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I think in general it's good to start out by figuring out the purpose of having one and what your intended uses will be for it. This helps qualify your needs to a certain size crawler. If you have light clearing, grading, clean up and other tasks that don't require a heavy track type tractor, there are numerous small grading tractors to consider within a certain budget. The more recent the more money obviously. It's probably a little difficult and might even be unfair for me to recommend one mfr over another, but a Cat D3, JD's from 1010's to 450's, case 450's, Komatsu D21, D31 and along those lines are similar in size and will get light tasks done. I've ran most of these at one time, each are different, as an operator you adapt to whatever you are on. You may find Allis Chalmers, Fiat Allis, International, Dresser and other mfrs, just have to be careful about obtaining parts with these. The problem with recommending any particular one is, you really have to know the characteristics of the specific tractor, good and bad about a specific model, within a serial number run, trying to avoid problematic models or ones hard to source parts for or difficult to repair. I'll leave that to those who take them apart and repair em, because they will know best about specifics of models.
It is advisable to make sure you can source parts, and that you examine the tractor carefully, undercarriage wear, drivetrain components, nice to start it cold and try it out for an hour or so. Undercarriage components are often misjudged for actual wear, it needs to be measure to be sure. Some operators are abusive and so are many work site conditions whereas a small grading tractor can sustain damage that has been poorly repaired, look for suspect welds and the like.
If you are looking for one for drawbar work only, find one that has been used for that purpose and never had a blade on it, dozer work is definitely harder on them. Some older models are not known for excess power, yet they still get the job done. If you know a heavy equipment mechanic, it might pay to have that person along to look at a tractor. If you are looking to do fine grading, you want a well balanced tractor, especially if you are not experienced doing grade work.
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