# beater backhoe advice



## t.i.b (Jan 17, 2009)

I'm in the market for a machine to do some land clearing at my house and am going to look at a 197? ford 4500 tomorrow. does anyone have any advice as to what to look/listen for in a tractor like this? any specific things with the hydraulics, aside from do they work? also its a diesel any tips for checking that? I don't have any real knowledge of diesel motors. I know that there will be issues with any machine this old but id like to try to spot any major issues before shelling out the doe. Thanks


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## leolkfrm (Mar 11, 2010)

warm up the machine and make sure the loader and hoe can both raise the machine, diesel will be cheaper to run, look for leaks, cracking on hyd hoses (is the steel braiding showing), how does the clutch feel, (freeplay)


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## ponyboy (Dec 19, 2006)

Pins hiw much play in machine 
Test it out see if machine has any power left or if it feels weak 
After you drive it and test it check whole machine for leaks 
How do the breaks feel
Make sure you watch it start and that it is cold you want to see it start cold not warmed up 
Look at tires 
Look at all grease points make sure it looks like there is grease there


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## Mega cab (Aug 21, 2012)

Get the Vin # and call a dealer to see how easy you can get replacement parts.


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## peteo1 (Jul 4, 2011)

Watch to see how much it smokes when it's running


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## RLM (Jan 12, 2006)

Lots of great tips. Have you thought about just renting something as needed ? I don't know what your looking to spend but if its just for home use buying seems a bit overkill.


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## t.i.b (Jan 17, 2009)

Thanks for all the advice. Ive been clearing trees and filling in my backyard. renting is not really an option cuase I cant devote to much time into this at once, im just kinda picking away at it when I can. So having a machine on hand makes the most sense for me. thanks


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## cat320 (Aug 25, 2000)

For just home use really most machines will do fine diesel will be better. just look for smoke when started any leaking coming from pistons check to see how the hydraulic houses are if they are bad the cost can add up on them. and on the backhoe make sure it's tight with not to much play and make sure you check boom and stick for any cracks .


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## t.i.b (Jan 17, 2009)

how much smoke is to much? does the color of the smoke indicate any specific issues like it does in a gas motor? Im assuming there will be some smoke in a machine from the 70's.


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## cat320 (Aug 25, 2000)

Probably best way to tell is to take the oil fill cap off and see if there is any blow by smoke coming out usually a white smoke. granted a '70's machine should have a lot of hours on it and if it hasn't had an overhaul all original you will have to expect some. I'm not an expert by any means but when I got my '76 case 580c we got it with a bad engine and that was what was going on a lot of blow by but we pulled the engine and redid it but that was 13K at the time . some times it better to pay a little more and get newer rather than older. but there are a lot of nice older machines out there .


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