First I'll give a bit of background. I own about 80 acres of mountainside and need to clear some of the useable part for pasture/small crop space. I work from home 100%, farming, logging, sawmilling, mechanics, metal fabrication, etc. 10 years ago I got an old D4 cat, rebuilt the tracks (by way of a 50 ton hand jack, too much work, I'll put together a powered press if I ever do that job again) and sleeves in the engine, used it some but never could get the engine power up to par until I added a turbo, and then one cylinder quit. Couldn't figure out what the problem was, injector swap didn't do anything, was thinking about figuring out how to test compression, But ended up trading it for a case 450 track loader with blown engine, replaced the engine with a 300 V6 from a ford van and it runs great now.
But now a friend of ours (Bobby Clark) has been into doing excavation and such work, owns a dump truck, a case 450 dozer and new holland back hoe. Last year he made a deal with a land owner to clear some 30 acres of stumps. (He talked to us about it first to get our help because he is busy on other contract jobs, building a house right now, he went ahead with it after we said we'd help) the land owner had already bought a mid size track hoe that's not too old and in good condition, and in the deal he also bought an old JD 755 track loader to help with the job. ( $7500 ) The deal says we do the work (between Bobby, his son, me and my brother) and when finished we get to keep the equipment. The track hoe has been at it all winter (off and on according to the weather) and almost has all the stumps ripped out. (they come out easy when the ground is really wet) But the JD 755 has come my way for work. And to build a quick attach mount to fit a grapple. (then convert the bucket to fit the quick attach mount) Lots of oil leaks, most are fixed now. Been replacing several hoses that were in bad shape. Lot of undercarriage wear. As I read about the JD755's I find they aren't the best machines around by far. As I look it over, work on it some, and drive it back and forth a bit I see it's age and wear to be such as I would have recommended not getting it if I'd had a say in the deal.
But anyway, it's here and we'll have to make it work if possible until the job is done at least. Then we can either keep it or trade it for something else. One thing I want to ask about though, and that is concerning the final drive units. when driving strait under no load, even down hill, it goes in an arc, the right track traveling a bit slower than the left, have to keep adjusting direction to keep it going strait. Seems to move strait when going backwards. And Bobby said it turns right easier than left under load, like the right track drive is a bit weak. I haven't used it enough myself yet to know how bad that is. Since it seems to pull around pretty good both ways under no load. Just wondering if there's an adjustment that will help, or if it's a symptom of a serious issue.
If it's final drive rebuild time for it we'll just have to use it and hope it will last awhile yet.
About a days work left to finish the quick attach mount, and one leak where oil is dripping off the front of the left final drive, going to look at that now to see if it's accessible/fixable, if not we can live with that little leak if necessary. By next week I'll try it out on our own land for a few days before sending it over to it's main job. It'll be used for raking the land with the grapple, making piles out of the remaining half rotten tree tops, filling stump holes and loading stumps on dump trucks for delivery to a pile on the edge of property ---------- RT
But now a friend of ours (Bobby Clark) has been into doing excavation and such work, owns a dump truck, a case 450 dozer and new holland back hoe. Last year he made a deal with a land owner to clear some 30 acres of stumps. (He talked to us about it first to get our help because he is busy on other contract jobs, building a house right now, he went ahead with it after we said we'd help) the land owner had already bought a mid size track hoe that's not too old and in good condition, and in the deal he also bought an old JD 755 track loader to help with the job. ( $7500 ) The deal says we do the work (between Bobby, his son, me and my brother) and when finished we get to keep the equipment. The track hoe has been at it all winter (off and on according to the weather) and almost has all the stumps ripped out. (they come out easy when the ground is really wet) But the JD 755 has come my way for work. And to build a quick attach mount to fit a grapple. (then convert the bucket to fit the quick attach mount) Lots of oil leaks, most are fixed now. Been replacing several hoses that were in bad shape. Lot of undercarriage wear. As I read about the JD755's I find they aren't the best machines around by far. As I look it over, work on it some, and drive it back and forth a bit I see it's age and wear to be such as I would have recommended not getting it if I'd had a say in the deal.
But anyway, it's here and we'll have to make it work if possible until the job is done at least. Then we can either keep it or trade it for something else. One thing I want to ask about though, and that is concerning the final drive units. when driving strait under no load, even down hill, it goes in an arc, the right track traveling a bit slower than the left, have to keep adjusting direction to keep it going strait. Seems to move strait when going backwards. And Bobby said it turns right easier than left under load, like the right track drive is a bit weak. I haven't used it enough myself yet to know how bad that is. Since it seems to pull around pretty good both ways under no load. Just wondering if there's an adjustment that will help, or if it's a symptom of a serious issue.
If it's final drive rebuild time for it we'll just have to use it and hope it will last awhile yet.
About a days work left to finish the quick attach mount, and one leak where oil is dripping off the front of the left final drive, going to look at that now to see if it's accessible/fixable, if not we can live with that little leak if necessary. By next week I'll try it out on our own land for a few days before sending it over to it's main job. It'll be used for raking the land with the grapple, making piles out of the remaining half rotten tree tops, filling stump holes and loading stumps on dump trucks for delivery to a pile on the edge of property ---------- RT
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