What do you consider a worthless piece of equipment?

[crane operator]

I'd love to to find a use for it, I just haven't yet. we're all rock here, so its pretty limited for digging here.

I thought I was going to hook it up for cleaning out a sewer plant pit, but that didn't pan out. Its in my yard if I need it!

 

[JD955SC]

If I only had one piece of equipment to make a living with it would be a rear engine, hydrostat Cat track loader. Absolutely love my '04 953C.

953s, 963s, and to a lesser extent 973s and 943s are extremely popular and long lived machines in my area.

 

[Willie B]

When the hole for my foundation was dug 43 years ago I knew little about excavation. Most cellars here were dug with dozers at the time. My soil is boulders, they are typically potato shaped, some as big as a HUMVEE.
It was dug by a family I've since become very close to. The boss sent his nephew to dig it. He unloaded an International 150 track loader. 150 model comes from 1.5 cubic yard Drott 4 in 1 bucket. I'll guess the machine weighs 20,000 LBS.
It took days to get 11' deep in all the impacted boulders. After that it was somewhat quicker. Drag backward to knock down a big (typically 2 cubic yard) rock, get it into the bucket. Only a few spots was he able to scoop a bucket full of gravel. The little bit of gravel he found was needed to give the machine something under the tracks.

I never see a new track loader. Charlie Abbott loved them, probably owned 20 total IH 175 model. I feel track loaders have been replaced by faster working machines.
They seem slow to me. Before the big excavators became common, loading in a gravel pit was mostly done with cable shovels, a VERY efficient way to load. A good operator can load keeping up with several tandem haul trucks.

 

[oarwhat]

Here in Buffalo,NY track loaders are rare. We have wheel loaders all over the place because of the snow. One job the guy had a little 450 Case track loader. I was impressed with what he got done with it.

 

[Old Doug]

Tree shear

??? Maybe you have different trees than we do. We had alot sheared here and the stumps didnt matter so it worked out good.

 

[92U 3406]

??? Maybe you have different trees than we do. We had alot sheared here and the stumps didnt matter so it worked out good.

Had one show up as a demo unit. Wasn't impressed. For the cost you could buy a nice chainsaw and still have a pretty big wad of cash left over.

 

[kshansen]

Had one show up as a demo unit. Wasn't impressed. For the cost you could buy a nice chainsaw and still have a pretty big wad of cash left over.

Yea but then you could not sit in the warm operators seat listening to tunes on your ear buds! Or yacking on cell phone!

 

[Old Doug]

Had one show up as a demo unit. Wasn't impressed. For the cost you could buy a nice chainsaw and still have a pretty big wad of cash left over.

You do have different trees than we have here . We have ever greens here it takes half a hour to cut your way back in to find the trunk. The good thing about a shear is they shear it then can carry it to a pile. I have alot of trees to do some day i would gladly saw them off and push them up into piles but i dont think it is the cheapest way to go.

 

[Old Doug]

Any thing with a engine and no seat.

 

[Tinkerer]

chidog;
You must not have ever ran a 973 that is in decent shape.
I ran them many times.
The hydrostatic drive in them is what made them so versatile. Absolutely no comparison to any of the 977's I ran.

 

[terex herder]

Had one show up as a demo unit. Wasn't impressed. For the cost you could buy a nice chainsaw and still have a pretty big wad of cash left over.

But after you buy 30 chains because you dull them sawing in the dirt and wear out 1 chain a day after resharpening every hour your pile of cash is gone and your knees are full of sticks. I hate tree shears from the jagged stump. I think a skidder mounted rotary saw is the better method. They can get much larger trees than a shear, cut close to the ground, and can grind out the stump if desired.

 

[Truck Shop]

When I worked construction the company had 2 953's and 1 963. All three got the guts run out of them,
very little trouble/problems. The operators liked them, did a lot of work with very little down time. So
I guess speed with possible issues or not so fast but reliable-I would take the latter imo.

 

[Jimothy]

Saw a snow blower today that couldn’t even fit a foot of snow in it and you had to bend down to reach the handles… only thing I can think of is to throw it through a store window to get a snow shovel?

 

[Welder Dave]

Track loaders definately have their place. They can do the work of several other machines when required.

 

[92U 3406]

But after you buy 30 chains because you dull them sawing in the dirt and wear out 1 chain a day after resharpening every hour your pile of cash is gone and your knees are full of sticks. I hate tree shears from the jagged stump. I think a skidder mounted rotary saw is the better method. They can get much larger trees than a shear, cut close to the ground, and can grind out the stump if desired.

I just don't see the point of a tree shear in this region. Anyone who's cutting down timber for profit would be using a buncher simply for volume.

The cost of a tree shear is pretty high too. Even a small one is dang near $20k if I'm remembering it right.

 

[CM1995]

Well, I'm a little disappointed, CM. I had no doubt which side of that question you'd come down on, but I honestly expected your reply to be more along the lines of, "Blasphemy!!"

Digger just trying to live up to a New Year's resolution to be more tactful with a sprinkling of pleasantries. I'll admit that statement did test my convictions..

However it is Blasphemy! A track loader is the Swiss Army knife of construction equipment! Thanks Dig that felt good.

Now back to those resolutions..

 

[terex herder]

Different regions. If you took all the trees of value in the entire state of Kansas you could probably haul them off in a week or two. Here, trees are cut because they encroach on pasture or cropland. Stumps at ground level you can drive over are best. If the land is going to be farmed you can take out the root ball, but otherwise that disturbs a lot of grass, plus you get a lot of dirt in the burn pile. Even the walnuts are referred to as gunstock trees, 'cause that is about all the longer piece of good lumber you can get. Hackberry, locust, Siberian elm, western red cedar grow good easily.

 

[John C.]

Track loaders were popular clearing machines before I started wrenching for a living. The excavators with thumbs took over that business completely. Track loaders then became the goto for demolition, particularly on commercial buildings and some on residential housing. There are still a few on landfills in eastern Washington. The issue is more geographic that anything.

I never cared to have to work on one, lots of climbing and trying to fit into small places. I also didn't like the old ones with power shift transmissions because to work on the engine you had to lock the bucket up in the air and work directly under it. I don't consider any machine worthless. It just needs to find the right owner with an application to use it for.

 

[Tyler d4c]

I'm going to add any deere crawler models Mt though 450b any with dry clutch. Some of my earliest memories is fixing rusted together clutches........

 

[HardRockNM]

Hydraulic clamshell for a crane. I bought one years back in a pallet of stuff, and I've never even thought about getting anything rigged up to run it.

Shaft sinking is the only thing I know of them getting used for around here.