman for about 48yrs o
D 9 looks like it has quite good track gear on it, could be a nice find.
DMiller
Senior Member
No matter which you pick if not both the expenses to get them functional will be GINOURMOUS.
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
Look up Youtube channel Jpaydirt, he works one of these and has bought 2 more junky ones, you will see the amount of brute labor and large/expensive parts necessary to keep one of these going or get one fixed.
What work will they do once repaired and running? What resources do you have to keep them running? Time? Money? Repair facility? Truck, trailer? Nearby dealer? Tools for this size equipment? Experienced mechanics? Good luck!
Coaldust
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They look peaceful where they sit. I wouldn’t disturb them.
skyking1
Senior Member
I see old dozers like that and think they would go well on dump sites, where all the work is just knocking down truck piles and making level with loose material.
You rarely do that for more than a few hours at a time so if it is a little touchy on heating up you might not get there, etc. Old rails and tracks tend to fail you in hard pushes and especially side hill work, but a skilled hand can keep them going on the flats.
You rarely do that for more than a few hours at a time so if it is a little touchy on heating up you might not get there, etc. Old rails and tracks tend to fail you in hard pushes and especially side hill work, but a skilled hand can keep them going on the flats.
It still comes down to the total condition of them. And the cost to haul them out. Don't forget the asking price either. There is one fellow on youtube that seems to get a lot of machines like that for free, just to haul them out to clean up the land. Its the cost of fuel now that really messes up any supposed "Good deal".
You may need a minimum of a D8 to move them and to load them, that is if they move freely. Personally I think the value of this old stuff is going to go way down due to changing fuel costs and regulations.
You may need a minimum of a D8 to move them and to load them, that is if they move freely. Personally I think the value of this old stuff is going to go way down due to changing fuel costs and regulations.
DMiller
Senior Member
The 9 will have to be partially disassembled, blade and lift arms, oversize even after that requiring specialized crew to haul.
Everything of them os obnoxiously large and heavy.
Everything of them os obnoxiously large and heavy.
To run big old dozers,it helps to have long arms and short pockets as you’re wallet will need to be handy quite often.
They are handy to have for certain jobs where brute force and ingnorance are to be considered beneficial and can move large amounts of muck very quickly.
D8’s are fairly handy most of the time and aren’t much more of a handful than D6’s etc.
D9’s are a different brute though.I find it a reason to start sweating just to even think about doing abit of maintenance on them
They are handy to have for certain jobs where brute force and ingnorance are to be considered beneficial and can move large amounts of muck very quickly.
D8’s are fairly handy most of the time and aren’t much more of a handful than D6’s etc.
D9’s are a different brute though.I find it a reason to start sweating just to even think about doing abit of maintenance on them
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
The guy on Youtube has a lifetime of experience operating and maintaining them. Also a very large shop, very large yard and all the specialty tooling that comes from a lifetime of using them. And a very large lowboy and blanket permit to move stuff. Plus he has owned them for a very long time and knows all the idiosyncrasies of his particular machines. Starting out cold you are going to be missing a lot of those advantages.
Sidney43
Well-Known Member
I'll echo what has been said by several others. If you want to get some idea about what is required to work on a D9 as far as tooling, knowledge and maintenance, look at some videos on Jpaydirts channel on YouTube. One of the reasons he operates a 9 is his need to push scrapers on occasion and a D8 is not big enough.
d9gdon
Senior Member
I'd like to have that 9.
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
Dave Sparks is amusing but a little high strung for my taste. Jpaydirt is who I was talking about, he just does honest daily work with his D9 and 637s and 988 and such, and also lots of fixing on them. You can get a real good idea of what is involved in all of it.
You haven't lived if you didn't work for a cheap ___ boss, that had no extra machines to use, nor a heated shop, no service truck, and had to work on old D8's, and 7's using wood, come a longs, chain hoist, jacks, prybar, chains etc. and on top of that working alone no help. It took years for things to improve there. I would have loved to at least have a fork lift then. Yes after a wait an excavator may come back to the yard, but all I would need it for is lifting the hard nose (radiator guard), or occasional engine, loading or unloading from truck things like track assemblys etc. anything else like tracks to reuse or track frames all just by hand. How many here been there done that? Anyone here move a D8 on concrete floor by hand?
I don't miss those days at all.
I don't miss those days at all.
Last edited:
DB2
Senior Member
My dad was a field service man for IHC and later Caterpillar. He used to take me along to give my mother a break. The things he accomplished in the middle of nowhere with no power anything were nothing short of amazing.
We’re all spoiled by comparison.
We’re all spoiled by comparison.
I’ve had lots of D8’s over the years and have had to move them along the yard (not allways concreted) with a hand Jack under the grouser sometimes to get them somewhere cleaner after dropping belly plates etc,or taking the dreaded steering clutches out).It was fun……..but I’m done with most of it these days