Pushing dirt, a lot of it with my 420

[Paul Buhler]

So over the last few days I received multiple hundreds of yards of free fill. I'm filling and leveling an area where the tandems back in, usually two in a row, and dump. Then I need to move most of it to fill a big hole and maintain my grade. The fill included some pretty big rocks. Anyway, some of you know I've gone through my machine and repaired or replaced many parts. About 5 years ago now, I went through the finals and undercarriage. A few weeks ago I adjusted the steering, just because I thought it was a bit out. Well all that work paid off nicely. The dozer runs like a champ, and hunkers down well under a bigger push. Very satisfying to run through a few complete tanks of fuel and have no problems getting the job done. Best wishes to others who are bringing their machines up to snuff; it's worth it. Added a quart of oil, and it got a thorough greasing. Got to keep the old girl happy.

[hank]

"a few tanks of fuel". Man, I never seen a machine eat gas like my little 40 does........I could see if it were pumpin black smoke.........but it doesn't. Glad you're havin' fun!

[Paul Buhler]

Hank, For a reference, I ran About 6 hrs a day for two straight days, and burned about 10 gallons of gas, 91 octane, no alcohol.I did have”fun”, but my body felt it. I’m tall, and don’t fit well inside the cockpit. My wife helped me fabricate a new seat Cushion and cover as a reward. I gave the dozer a new muffler too. Much quieter for sure. It used to have a PO’s “Cherry Bomb” straight through on it. Finally it was just a rusty relic. Now the two cylinder pop, pop, is a pleasant reward to my hearing.
As an aside, I run dozer At our local ski area in the summer, and snow cats in the winter for “fun” and pin money. The Komatsu 51 ex, my usual machine, or the D6 cat would have finished the job in about an hour or so in air conditioned bliss.
But for the difference in price, my little 420 is just the ticket for sporadic home projects.