John Deere 450 dozer

[Smorris]

Ok guys, new here. Thanks for adding me.


My question is on the 450 dozer. Looking at buying one for farm work. Not a every day job type use. What are the main issues they have. Engine wise mainly, or transmission. Want to make sure I’m not getting into a mess. It has a known water leak. Getting into the pan very slowly. Used daily he said it has to be topped off every now and then but not a huge problem yet. Just a simple head gasket job and check the head or are the heads known for cracking like the older 1010? We’ve got one of those a 1010 track loader. Cracked head, not repaireable, and don’t want to get into another one like that.
Sorry for all the questions, and thanks in advance.
Scott

[Smorris]

T5F3C 084581
Model and serial

[Jim B]

Welcome to the board.

Coolant getting into the pan slowly would make me wonder about the seals on the sleeves. I would sooner expect a head gasket or cracked head to be putting pressure into the cooling system and pushing coolant out the radiator, not very slowly getting into the pan. Then there is always the chance of a hole eroded into a sleeve.

Your post will likely be moved to the late models board. Posts for the 350s, 450s, and newer belong on the late models board. You will get more feed back on a 450 over there. Your serial number says it is a Tractor, 450, crawler dozer, diesel, collar shift transmission, built in 1969 at the Dubuque Tractor Works.

[Smorris]

Gotcha. Makes sense. I wasn’t sure if it was wet sleeve or not. Thanks for the info.
I’m gonna try to check it out this weekend.
Any problem areas they’re well known for otherwise?
And it’s the non turbo motor. Will they handle the extra load from turbocharging/ bumping the fuel a bit with no problems?
Or does it even need the extra power. I’ve run a 450B and it’s got plenty.

Thanks again!
Scott

[CuttingEdge]

The 450 is a good all around machine. It will push quite a bit more dirt than the 350, but logging wise, they are about the same, just because it is hard to get more then 5 trees behind them. By that I mean, if you get 5 trees behind either the 350 or the 450, it will pull them to the landing without a problem.

Bulldozers are handy for farming though. I had a pto and 3 point hitch on my 350D and I could get on fields weeks earlier due to the tracks. I got put fertilizer on nasty pastures that the farm tractor would not go, and that kind of stuff. I could also tow my log trailer behind in, and devised a bracket that bolted to the side of the blade, and could drive along and sink in fence posts into the ground as fast as we could set them up. Then pull wire with the log trailer, swing the grapple of the log trailer around and stretch the wire, and staple them to the posts. It was almost an automated fence-building assembly line. It took all the work out of fence building!

The real challenge for me was getting the tractive effort it had, matched with my implements. In short it had the traction and power to pull more, and I wanted it too because it was slower than a wheeled tractor, but I just did not have the implements that were wider. It was too small to pull the really wide stuff that the articulated tractors normally towed, but when it pulled the 10 foot wide stuff, the bulldozer was slow and not really getting a lot of work done.

In some situations I could get it to work by towing (2) harrows in tandem, which would mean for every trip around the field I was getting twice as much tillage versus that of one harrow, but there was very little field work where I could tandem-up implements. If I was to do more bulldozer-farming, then sure, if a farmer invested in bigger implements then they would gain on the tractive effort and floatation that the bulldozer has, but it is an investment.