Buying a 1977 D9H

[GODSDOZER]

Plus if i find a big rake to go on the D9H i can travel right through the thickest growths (They are thick in places) and not tear up as much ground. Its sandy loam, pretty good soil and they will pop right out if done right. Plus i have to gather and stack piles of them and wait for the first snow then burn them all up. These cedars are not good for posts or i would salvage the big ones. They are not like the red cedars in Texas that make great corner posts.

I have a large rake (very heavy duty) made by Holt Caterpillar in SanAntonio Tx that fits a cat D8r, of course it can be retrofitted to fit anything. If interested, drop me a PM.

 

[DB2]

Get someone knowledgeable to inspect the machine.
As mentioned those final drives can be a fortune to repair.

A newer elevated drive machine is far easier to repair.

 

[Honky Cat]

You could look at D8's too. A guy with a big ranch up here was almost jumping out of his pants when he bought a 1980 Terex 82-50 (D9 size) in surprising good condition for $16,500cad. at RB's. It was the first machine loaded on one of the haulers (advertising at the auction) big trailers after the auction for that day ended. Someone else mentioned he had 1500 acres or something like that. When they were driving the dozer up to the ramp he was asking if the steering worked good and it did. Apparently it's normal for Detroit 2 strokes to not show much oil pressure at idle. It was a nice looking dozer. Only apparent issues were a chunk broke out of 1 track pad and the lift cylinder creeped. The undercarriage looked pretty recent like less than 25% worn.

Dave I agree on that post for sure. I appreciate the information. I am having a mechanic check out the D9H this coming Monday. it has been sitting over a year, started and tracked every week or 2, The farmer I am buying from is fixing the only valve cover leak it has and it is from dry gaskets. Going to put on new gaskets and check the Planetary drives for me and overall check the condition all over. The Farmer I am buying from is straight and upfront on everything about this Girl. I told him if this was a problem Dozer I reserved the right to have it shipped back to him for a full refund and the return shipping is on him. He agreed. I cannot distrust a guy like that, he has had 3 of them in the past and his main deal is to collect them then sell them. He just sold a D9G and he said it was iffy at best needing many changes. The one I am on(D9H) is the best one he has had. It is not perfect, surface rust on the cab, not deep salt rust eating holes anywhere. I will sand, prime, then paint her back to glory. It will have a retirement job with me, no more extra heavy work, just idling around wiping out Cedar trees. Dig out a few ponds, pull a deep plow clearing shennery, etc....Just basic Farm work. No Hoover Dam type work at all. I am 67, had a quintriplett Heart bypass last year, I feel better now than I have or can ever remember. I wish you were in Oklahoma I would hire you to mount some of those tree rails over the hood and cab.

Thanks Dave!

 

[Welder Dave]

Glad I could help I guess, I didn't do much. Knowing the seller has had a few D9's kind of as a collector sounds good. If he'll sign something basically giving you a warranty if there's a major problem is fantastic. It sounds like a really good machine. The one thing you don't want to have to do is replace the undercarriage. That would cost a fortune. You don't want to have to repair the machine that built America.

 

[Honky Cat]

Glad I could help I guess, I didn't do much. Knowing the seller has had a few D9's kind of as a collector sounds good. If he'll sign something basically giving you a warranty if there's a major problem is fantastic. It sounds like a really good machine. The one thing you don't want to have to do is replace the undercarriage. That would cost a fortune. You don't want to have to repair the machine that built America.

Welder Dave:
You are right on for sure! I don't want to have to redo anything on the Old Girl! However, as you said maintenance and fuel are big enough costs, which are mandatory in my case. We grease everyday, and tighten tracks already on our excavator,as needed, which this D9H is a much larger project. But it is coming for one thing, and that is to have a reliable machine that crawls through the THICKEST BRUSH and makes mince meat of it. I hope that I get to hear that Big Girl start up every morning that we need her and man she sounds like Howitzers going off "Popping and Blowing" every start! A real sound of America!

THANKS DAVE

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

By the way I have 2 -60's SAE 200 pipelines and need to move one of them. (Redface)

See Ya-

Honky Cat

 

[Junkyard]

I had a 59 SA200, still had the hand crank and everything. Some sorry piece of you know what stole it.

What are you asking for the one?

 

[Honky Cat]

Sorry to hear about your loss! Sounds like hou had a nice welder? Hope the authorities gind it for you.




I will take $6,000.00 for the 200 SAE Lincoln Redface. It has the doors on both sides and is on a nice single axle trailer.


Thanks so much gor your interest!

Honky Cat
Oklahoma

 

[Welder Dave]

There are others who also contributed and know a lot more about costs of running big dozers.

I have a 1961 Canadian SA200. It sounds like the one you have for sale is pretty cherry. You might want to join the Welding Web and put it in the buy and sell forum. A refurbished red face on a trailer recently sold around the price of yours. SA200's with the standard straight pipe have a very sweet bark that you can instantly recognize. Some would scoff at mine because it has an under hood muffler.

 

[Honky Cat]

Whats a dde?

 

[Honky Cat]

Mine welds and lays a pretty bead smooth as butter melting! Unbelievable!

Thanks for asking Sir!

Honky Cat

 

[Honky Cat]

Mine has a smooth continental gas engine!

Did you mean Detroit Diesel by the term: DDE?

 

[Welder Dave]

They all have 4 cylinder Continentals and they do weld very smooth. There's a reason they are still in demand. I accidently hit DDE and post reply and then went back and edited it.

 

[Honky Cat]

Again WHAT is DDE?????

 

[Honky Cat]

Nige, Dave, Everybody else i have a question for you:

How do you check the planetaries on the D9H? Is a magnet in the oil the only way looking for alot of metal? Or any other way other than tearing them down which is expensive.

Thanks

Honky Cat

 

[epirbalex]

Nige, Dave, Everybody else i have a question for you:

How do you check the planetaries on the D9H? Is a magnet in the oil the only way looking for alot of metal? Or any other way other than tearing them down which is expensive.

Thanks

Honky Cat

You can do an oil sample from both final drives , SOS kits are cheap enough . If the oil is new that won't help much . Look for a wide deference between the sample results . Won't be so easy to suck a sample if 80-90 oil is in the finals , easy enough to remove a drain plug and catch some . Give the dozer a walk to stir the oil up a bit first . If you have 1500 acres to do the Govt money won't go far @ 100 dollars per acre paying only part of the fuel if the cover is more than just a few trees per acre . If your intent is to develop a farm then it would be a welcome help no matter what they would pay . I can't get trees down with a blade or a gravity roller in anywhere near an hour , closer to two . Plenty of stems per acre as in solid canopy mine though and sloped

 

[Honky Cat]

Yes sir we were going to drain oil and check for metal, but the sample kit is a cheap way of knowing pretty exact where we are. The Ranch is 3000 acres total. Been in my Family for over 150 years which my Family settled 1873 which was before Statehood. Indian Territory was what our area was called before being named Oklahoma. The story says when my earliest Family settled on this ranch the neighbors came and helped them dig and build their Adobe Dugout and told them the Indians would come and burn them out and kill everyone there. Well, we are still there and doing well, when it rains. I have a nice Link Belt 240XL excavator. It has already dug out over 600+ acres of Cedars. This Big Girl will have an easy job pushing out 15 foot wide swath of trees to supplement the project. I understand the economics and figures you put together for analysis. There is more to this than i have explained. Plus this Big Girl will also pull a big deep plow and kill large acres of Shennery, which is a Black Jack genetic makeup of Shennery. You have to deep plow to clear large acreages of Shennery. Then run through it with a rake and pile up large piles of roots and then either pack some home(Great Smoking Wood) for smoking Briskets and Ribs, etc, or burn them like the cedars. The soil is a great soul called sandy loam. It will grow anything from Wheat to Alfalfa even Green Chiles will prosper. So this is a one time project to set the ranch up with land that has been cleared rather than how it is now. I like working like this because we can take off anytime to travel or do other things. We raise the better Registered Black Angus and Alfalfa and Oat hay. Lot of work, but so far it all makes our living.

Thanks for the information regarding this project. I appreciate all the help i can get. This Forum is second to none in my opinion!

Respectfully:

Honky Cat

 

[Welder Dave]

Again WHAT is DDE?????

Fat fingers hitting the wrong letters on my phone.

 

[skyking1]

I've not heard of shennery. I tried looking it up with no luck.

 

[Check Break]

Nige, Dave, Everybody else i have a question for you:

How do you check the planetaries on the D9H? Is a magnet in the oil the only way looking for alot of metal? Or any other way other than tearing them down which is expensive.

Thanks

Honky Cat

Read the manual then pull the filters. Then pull the fill plugs. Stand back. If oil erupts out the fill plug hole, your duocone seals are shot. When you pull the drain plugs, take a sample. If there's chunks of metal flowing out the drain or in the drain pan, you won't have to send the sample to the lab. When you replace the oil, read your manual first. Look for a priming procedure and follow it. Cheaper than replacing the finals after filling with new oil and filters.

 

[Honky Cat]

You definately know the deal!!

Thanks Chuck!
I dont have my manual yet, but will soon!

You mean the 2 engine filters?
I dont have my 3 manuels yet.

Thanks again!

Honky Cat