Help! 450E or 550?

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WVFarmboy
MC crawler
MC crawler
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:54 am

Help! 450E or 550?

Post by WVFarmboy » Tue Apr 14, 2020 8:31 am

First Post here! I have a small cattle farm and I am looking to clear some hilly WV property to open up some grass. I will be clearing brush, building/fixing some roads and pulling logs. I am looking at some dozers and wanted some opinions or maybe "what to look fors". I am currently looking at a 1980 550 (he calls it a 550C, but I read that the C is just the 6 - way blade). I am also looking at a 450E. They are around the same price(15,000 OBO), both look to have good tall grousers(Neither are welded on grousers) on the pads and good sprockets. Waiting for pics of the rails so I can see the bushings. The 450 is around 4800 hours, the 550 I am not sure yet. There are also some 450Bs and 450Cs local. The C though is actually a little more expensive then the 450E or 550.
I work bridge/highway construction so I have been around dozers a little, but non that are older like what I can afford!
I appreciate any help you can give!
Thanks

Jim B
350 crawler
350 crawler
Posts: 2104
Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:36 am
Location: western Maine

Re: Help! 450E or 550?

Post by Jim B » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:57 pm

Welcome to the board.

Hopefully someone will be along with more info for. I have a 450E and it has been a good unit so far. I have had it a little over 3 years using it around the farm when needed, not steady, heavy use.

From looking at the 550 specs it is advertised as having a couple more horsepower, is a little larger and heavier, they both use the 6405 inside 6 way blade. I thinking the biggest difference is the 550 has the powershift transmission where the 450E has the HLR. If you don't have this here is a link to non current John Deere models where you can look at the specs of many models. https://www.deere.com/en/dozers/non-current-models/ . You are right there was no 550C, the C is for the 6405 dozer blade.

WVFarmboy
MC crawler
MC crawler
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:54 am

Re: Help! 450E or 550?

Post by WVFarmboy » Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:39 pm

I appreciate the welcome!
Thank you for the link! I have searched around on here and seen enough to know that people are scared of the 550s transmission, hadnt seen a whole lot of complaints on the 450E.
The 450E is further a way and will take a little more to get it here, but both seem to be a little negotiable on the price. Im going to bet it comes down to 1500 one way or the other.

I know the 550 will push a little more, but I hope someone that has had both may chime in.
Thanks again!

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