D8K Questions

[TEC]

I have a good friend that has a mid 80's D8K he bought for doing some grading on his property. He is going in for hip replacement and has asked me to check it over, finish off the grading and try to rent it out if possible.

First question is a doozy, where do you add engine oil? What I thought was the oil fill just spins so I guess it's a breather. I have greased all the visible zerk fittings, are there any that are hidden or hard to access? I am not sure about previous maintenance so what should be checked and what should be changed?

What are rental rates for something this size and how would you go about getting the info out to the farmers or contractors in the area.

All information and suggestions appreciated.

Tom

 

[DPete]

The engine fill is on RH the side of the block, it may have a lockable cap if it does you need to unlock and push the tang down then it will turn the cap off otherwise it will just spin. Trans stick and fill are under the seat, hydraulic oil window on the side of the tank, final drive oil should be up to the big plugs on the back of the finals. Fan and fan idler bearings should have grease fittings on a small block on the RH side of the engine compartment just behind the fan. Do not fill the radiator to the top, there is about a 3/4" hole in the plate if you look down from the cap, fill to it to leave room for expansion

 

[TEC]

Sounds like I got everything but the trans level. I will try the oil fill cap next time I get up there. Just left the batteries on a trickle charge. Should I change any filters or run it first to see if there are any issues. I also left some sag in the tracks but what should it be?

I would post some pics from my iPhone but I am not skilled enough to resize them for this site.

Thanks again, Tom.

 

[DPete]

About 2" of sag between the top carrier rollers, filters depend on history if you don't know then you shold check the outer air cleaner at least maybe fuel filters

 

[TEC]

Air filter wasn't bad but I blew it out, I'll have to look around for filters to see if he has any laying around.

Tom

 

[JDOFMEMI]

I'm a little late to the party, but wanted to remind TEC of the swing frame grease fittings. A lot of people miss those 2, on the rear of the machine and just underneath, where the swing frame pivots from.

A little piece of advice that always served me well was at start up, pull the transmission into gear right away and make sure the pump has drawn a prime. once it pulls a little on the tracks, put it back into neutral. If for some reason the pump does not prime, it can burn itself up in a morning warm up period.

Good luck with the old gal.

 

[Check Break]

Pull the floor boards and check the u-joint. If its dry, grease it, just don't over do it. Hopefully its been greased within the last 500 hours. You might also find its easier to grease a couple of linkage bearings this way instead of from the front of the firewall. With respect to the water pump and fan hub, don't over grease them. One pump will do every 100 hours. Check the finals to make sure they're full. You might want to inspect their filters since you don't have any machine history. If you change the filters, any filters, don't throw them away. Drain and save them so they can be inspected. Check the coolant pH when you get a chance so you know its not damaging the liners. Hope this helps.

 

[TEC]

The history that we acquired with the machine was that $22000 had been spent on repairs that included an engine overhaul and that was less than 200hrs before we purchased at auction. That's what I have found out since the first post.

I have greased most of the fitting but after reading, I may have to go exploring for a few more. I'm going to change the fuel, oil filters and check the final drives. To check the ph, do you just use a test strip? If it's off, do you use an additive package or drain and refill?

Last but not least I have this advertised for rent at $1800 per week and $6000 per month plus move, does this seem reasonable? It's less than a d6 from CAT.

Thanks again for all the info. Tom.

 

[d9gdon]

No, I think you're off on the rental rate for the week based on your $6000 monthly rate. I would price it at $2400 for a week. A weekly rental is usually based on the monthly rate divided by 3 weeks (cause 3 weeks is what the industry considers a month)plus a time penalty, even though the monthly customer keeps the machine for 28 days (it used to be 30 days until they figured out they could gouge a little more from the customer for a 4 week time period). So, $6000/3 weeks is $2000 plus time penalty(for a lack of a better term) equals about $2400. My thinking is to price it higher for a shorter period of time, as in a daily rate of maybe $750.

I wouldn't rent it to just anyone either. Rental machines sometimes are not very well taken care of.

 

[Check Break]

At $6,000 a month, you're going backwards. The cheapest rent I've seen on the West Coast is $15,000 a month. It only takes one idiot and you have a $35K repair. At $6K, you're trolling for idiots or a contractor who is going to park his machine and thrash yours.

You can find pH strips at NAPA. The coolant pH won't be off after only 200 hours unless the wrong coolant was used at the time of repair. If it is, its a judgment call whether its good enough to use a coolant additive or needs to be drained and refilled. If you drain and refill, I would use CAT DEAC coolant and distilled water. Not cheap but it will last a long time.

 

[TEC]

Your correct that I'm low on price. I didn't realize there was such a jump between medium and large dozers.

Again thanks for the input. Tom

 

[JDOFMEMI]

A cheap but fair rate on a D-8K is $10,000 per month.

It is hard to make money with bare rental on big machines. Way too much gets spent on repairs because they tend to not get cared for by the renter.

 

[turbo8781]

I agree, you are low. we just hired a K with oporater (good opporater too) @ $1000.00 a day/10 hr. day and we supplied fuel (120 gal/day) and paid for the lowboy move both directions they did all other miantenance.
A friend of mine will hire out with his H @ $180/hr. and he supplies his own fuel

 

[TEC]

Well I was back up north trying to remove the oil fill cap, lift the lever and the cap moves around, spins but will not come off. I have been pulling what I assume is the breather filter just behind it to add oil, but doing that is a pain.

Any ideas, maybe a video would be appreciated.

Tom

 

[d9gdon]

Are you holding the lever up while unscrewing the cap? The handle has to lock into the notches to get it to come off.

 

[DPete]

The tang goes down not up to turn the cap, it should catch any of 4 places on the cap unless something is broken and yes that is the breather behind the oil fill that resembles a tin can on the outside with a wing nut on top. If the locking cap is broken you can remove it from the original cap by removing the spiral snap ring underneath the cap, may be hard to do on the machine you can take the filler pipe off with 4 bolts & gasket to work on it. Maybe it is tight and that's your problem, put a crescent on the top of the locking cap if this is the case

 

[d9gdon]

OK, this one's opposite of what I was thinking.

Look at the pic; when you take the padlock off the tang drops down and locks into place so you can unscrew it.

 

[DPete]

Correct, this outer cap is actually an accessory the original stock cap is inside it. I have seen them tight enough to put a crescent on the rectangle piece below the lock. Now you gotta get that cap off for us to sleep

 

[TEC]

Okay, I have been pulling it up. I will be back up there next weekend to try it out. This cap has made me doubt my mechanical ability, I don't think I need to put the lock back on.

Thanks for all the help, Tom.

 

[TEC]

Thank you to everyone that replied to this thread. I am now able to add oil using the filler instead of taking the breather apart.

Great forum thanks to members willing to share their knowledge and experience.

Tom