john deere 350 dozer

been thinking o getting a jd350 dozer to have around the farm.anyone know the good and bad of these dozers.
RICK

doesn't weigh enough to do any real work

The "bad" is that many of the 350s are separating in the middle. When that happens, there is no cost-effective way to fix them. I have two right now that I bought just to scrap out. Both ran fine and looked OK from a distance. I'm only talking about 350s with hydraulic reversers but the vast majority of 350s and 350Bs came that way. ALL 350Cs have them.

Easy to check. They separate where the reverser case bolts to the reverser case. Two big bolts on the bottom and two big studs and nuts on top. Once they've been loose for awhile, the locating dowels between the cases hammer out, the splines on the shafts get ruined, studs and bolts strip out, side-frames and steering clutch housings crack, etc.

Plenty of other things to check too. Obsolete model C diesel injection pump? Track frames no longer properly attached to crossbars? Flywheel-islolator hammering? Note - with the latter - the early 350s had a isolator plate like the 1010s had and it was very durable (but cost a fortune to replace). Later 350s, 350Bs, and 350Cs had an awful torsional isolator that often spun apart and siezed the engine. Deere changed all that when the 350D came out and was selling upgrade parts to retrofit to 350Cs.

350 can be a great machine if you actually find one in good shape. I haven't seen a good one in years. I've looked at many at auctions and every one I looked at close was ready for the scrapyard.

Depends on what you call "real work." 350 was our #1 seller and rental machine to loggers and dirt movers. I have a Deere 1010 and a Case 310G and both are smaller and lighter then a Deere 350. I do plenty of work with them.

It is what is is. A smaller crawler that can be towed/trailered with a smaller truck, get into tight places, and do a lot of work, on a smaller scale. For our logger customers - it was their 1st choice for making roads in the woods and bunching logs to the main skidway with a skidder took over.

I wont say surprised to here JD say it but basically all you are going to find out there are pretty well junk. Look for a bd2 mitsubi , d3 cat,or a td 7c or e ih. All those can be found for about the same money. Notice I did not mention Case, most of the older ones have transmission problems. What ever you do find someone that knows dozer to take a look and be prepared to spend some money on upkeep. No free rides these days.

If someone wants an older small crawler nice thing about a Case is it uses a generic transmission built by Clark. Also NO steering clutches to worry about. Very common and very easy to find parts for. Same basic trans used in Terratracs, Oliver crawler and wheel tractors, and Bombardiers.

I assume just about any crawler that's 40-60 years old is going to be hammered. But this is a Webplace about "yesterday's tractors", right?

A small and old crawler can be bought and fixed up for $4000-$5000 if careful. It may be all some people feel a need for.

My father had one for 26 years, it outlasted him! We had a few problems but with proper care they probably could of been prevented. I never heard of the breaking in two! The most common problem was it would start right up at -20F with a little ether, and if the hydraulic fluid wasn't thinned with diesel it would blow the seal in the reverser pump. Dad always said it was smaller than the TD9 he had before but much handier and would do more work in a day. I have also run a JD450 and it's a lot more crawler but also more money.

Rick,
As far as good and bad, I will let Jdemaris give that detail. He gave me a lot of advice when I bought my 350B.

I owned mine for 6 years. Adjusted the clutches when I first got it. Never touched them again. I did a ton of finish grading with it and piled a lot of top soil. Very handy sized dozer. Around 11K lbs. 6 way hydraulic blade.

All my major site work was done, I just sold it the day after Christmas.

I miss it already. But I had ran out of work for it, so I moved it.

Rick

i was hoping to get some good advise.i think i will move onto something a little better.
RICK