...what should I look out for in buying a used one?

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Just about everything and replacement parts.

Track wear, bearings and the transmission are the biggies.

Right. How does one determine routine/acceptable wear? I've never looked closely at one of these things...

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I am novice at best so I don't want to lead you astray. Try reading ePray ads because in most ads they will point out that they replaced X because it is a known problem with the model.

Good idea.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

At one time a had a Hein Werner C16. A 42K Lb Detroit 6V71 powered track hoe. Man, I had fun on that machine.
I had to rebuild the rollers under the tracks. Other than being really heavy it was very easy. Welded up some sloppy holes in the levers.
Other than that its pretty much all hydraulics.
Some machines are just not very friendly when it comes to maintenence/repair. Look for easy access to all the hyd lines. You WILL have one break.

I'd ask old mechanics at a rental place around the area. Lots of good info there.

Consider the weight. It cost me $600 to have the track hoe moved just down the road a few miles. Anything a 1 ton dually could tow would be my pick.

Can I drive it at the gathering?

My current landlord has been in the earth moving business for many years and I chat with him regularly. He pays a bunch for insurance. Stop and talk to some guys with big yellow toys parked in their yards.

As was stated earlier in this thread, the undercarriage on crawler machines can get very expensive. People sell them instead of replacing the pins in the tracks and that is just part of the job.

My landlord has wheeled machines now. A big loader, a backhoe and a bobcat type machine. He also has several trucks and trailers for hauling and spreading dirt and hauling the earthmovers.

It would be easy to fall into a trap with run-out equipment. When you weren't working a job you would be fixing the equipment.

A couple years ago in Maine a guy told me he was paying $4000/year for insurance on one dump truck.

All good points. I won't do this unless I can make it work first on paper with what I would consider to be a reliable machine that has some hours left in it.

For reference, that little dozer has about 3k hrs and is about 70% on the pins. Replacing the pins and rails is about $3000. The rest is in excellent condition. He's asking $14,500 for it and the deal includes a full set of repair manuals and a couple of sets of filters.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

We got a pretty good deal on a John Deere 700J from a local rental company. If nothing else - they sure kept it clean. We like the hydrostatic drive. It makes hitting and pushing out Mesquite “nuts” a lot easier.
The JD has it’s hydrostatic and hydraulic system tanks separate too, so no contamination issues.
Go for the 6 way blade too. It’s a nice feature. Especially for clearing bar ditches.
Go with the widest tracks available. Keeps the ground pressures (PSI) as low as possible. Stay away from quarry/loader tracks (dry hard surface only).

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !

I'll steer clear of a hydrostatic drive because of they way they can be abused w/o showing much external wear. Repairs are far more expensive on hydros as well.

I think a ripper tooth on the back would be useful.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

One of my uncle's has an earth moving company, and has a lot of big yellow CAT toys. Its a lot of fun driving the big ones!

Another one is a builder who buys a bunch of them, he can run an excavator while talking on his phone and eating lunch! He just got this monster Volvo thats almost to big to use.

When I was little I used to hang around the construction sites a lot, the Cat D8 was and still is my favorite dozer. I still remember riding in the D8 when I was a little kid, those things are beasts!

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

just what do you plan on doing with it.i have an old 1953 d2 cat that i use to landscape around the house and keep my trail thru the woods open.i love the little thing,wouldn't trade it for anything,have to have a rope to start it though,thing weighs like 7000 lbs with blade so hauling is no problem.if your gonna use it to do work i'd stcik with either a jd or cat,jd makes smaller units,like the 455 and cat has the d3,from what i have seen on the komatsu's is the parts are pretty high priced.

I plan to hire it out with an operator (me) to do brush clearing, lot clearing/prep and light dirt work like farm road improvements and tanks

From my research, I cannot get into a similar CAT that is anywhere near the same condition or hours for less than $25K plus, CAT is muy proud of their parts...a similar track job on a D3 would run almost $10k in comparison to the Komatsu's $3000. A D3 is too heavy for the truck and trailer I have as well.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.