Re: Buying at a distance from home ....

Posted by Billy NY on January 18, 2005 at 23:01:35 from (64.12.117.7):

In Reply to: Buying at a distance from home .... posted by Alberta Mike on January 18, 2005 at 14:27:15:

Bought a Cat D7 ( former WWII military tractor ) 1200 miles away, with 993 orig. hours on it, saw some photos of it, was about all. With something like this, you really should check it out in person, measure the undercarriage, look it over, operate etc. etc. The seller represented the tractor as it was, and it was a true low hour machine, that had not been altered to look as such, the undercarriage is hardly worn, after using a track gauge to check it out, once it arrived.

After discussing the tractor with the seller, seeing a few photos of the undercarriage, and the rest, I decided that this was an excellent deal, as any crawler for sale around here that old, would be barely clinging to life and most likely be way overpriced. I also decided that the seller was an honest person, and that is the most important thing. I sent half the money to the seller, via personal check, and ( forget now ) 1 or 2 months later, sent the remainder and had arranged for trucking soon after. Trucking cost me roughly $1.33/mile, in '02, overwidth, say 34,000 lbs. (even with the 12'-0" wide blade angled still over 18" on both sides). What I really appreciated, was that from just a phone call, the trucking outfit, promptly went and made the pick up, not even a credit card # was asked for and we did not know each other prior to. Target Transport did the job. The price was excellent, (I took a chance when I bought this giant lawn ornament, actually had no idea how I'd get it home reasonably !) I could have paid 3 times that price for trucking, and still cannot believe anyone would take on a job like this without any deposit or other security, merely from a phone call , and provide service at such a good rate ! It arrived, I promptly paid the man, with a personal check to include a nice tip, for such great service. I looked it over, checked the oil, fired it up and both engines ran good. The cable blade, power control unit (PCU) brake would not hold the blade up, so I drove it off, slipped the PCU clutch just slightly enough to lift the blade and give me enough space to get the nose off and not dig in at such a harsh angle, then let it drop so as not to smoke the clutch, went the rest of the way to clear the trailer digging in, shut it down and went to work. Later, it took me 45 min to adjust the clutch and brake to hold, the old D7 was pretty much just as the seller had described. The clutch went up in smoke after putting about 15 hours on the machine, but was so old, this one hardly worked in it's life, the linings fell apart from age, other than that, flushing out the transmission, finals, lube and grease everything,+ a lot of other grocery list type items, it will make a nice one to restore. It was of the serial number I wanted, only 1000 or so after an identical one my father had on the farm, that I still have, with many many more hours on it, was my influence to grab this one, being of such low hours was really a great find I thought. I figure I'll restore it to it's original military dress, ( still has the corpsof engineers unit number on the back ) and enjoy it as a hobby.

I can understand to an extent someone misrepresenting a particular piece of equipment if they are not knowlegable about it, (does not make it right) but knowingly being deceptive is really a rotten thing to do to someone, no matter how you look at it. Personally, I cannot stand a thief no matter what the situation, it amazes me how some people have no conscience.

I thought it worthy to mention as, it was an honest transaction, even if it turned out to be junk, parts value, scrap would have recovered most of the cost, so I took the chance, both the seller and the trucking outfit were good honest people and are to be commended !

Follow Ups:

Post a Followup Name: E-Mail: Subject: Comments: Optional Link URL: Link Title: Optional Image URL: Email Notification: If you check this box, email will be sent to you whenever someone replies to this message. Your email address must be entered above to receive notification. This notification will be cancelled automatically after 2 weeks.

TRACTOR PARTS	TRACTOR MANUALS

We sell tractor parts!  We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]