Help Buying A 1010 Dozer???

[mccann316]

I am looking for a low price dozer to do light work around the house, build a roadway, do some wood, grade off my backyard, and maybe build a small pond. I have looked at several but have my eye on this 1010 dozer. It is the gas engine, 4 way manual, two way hydraulic inside blade and it has the grease adjust tracks not the screw kind. It is in pretty good shape, the motor was recently rebuilt and it looks solid overall. I drove it and the clutches all work good, brakes, etc. seem fine. The only problem is the tracks are kind of loose. The current owner put spacers in so they could be adjusted out further. I don't think they are in danger of coming off but should be replaced pretty soon. Sprockets, rollers, pads, etc. all look good. I think it just needs pins and bushings and I was told that would cost about $1200. The guy seems like a really good guy and will not budge lower than $4800. The dozer is located in NY. Should I buy it or pass it up? Thanks for your help and love the site.

[Lavoy]

If he has put spacers in the adjusters, they are way past shot. Deere only designed them to adjust so far out, so if they are farther out than that again, you know they are shot. With the pitch that far off, it has to be chewing the hell out of the sprockets. Price on rebushing sounds high, but I know of guys that are higher than that.
All in all doesn't sound like a bad crawler as long as you know you are going to have to rebush the tracks.
Lavoy

[mccann316]

Thanks for the info. Thats what I was afraid of that if I ran it like that for awhile it would wear out the rest of the undercarriage. The only thing is the sprockets aren't really worn so I didn't know why they weren't worn with the condition of the tracks. Maybe he found a deal on some and replaced the sprockets only. Whos knows, but he seems like a good guy. He actually pointed out some stuff to me that I didn't notice when looking at the machine. Thanks again for the help.