CAT 963 - Right Machine?

[BackertheBiker]

Latest progress on the lake. The ol’ 655C has been working her tail off! Have all the trees knocked down that I need to - about 4 acres worth. Got a logger coming in the next few weeks, and I’m getting a pretty fair deal on the timber. Moving along here!

 

[BackertheBiker]

Heard you all might be interested in an update... Lake is coming along! I got all the trees knocked down, got a logger to come get the sellable timber, and I’m almost finished pushing and burning limbs and leftover stumps, logs, etc. Moving along nicely!

 

[BackertheBiker]

I do have a burning question now though..

I have been able to convince a friend to loan me the CAT 963 I was originally banking on. Needing to get it hauled to my place soon. See the photo of the machine below.

Can anyone help me identify this thing further? I beleive it's probably a 963B? And I'm trying to figure out the weight of it, but what I'm finding online is all over the place. I saw as low as 19.4 Tons, and as much as 55k pounds. And I think these are probably both well away from reality - my best guess right now is 44k pounds / 22 tons. Anyone have any better insight here?

 

[Nige]

From the decals it's a 963, a pre-B model in other words. Only a Serial Number would confirm that one way or the other. With a Serial Number would come a better estimation of the weight.

 

[Nige]

Update. No ripper, a rear bumper, and a 4-in-1 instead of the standard bucket will put about 2500 pounds on top of the standard machine. In total somewhere around 43-45k pounds.

 

[DMiller]

Agree with Nige, need s/n. Smaller 'Cannon' track adjuster indicates Plain Jane 963 along with Smaller windows and doors of Cab. Wish had that here.

 

[CM1995]

Heard you all might be interested in an update... Lake is coming along! I got all the trees knocked down, got a logger to come get the sellable timber, and I’m almost finished pushing and burning limbs and leftover stumps, logs, etc. Moving along nicely!

View attachment 310514View attachment 310515View attachment 310518View attachment 310517

Did you clear and grub all of that with your backhoe? If so God Bless you as you have the patience of Job.

 

[BackertheBiker]

Update. No ripper, a rear bumper, and a 4-in-1 instead of the standard bucket will put about 2500 pounds on top of the standard machine. In total somewhere around 43-45k pounds.

Agree with Nige, need s/n. Smaller 'Cannon' track adjuster indicates Plain Jane 963 along with Smaller windows and doors of Cab. Wish had that here.

Thank you Gentlemen. I was guessing 44k. Working on finding someone to deliver it for me.

 

[BackertheBiker]

Did you clear and grub all of that with your backhoe? If so God Bless you as you have the patience of Job.

I did / I have. Put about 300 hours on the backhoe since the start of the project. It’s been a job, but it’s fun work. Gonna try to put the dam together myself too with the dozer above.

And believe it or not, I’m doing this with a full time job, a 15 year old in high school sports, and I’m a single man so I take care of all the house chores too. I basically haven’t done anything else all year - when I have 10 minutes, I’m working on the lake!

 

[CM1995]

I did / I have. Put about 300 hours on the backhoe since the start of the project. It’s been a job, but it’s fun work. Gonna try to put the dam together myself too with the dozer above.

And believe it or not, I’m doing this with a full time job, a 15 year old in high school sports, and I’m a single man so I take care of all the house chores too. I basically haven’t done anything else all year - when I have 10 minutes, I’m working on the lake!

Now that's determination! Well done!

 

[IceHole]

I did / I have. Put about 300 hours on the backhoe since the start of the project. It’s been a job, but it’s fun work. Gonna try to put the dam together myself too with the dozer above.

And believe it or not, I’m doing this with a full time job, a 15 year old in high school sports, and I’m a single man so I take care of all the house chores too. I basically haven’t done anything else all year - when I have 10 minutes, I’m working on the lake!

Dunno how people with young kids do it. At least by 12-13ish they are generally usefull enough to be a helper though.

I've brought the dog out on jobs and hours later realize I hadn't seen him for a while.

Forgot I put him in the truck once. Was whining he was cold. Like 2 hours later I'm thinking ****, where did he go? The ocean is nearby, a creek as well and it was probably -20* I walk out to the truck to go track him down fearing the worst and derrrrpp.

 

[BackertheBiker]

My daughter has been out here with me through the whole process of buying the land, putting a driveway in, clearing and building a house. Since she was 6 years old. She’s been a hell of a trooper through it all. Used to fall asleep in the back seat of the truck at the land, more often than in her bed at home. She’s a smart kid with a great attitude though, so it’s been easy with her. A different kind of kid could be a totally different story.

 

[Georgia Iron]

Looking good. I can appreciate the work you are doing. I purchased some land that has a pond on it. It was supposed to about 8 acres when full. The dam is 30' high it seems and covered in big trees. It is also steep and the lower side of the dam is very wet and swampy. It has a corrugated pipe threw the bottom with a 1" thick solid black sandpipe that is about 12 or 15"s round I have not been able to look into it since the pipe comes up out of the water and into the air. Lake is about an acre now and it is about 4 or 5 feet deep I got in and found a gate valve near the pipe.

Mine has a leak coming threw the dam about 5 or 8 feet away from the pipe. There is so much dirt there and no good way to try to dig into it. I have yet to come up with what needs to be done to fix it with out spending months to work on it.


So I would definitely take your time and do it right.

 

[DMiller]

There is a Porous layer or a failed compaction layer in the Dam, will hate to hear but unless want to experiment with truckloads of Bentonite will need to remove everything including draining the pond to restructure that levee.