Should I upgrade from 1010 to 450?

[Jon]

I am thinking of selling my 1010 and buying a 450. I have a couple of acres of woods to clear and the 1010 just is not very effective at digging stumps. When I am done clearing, I want to move a lot of dirt around the property. So will a 450 be much more effective than the 1010? There is a 450B for sale locally with a 4 in 1 bucket for $9500. Is that a decent price? I like the idea of something with ROPS, especially in the woods. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Also, what is the value of a 1010? I just replaced the entire undercarriage. It runs good, but has a lot of blowby.
Jon

[Lavoy]

450 is substantially more of a crawler than a 1010. Probably 5000 lbs heavier at least, 15HP or so bigger, and a power shift, so no real comparison.
Lavoy

[hunter41mag]

Jon,

As Lavoy said a 450 is alot more machine than a 1010. More machine and HP will mean more expense (fuel, maintenance, repairs) but too small a machine and you will have more wear and tear on it (more repairs & maintenance). So it is a trade off as a 1010 will do the job but it will take longer. Big thing with clearing trees is having a ROPS with a heavy mesh canopy on top to keep any large pieces of wood from coming down on top of you (can injure or kill someone). If no ROPS with canopy than make sure trees are cut off about 6-8 feet from ground (gives you something to work against with blade for leverage).
So it all depends on how fast you want to get the project finished.

Don
Eastern PA
440IC

[Jon]

There is always a tradeoff, isn't there!

Pardon my ignorance here, but exactly what is "power shift" and what is the benefit?
Jon

[Lavoy]

Power shift means you can shift between two gears under full load without clutching. A real slick deal as you can dig in a lower gear, transport in a litte higher gear, and have a reverse that is about the speed as the higher gear. The transmission in a 450 is called an HLR which stands for HIGH/LOW/REVERSE. You can shift between all of these and nuetral without applying the clutch, and under full power, a really handy setup.
Lavoy

[emichaelhaynes]

rented a 450g with a six way to make my driveway early this spring. IIRC it weighed 16000 without the blade. had no problem clearing vines and spreading gravel. had no problem yanking a 12 yard truck out of axle deep mud. couldn't budge a stump though. if it had a bucket i probably would have cleared the whole two acres in a couple of afternoons.

last thing i said as they hauled it away was "gotta get me one of those".

so i got a 440 instead. no regrets, just something to dream about...

michael

[digitup]

The age difference alone should be a contributing factor as the 450 will do more safer and easyer on the operator .The clam bucket is a nice option as well for pulling or picking brush rocks or clean up .The 1010 is great as a colector though keep both .I find it is great having an old Deere around just for a play toy use the 450 for the tough work as parts are easyer to find for them.Roll over protection can be your best friend some days as well. Digitup.

[Jon]

It sounds like having power shift is the next best thing to having hydrostatic drive. I was working with a friend of mine last weekend who has a Bobcat T250. I was amazed at just how quick he was able to work with it. Having the ability to almost instantly go from dig speed to full speed makes a big difference. Plus, he sure convinced me of the usefulness of the 4 in 1 bucket.

I'll have to take a look at this 450 for sale and see if it's in as good a shape as the ad says. I wish I could afford to buy a 450 and keep the 1010. Well, maybe someday.
Jon

[spooler]

My .02 cents,
I like to work slow and safe. I will keep the smaller crawler. Yes to ROPS, absolutley. Big job? Big stumps? Rent a excavator, with a thumb for one day. You gotta love a 420 that runs on 10 gal of fuel one tube of grease per day. Get a set of forks and move the tree's you harvested with the rented excavator. Whatever $ you saved renting the excavator spend on upgrading and repair of the smaller machine. Rental fee's are tax deductable.

chuck

[ggfossen]

Jon,

I just retrofit a 350 ROPS to my 420. I spent a day or two on the mounts, and just set it in place. I see no reason why that can't be done to 1010. the ROPS had been tried and tested...all for legs were bent...so it was a relatively inexpensive unit ($250). I would have spent that much, or more, in steel, and a home built would not have looked as good.

I also added limb risers, or sweeps, from the front of the ROPS to the front grill guard on the 420. It looks good, and should work well.

Gary

[Trucker Dan]

Major difference between the two. A 450 is twice the machine of a 1010, no doubt about it. I have a 1010 but have run several different 450s and there is a major difference. As far as stumps go they sometimes are real buggers ,even with something bigger than a 450. It is much easier to dig the whole tree so you get some leverage. Must be real careful though,trees sometimes have a mind of there own.

[ggfossen]

Today, and knowing better, I had a small surprise with a quite small tree. It's amazing the leverage that the root wad has with the tree on top. No damage was done, but it was definitely an eye-openner. Beware of the root wads of falling trees.

This was with a 420, but I'm not sure a 450 would have reacted much differently.

If the standing tree weighs no more than 1000 lbs and stands 50 feet, and the root wad is levering about 4 or 5 feet, the multiplier is enormous.

Something to think about.

Gary

[Jon]

There is no doubt that pushing over trees could get dngerous in a hurry. I have not tried anything over about 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Based on my experience so far, any bigger than that and I will cut it down first and then deal with the stump.

I had a friend of mine build me an attachment for getting the stumps out. It was quite effective...until I destroyed it. It consisted of some .5 inch steel plate with two cylindrical holders mounted to it. I cut some lengths of 1 inch or so diameter hardend steel shaft that I had and mounted them in the holders so that about 12 inches stuck out. The whole assembly was then mounted to the cutting edge of the bucket. It was very good at getting under the stump and breaking out the roots (at least on the small ones I was working on) without digging up so much dirt. However, if I got one of the shafts on the trunk, it would break every time. I have broken three so far. I might rebuild it, but it will have to be heavier duty next time.
Jon

[Lavoy]

Most fun I have ever had on trees is with an 82-40 Terex, 70,000 lbs worth of snort, tipping over Cottonwood tress. In our area, they will make 100' tall. In the right conditions, you could tip the whole tree over. The hole that the root ball would leave was over 6' deep at times, and as big as a 420 crawler. Trouble with Cottonwoods is that they like to shed branches when you bump them with a dozer. Needless to say, not something you want to do without a canopy.
Lavoy

[ggfossen]

My best luck is with high-stumping the tree with maybe six or eight feet of stuff above the root wad. I then put a choker up as high as I can get it, and pull out the root wad. If the soil is loose and wet, the stump will come out. This is with Doug fir, and it isn't inclined to break easily.

The one I pushed over was sort of a spur of the moment thing, and a damn fine lesson considering the root wad, and tree, simply picked up the front of the 420, and moved the whole thing....and nothing broke. The tree was no more than 6 inches,

An amazing amount of power in a falling tree.

I do, by the way, have a ROPS,FOPS...of sorts.

Gary