Is it time to scrap / part it?

[lrolla]

I have a 1957 JD 420c with a blade in front and a winch on the back.
Over the years it's served me well but I think I'm now headed for major $.
Last year I broke a couple of links and in the process of replacing got a good look at the under carriage. The chain when removed was like a snake on the ground. I know with that much slop / wear its only a matter of time before I'm looking at two new chains and the sprocket to go with it. Front idlers are also worn and will need new bushings. After putting it back together and running it for a while the rear end froze up and then would break loose again. I know there is some major stuff (technical term for high cost items) going on in the rear end. Turning clutches would be last on my list for repairs and only adds to the overall cost. I'm thinking that I have an easy $2k in parts alone to get this thing in working order again. If I do the work myself it might be worth it but it's on a property 3 hrs from home that I visit on the weekends and I'm probably looking at paying someone to fix it. So now comes the question. Is this really worth fixing? I'm more interested in using it then having it be show piece that I use from time to time.

Thanks, Larry

[JD440ICD2006]

Sounds like you may need to repair it. You use it so it is not like it is a trailer or shed queen.
If you consider what it will cost down the road to hire someone to come in and do the work that a 420C will do, the money spent to repair is small.
It would also cost more than the cost of repair to go buy another one in good condition.

[Tigerhaze]

I think you need to ask yourself the question: Is it serving your needs?

I am guessing that it may be over 2 grand in parts because you tend to find more things wrong once you get it opened up. The pins and bushings alone are probably close to half that cost. Depending on who you know, the labor for someone else to do the work could be that much as well.Being in a remote location does not help matters- I can relate because my crawler is an hour away and the travel back and forth eats into my repair and unkeep time.

If the 420 is doing what you need it to do, then it may be worth fixing up because there really aren't similar size crawlers out there that are more modern (the Struck Magnatracks don't count, in my opinion). You could also think about getting another 420 and using your current one as a spare crawler for pulling you out when stuck or as a parts crawler.

If not serving your needs, there are a number of other machines out there that could do similar work. It is a buyer's market out there right with the economy and you can get some great machines pretty cheap right now.

Just my $0.02.

[Lu47Dan]

Larry, if you go to repair it it night be a good idea if you have a place at your home to do it, move it there.
A few years ago a friend of mine had a International 656? tractor at their deer camp that needed work done on it, after two trips up to the camp he decided that it made more sense to bring it home and work on it here then spend four hours a day on the road.
We spent 30hrs doing the repairs on the tractor and then he took it back to deer camp. Most of these hours were during the week.
Now whether to repair or scrap it, what ever you do DON"T SCRAP IT !
I am still looking for a few parts for mine. If you can find another crawler you would have a parts crawler. I am looking at a 430 right now that a friends uncle has right now, I can buy it for $2000 out right or spend a little to get it running and do some leveling work for him and get it for $1000. I have to decide what I want to do with it, I have to the end of summer to decide. Right now the 430 is trapped by a beaver pond, the beavers have to be removed and the dam removed before the crawler can be moved out of the building it is in. We had to use a boat to get to the building it is setting in last month.
Repairs to the crawlers are not too hard to accomplish, if you have the manuals.
Dan.

[waterman28]

Lu47Dan,
It sounds like your repair price on the 430 is going to sky rocket when you have to get the environmentalist involved to deal with the Beaver and the ponds.



Scott

[lrolla]

Thanks guys for the advice. Collectively the options are great. I just caught wind of a Cat D2 5U wide track with a blade in the front and a PTO in the back. Very similar in size to the 420 but the Cats tend to have a short overall track length compared to the 420 which makes pushing dirt a little trickier.

I'm starting to think that tractors are very similar to motorcycles. You can't live with just one and 3-4 seems to be the right number.

Larry

[Tigerhaze]

Larry- did you see the 420 for sale in the "Little Shop O Deeres" forum?

[Lu47Dan]

Lu47Dan,
It sounds like your repair price on the 430 is going to sky rocket when you have to get the environmentalist involved to deal with the Beaver and the ponds.



Scott

Scott, Removing the beavers and their dam falls under the Game Commission here in Pa. As far as we can determine there is only one beaver left in the pond. They took several adult beavers out of the pond during the trapping season last winter. Once the last one's have been trapped out and relocated to state game lands, we can start lowering the pond level. With the acreage of the pond we can only lower it six inches per week into the trout stream that the pond flows into. Six inches a week will take about three months to get the water level below the lowest part of the drive to the building. I had a 9' piece of PVC pipe I used to check the depth while crossing that leg of the pond. there isn't any culvert there as it was part of his lawn before the beavers started building the dam. Last estimate of the size of the beaver pond is eight acres, not really huge but it is very deep at the dam. About 12' at the face of the dam. Once we get it drained I hope to buy it outright, back the trailer in and winch it on the trailer and bring it home.
The dozer has a tarp over it and boxes piled on the tracks and hood to keep them off the floor. It is setting on oak planking the track pads look good and the owner say the last time he started it was in 1998. He tried to start it last fall to move it out of the building while the water was about two feet deep, the battery was dead, so they tried jumping it off and the coil would not fire, so he gave up on moving it.
He said that he bought the crawler in the 1968 from an estate auction of the original owner. the problem with this deal is I have to do all the work to get the pond down. This might turn into an adventure. His nephew was the one doing the work on it as his uncle is in his late 70's. If the crawler would start it would make removing the dam a lot easier.
Dan.

[waterman28]

Lu47Dan,
WOW! That sounds like a huge undertaking. I don't know what it would take around here to do a project like that. I think the state fish and game and dept of ecology would say the pond stays and the bulldozer is now fish habitat. I wish you the best on your project. Its amazing what some of us will do for old iron.
Scott

[lrolla]

Larry- did you see the 420 for sale in the "Little Shop O Deeres" forum?

Thanks for point this out. Wish this thing was on the west coast

Larry

[digitup2]

Us Canadians have a cure for beaver dams .It is called ditching dynamite.especially if in the way of a John Deere crawler .Digitup.

[Tigerhaze]

You haven't gotten them all -I just saw an article on the internet that Canada currently has the largest beaver dam in the world:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100505/sc ... imalbeaver

[Lu47Dan]

Lu47Dan,
WOW! That sounds like a huge undertaking. I don't know what it would take around here to do a project like that. I think the state fish and game and dept of ecology would say the pond stays and the bulldozer is now fish habitat. I wish you the best on your project. Its amazing what some of us will do for old iron.
Scott

Scott, the biggest problem we are having is trying to get the remaining beaver(s) relocated, the landowner is handling that problem. If the beaver can be trapped out and taken elsewhere, then we can start draining the pond. To get the crawler out of there without draining the pond would require the permission of the next door neighbor and a mupere*. I do not think he will allow us to cross his property.

Us Canadians have a cure for beaver dams .It is called ditching dynamite.especially if in the way of a John Deere crawler .Digitup.

Believe me it would take longer to get the permits to do it that way, then with an axe and a shovel.
The stream that the small stream, that became the beaver pond, empties into is a trout stream. It causes a problem with using any method that releases very large amounts of water into it. One of my buddies father is a retired deputy fish warden, he said as long as I don't raise the level of the creek more then a couple of inches I could lower the level of the pond more then six inches a week. But we will check on that with the proper authorities before starting the process of lowering the pond.
Once the pond is drained the dam will be pulled out and the material burned to stop future use by the beavers.
There are also two down stream bridges that could be damaged by the water if it were released too quickly.
Beavers are becoming more and more of a nuisance here in Pa. , they are damaging more peoples property, on one property I used to hunt on the beavers have destroyed a stand of Black Cherry worth about $60,000, then they left for greener pastures. The dam failed during a heavy rain storm and wiped out the township road below the dam. The land the dam was on was not part of the land that the cherry trees were on, by the time the owner of the cherries was informed by me that the beaver dam was flooding his property the tress were already dead. The other land owner did not want the beavers bothered so until they ran out of food and left they had they had built up the dam to about 8'. The 24" plastic culvert under the road was found 300 yards down the creek from the road.
Don't get me wrong beavers have there place in the grand scheme of nature but when they move into certain areas, they can be big trouble.
Dan

*Mupere/slang/def. a person or persons who have a summer home here but their primary home is around Pittsburgh, Pa.

[Lavoy]

Man, that sucks. Many years ago, when we lived on the river, the beaver were hell on our new trees. SO, the neighbor and I use to relocate a lot of them. 40 grain Sierra hollowpoint in the back of the head, and they relocated themselves upstream with the current. Only thing you need here is a furbearer's license, and shoot or trap all you want. As for any dams, do it yourself, or call someone with a backhoe, but no one cares. Destruction of infrastructure cost the townships money, so they could care less if take out a nuisance dam.
Lavoy

[Lu47Dan]

Lavoy, the plan to get rid of the beavers started last fall, when the water level covered the end of the drain pipe for his roof gutters. He called several local trappers to trap the beavers out. They thought they got all of them but missed one. Yesterday one of his neighbors told him to start draining the pond, and watch how many beavers show up to repair the breach, his nephew is going to do that tomorrow.
The trapper is going to start this week and see if he can catch it. If he can I still have to wait to lower the pond until the end of May.
I need to get a written agreement on the this before I start on it. My friend wants me to get it running before I remove it from the property, as he will be buying the place from his uncle once the beaver dam is gone and he his uncle can have an auction to sell the rest of his stuff. He is moving to a retirement home once he has his auction. My friend wants me to spread a few piles of dirt before leaving there, but he said that the dam and lodge clean up he will hire done once the fields are dried up. Easier for me and less money but only if everything works on the crawler.
Dan.