Hello John Deere People, Can you help me? 350 and 1010

[ld7mile]

Hello John Deere people:
Today I looked at a John Deere 350 3 cylinder diesel bull dozer. It starts and runs good turns good both right and left. Bushing and pins fair. Sprockets good and sprocket chain has lots of wire, cleat pads lots of wear, idlers would last for a while. In the owners yard and no place to see how well it pushes or to put it under a load. Blade brackets frame are on the outside of the track. Could use cleaning up and some paint. The people said it is a 1972 or 1973. From this information can anyone tell me the exact year and can anyone put a value on it? It is in southwest Virginia. He also has a 1961 JD 1010 gasoline bulldozer. Turns good to the left, but stalls out when turning to the right. Could use some paint and needs a muffler, runs but needs a carburetor kit and new fuel line. Cleats pads look new, but pins and bushing have some wire. Sprockets and idlers good. Blade frame on the inside of tracks. Can anyone put a value on this machine too?
I await your reply.
Sincerely,

[KenP]

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[JD440ICD2006]

As you know, crawlers have an additional area of concern over and above an old tractor. So many things can be close to if not completely worn out.
The good news is that they have not taken the low road and slapped some nice paint on them. Paint on an old crawler simply hides a lot of things UNLESS it has been gone through and rebuilt.

The 1010 I would walk away from unless he just wants to give it to you for near scrap prices. Parts are hard or impossible to find and expensive if you do find them.

The 350 would be the one that I would investigate, could be a decent old crawler for you. Before you buy it, do whatever you are going to do with it. If it is just going to sit in your yard and be started and moved a little, then test it for that.
If you intend on pushing with it, you need to run it under a load while it is at operating temp. Some things work pretty good until they get warmed up or hot.
You are not looking for it to operate like a new crawler, but you must know anything that is majorly wrong.
Price should be somewhat based on what it needs. What is he asking?

[ld7mile]

Thanks KenP for your reply. It is very helpful. If the 1010 weighted another ton the price would be at what one could get for today's scrap price, $1250, of course there is the hauling costs to consider. Would be another $200. The 350 is $3200 plus hauling. I am looking for a machine to do some serious work with, but I think maybe I will buy the 1010. I think I can use the tracks on my 1010 and maybe sell some parts to other people and recover some of the cost of the purchase.

As for as the 350 I think it would be better for me to do some more looking to find a machine that is in top condition and pay more. Then I would have something I know I can rely on doing a lot of work with. Thanks again for the reply. Have a good day.

Sincerely,

[gerald]

ld7mile. About the serious work. I have owned 1970 350 crawer about 6 months. You can can tear it up doing serious work. there nice for landscapeing, setting rail road ties general light duty work. It will run circles around a skid steer loader. I call moveing mt serious work . I ended up taxing the 350 an hireing a JD 850 it did some serious work. Parts are easy to get for the 350 it takes awile to get them. I have the tools an an setvice manual and the good people here to help you me out.

[KenP]

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[JWB Contracting]

In my books the 350 is a much superior crawler to the 1010, although a good 1010 will still do alot of work.

Main items to look for on a 350.

1. Track Frames - look at all the mounting points such as the front cross member to the track frame, front cross member to the frame sections, rear mounting cap to the final drive, rear frame section to the steering cluching housing. You can spend alot of time fixing these.

2. Steering Cluches, if they aren't working properly error on the conservative side and consider the cost of fixing them. The parts aren't that bad but the it does take a lot of labour, especially if you have to hire somebody.

Overally, i think the 350 are one of the most reliabile and trouble free crawlers you can buy.

My dad spends the winters rebuilding older deere crawlers. He is 65 and he might make it thru 4 this winter. He is just assembling a nice 350B dozer. This weekend I found a crack in a frame section on the front canopy mount. If we had missed this it could have been a disaster. Just a reminder that you really need to take your time when assessing the frame and cross members. We spent 2 full days drilling and re-rapping bolts in the reverser and both final drives but it will be a nice machine when we are done.

[ld7mile]

Thank you Gerald and KenP. Both of you have been very helpful and have given me some good information. Your words have convinced me the 350 is the crawler I should buy. The words are: parts are readily available, engine almost bullet proof and reliability.
For me serious work would be using a dozer doing what it is capable of doing without having to work on it more than I work with it. So I guess somewhat reliable is what I am looking for.
I am going back to look at the 350 and see how well it operates at under a load at operating temperature.
Can anyone tell me where the serial number is located on the 350 and will the 1010 tracks fit the 350?
Have a good day and thanks again.
Sincerely,

[ld7mile]

Thank you Janson Benesch. I had not thought of looking at these points I will surely look at them. My next appointment to look at it will be Wednesday or Thursday. I think by then I should have enough information to make a good decision about the 350 machine.
So I would like people to feel free to send any information they think will be helpful.
Have a good day. Thanks again to everyone who had given information and thinks in advance to anyone that gives information in the future.
Sincerely,