Capability of a small crawler?

Thanks,
Darren

1966 John Deere 350 42hp diesel, 6-way, rake, winch, 12,000lbs: Dug/plowed/filled an 1100'L x 12'W road, pushes over shallow-rooted alder and willows up to about 11" diameter, pull bigger ones out with the winch. 14' diameter x 5' deep holes dug around stumps in about 40 minutes. Its small sized "footprint" is just what I need on this 10 acres and I'm very satisfied. But I think you may want a little more "oomph" of a 550 or D6. You'll have fun either way.

With the savings, you would probably buy an older smaller machine for maintenance, fence row clearing, rock digging, etc. You could probably even take out fairly large trees if you go watch a good operator and learn the technique.

I have a 15 acre heavily wooded lot that I needed to cut an 800 foot driveway through, log out a BUNCH of storm downed trees on, and clear my building area etc. I decided to get an old (1969) International 150 Drott loader (weighing about 21,000 lbs with ~75 hp diesel engine). With the exception of a ruptured hydraulic line early on, this machine has been fantastic. TONS of reserve power, trees/stumps don't have a chance when confronted with this loader. And it will doze and dig big piles of dirt really well. Plus this machine really wasn't that expensive ($8000) when compared with a lot of much smaller and less capable machines I found that were in comparable condition. And Im pretty sure if I was willing to wait around and hunt for a bargain, I probably could have snagged a machine like this for a few thousand less.

What it boils down to is to carefully analyze what you want to do and be sure to take into consideration what type of soil you will be working in. Where I live the soils are very soft, silty clay-like material with almost no rocks. I would be better off with a wider tracked machine for that reason, but as long as it's relatively dry out, this machine works fine. But if the pond you want to dig has stumps, and is in hard soil with lots of rocks...do yourself a BIG favor and stay away from a smaller machine. Either have a professional come out and do it for you (which usually is the best bet), or opt for a bigger machine. Remember that these old machines are just that, OLD. Better to get more machine than you technically need, and work it less so that it doesn't break on you. If it breaks, that pond will become a serious money pit and a huge headache!

Good luck...

One possible difference is that TD9B Drotts could be purchased with powershift transmissions. I don't think powershifts were available for earlier series (but not sure about that). Also, the TD9B's came with a turbo model (the manual shift version) and non turbo (powershift like mine). Otherwise, the only thing that comes to mind is that I thought I had seen pictures of older TD9 drotts that had two upper rollers on the U/C instead of just one on my machine....but not sure about that.

If you want to learn more about IH loaders, go the redpower site below. We talk nothing but IH there, so someone will probably know more about it.

Link

I picked up a 1968 Case 450 with a 4in1 bucket last December. If you can do your own maintenence you can find one in reasonably good condition and put it in good working order. Thats basically what I've been doing with the 450. The UC is in good shape. Most of my work has been with wiring, brakes, controls, gauges etc. Its not real pretty but its a good working machine.

I think that its nice to have a big machine to do most jobs but there are advantages to smaller machines like the Case 450. First, the initial cost is usually less. It should use less fuel. It may be more manuverable and easier to handle in tight areas. You may find the smaller machines a little easier to work on as well.

So far I've been very happy with my little Case 450. I always recommend getting the factory serivce and parts manuals as well as the owners manual. Case is pretty good about parts. The local dealer does not usually have the parts in stock, but can get them in a day or so. So far the price of Case parts has been pretty reasonable too.

I plan on using my crawler to clear about 5 acres of lightly wooded area for a house and horse pasture. At an initial cost of $8500 plus say another $1000 to get everything in good shape I should still come out ahead when I finish and the machine should hold its value.

I'll agree with one of the other posts and say that good maintainence and respect for the machine is key to safe operation.

Best of luck,
John

Tim

My first one was 8000 lbs. and it had a lot of trouble with my large trees and rock. I got real fast at repairs (LOTS of practice). When I traded up to 16000 lbs, same age, I got a better balanced tractor that didn't break. Still a tad small for what I asked of it, but it worked.

The smaller one probably would have made you happy if you're reasonably patient.