John Deere 750 Dozer

I am looking at one and was told the 750 was the first Deere with hydrostat drive and was prone to have problems. This machine is a straight 750, not a 750b, or c, etc. I also understand the letter series were better machines. Anyone have any experience with these? Thanks

Yes with the 850 model, same hydrostatic drive. They do have a reputation, though the 850 I ran was really not a bad dozer, I am under the impression, repairs and problems with these are enough to advise someone to walk away. I ran this one in 1990. I don't recall any trouble as has been mentioned about these, but that was just one seasons worth of work with it. I am led to believe repairs can be expensive. Thats about all I know, from hearsay, we know what that's worth LOL! I think you may be right about being concerned with these particular era mid sized JD dozers. Hopefully someone can clarify what the specifics are in regards to the problems these may have. The 850 was different than anything I ever ran before, one track goes one direction, the other the opposite direction when turning, quick on that too. I watched our foreman walk over a berm with it one early morning, as I arrived the the lowboy to the jobsite, he launched out of the seat, slid on the hood and kissed the stack! Well it was just started so it was not that hot. He was not used to it at all, should have had the seatbelt on too, just that silhouette of him against the morning sun, remember it like yesterday!

I ran one when it was sorta new as it had 390 hours on it when i took over , The only problem that we had with it was one charge pump on the left motor. It was used in the Ohio oil patch back in 76-77 . it had a W 6 F winch on the back and a 10 6 blade with tilt . I built lease roads , drilling location and move drilling rigs and Frac teams on and off location . In other words it got the bag run off of it . It was FAST it handled like a skid steer It would work the bag off a D 6 D and it impressed me to no end and i am here to tell ya it got beat hard as it got ran each and every day no less then 12 hours and some times it would run for three days non stop other then feeding it and me . When i left that company it was several years later i was conned into running another oil field service company and this company went big and i had four 850 Deeres and four 750 Deere's and four 550 Deeres and four D6D 's and each dozer had two operators as we ran twelve hour shifts seven days a week.along with a flock of trucks and other equipment . The only problem we had was some tracking problems that was just a simple adjustment to solve just need a LONG extension and it was either a allen head socket or just a socket , i can not remember for sure as it was back in the 80's but i still have the extra long snap on 3/8th extension . The only Deere that gave us fits were the 550 's . We used them for entrance building pipe line rightaway and site clean up and moving empty frac tanks . Tried them on moving frac teams in but the winches would not hold up to that abuse. Oh and one other problem that came to mind here , for some reason on the right track motor on the bottom there is a plug with a o/ring that would let go and leak . It was more of a pain in the donkey to fix and the loss of the hy stat oil . Ya removed the HEN HOLE cover on the bottom right and worked blind up thru there with oil dripping down your arm pit . Had one that the right hystat motor worked loose and that was a fun job in the field to fix . That is about all i can think of . They took a pounding and IMHO they were tough . We had pedal steers and lever steers and all had the Z shift pattern . Now given the choice i myself prefer the pedal steer with the Z pattern as i can make them really work . One hand on the blade and on on the forward Rev. and steer with your feet , just remember to ware the seat belt or you just might find yourself hugging the muffler . Like i said i ran them hard full travel forward and full travel Reverse the load sensing would adjust ground speed for torque while making a cut and as you came out of the cut and were just carrying the blade full your speed would increase , ones that blade full was on the pile it was full travel reverse back for the next cut and just as fast as you could move the speed control from full rev to full forward this is why the pedal steer worked better as you could be making your turn to get into possession for the next cut lowering your blade and changing direction all at the same time , with a lever steer this could only be accomplished if you had either two right or two left hand and arms. The other plus with the Deere over the Cat's was they would work in deeper mud and not get hug , don't get me wrong they still could get hung it just took more , the other thing that you could do is track and winch all at the same time , you could power out your line and hold a truck on a vary steep grade while you moved ahead to get another foot hold then suck the truck up to you and do it over again . While moving frac teams in and out of some really nasty locations i would push one and hook two behind me and take three in with each trip , when yqa came to a bad mud hole i would let the winch into free spool and push the one thru till i got on good ground and then i would never stop and just suck the other two up to me while on the move . The one Head pusher for Halliburton his name was Ken would always use me when he had a Frac job with in 100 miles of the shop because he could get in and out of three locations in one day with me and the Deere . He told me the first time that he used us that i did with one dozer faster then two dozer could do .

Thanks for your info. This machine has a new undercarriage ($12K) but has sat for couple of years. Was told works good but leaks out all the hyd fluid when you shut it down. Have to pull the ROPS and work station to get to the hydrostats to replace the seals. Was quoted $750 per side if I pull them. I can buy the machine for around $7500 as is.