Small crawler parts availability?

I am looking for a small bulldozer to use in the
woods, and some very light clearing. I see a lot of
Olivers, and a lot of john deere 40-420. I live about
45 minutes from zimmerman cletrac, and know
parts availability is excellent for those. How about
the john deeres? Are parts available and from
where? How do the two compare in use?
Josh

Parts availability for the Deere crawlers are good, I wouldn't worry about that. As far as difference in use, you will get 20 different opinions for 10 different people, so that will be hard for you to judge unless you personally run both. My personal opinion would be that the lower gearing and ability to make hard turns with the Deere would be of benefit in the woods.
Lavoy
jdcrawlers.com

Lavoy,
How about track parts? I looked at the JD crawler forum a bit and it seems a lot of people are looking for good tracks or options off newer machines that will work. I've looked at a few different crawlers and it seems that even the good ones are about worn out. I did see a brand new set of berco tracks on eBay listed for a 420, so maybe parts are available? Thanks,
Josh

70 year old experience and you can take it for what it is worth , remember it is free and I certainly am not trying to be smart , just my opinion. Thinking about spending any money on an old cletract or oliver or John Deer 50 year old dozer with the thought of getting any useful work is just money most likely thrown away. Again just what I have seen so many times. You find that "REAL BARGAIN OLD DOZER" not bad say you spend $3500 or so. Get it home needs something small say water pump, next leak in radiator, then steering problems, You have spent another thousand, then engine craps, now you have 4500 in the thing so feel you have to fix the engine another 2 grand. First thing you know you have twice what you can get for the thing and still nothing to do much work. Now I know this is an old site and this is not what you want to hear and there will be folks tell you how much work they got done with their 40 year old dozer. Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones but my advice save a little more and move up to something newer.... Good luck with what ever you get. Owning a dozer can be your golf, you can enjoy it or it can be a trying experience.. LOL

It all depends on what your going to use it for. I have had 3/4 of those jd 40/420 crawlers. There slow and require patience when operating. DO NOT BUY ONE UNLESS IS HAS A REVERSER. Parts are available and if properly maintained it will last along time. You can use them to clean out fence rows unless your trees has gotten big. Case 310 is comparable, allis 4 or 6 is a little bigger and will do quite of bit of work. You need to do your home work on any dozer you buy. Some people will tell you the truth about a dozer or crawler but some tend to have a memory loss. Six way blade on a dozer is nice. Crawlers with buckets has a lot of versatility. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Once you buy it its yours. Parts are available for a lot of the older machines but some parts are expensive. Motor parts are usually not the problem. Its the under carriage, final drives that are. A track can have 50 percent life left and last the novice person a long time if taken care of. Just my 3 cents worth. Good luck on what ever you buy. Norm

This will be more like golf for me. I work full time and then farm weekends and nights. Have some newer/bigger equipment that could easily do the job. I like a winter project and also have some woods and am playing with growing a few Christmas trees. This will be for skidding some logs, maybe cleaning up a few brush areas. I bought an OC4 last winter, not running. Luckily it was cheap, and I learned some about how expensive old dozers can get. I ended up selling it for a small loss, and decided to find something better this year. I got it running, put a new clutch in it, and by the time I realized the tracks were junk, it had an older transmission, and a bad final. I could have fixed it, but the parts would have been more than buying a better one.
Josh

If I was looking for a small bulldozer I would try and find a very knowledge person, or contractor, in your area and get help from him or even pay him something. Today to many people get burned when they wing it on their own. Replacement parts can be VERY costly and some of the older machines are near impossible to find parts for. Just my opinion as a majority of one.

A small dozer in very good condition is a wonderful thing to own, but also expensive to maintain. You may consider working with a smaller contractor pay him to do the work. When it needs servicing its on his dime.

No new tracts available unless you find nos or fit 350 tracts on which can be done I have a 420 with like new undercarriage that I believe to be a low hour machine live in Columbus oh if you want to look at it Howard [email protected]

Not sure of your primary goal-
1. Preserve, save, and operate an antique piece of equipment.
2. Complete a project with minimal expense.
3..Get some serious work done ASAP
If you're looking at #3, then consider a used skid steer loader. During the last 25 years manufactures have built many sizes that are equal to or even double the HP of the bulldozers you mentioned. You could apply after market chain with welded steel treads that cap and surround the rubber tires and create your own track-loader. Many of these machines were used in construction, so working in the woods would be in their natural working environment. You could fashion and fabricate a rear drawbar and do anything an old dozer would do, but 3-4 times faster.

As Howard said, no new available other than 350. There are crawlers out there with useable or good undercarriage, you just need to look more. Or, if you buy a crawler that looks good with bad undercarriage you need to price it accordingly. Small crawler will do a ton of work, they weren't built to be toys, they were built to work just like any new piece of equipment. They won't do what a D8 will, but D8 won't do what they will either. I have an awful lot of customer using small crawler for farm, logging, or just general use, so I don't think you will be disappointed.
Lavoy