Looking at a DMC 1450

This has been offered to me for $4k. It starts up and runs beautifully, has the Ford 200 straight 6 and C4 trans, seems to shift okay but could not test drive it because the tracks are frozen to the ground, the hydraulics seem to work also. The tracks look very good, the sprockets look excellent. It was used by the state to groom cross country ski trails before it was declared surplus and shows 2500 hrs on the hour meter. There is some rust, but not bad and looks to have been stored inside mostly. Have looked around online and seen similar machines listed from $3k to $25k and have no experience with them. They have always fascinated me and I am strongly leaning towards making the jump and purchasing it, just curious if there is anything I need to look at which could be a deal killer.

With the groomer and blade it looks like a pretty good deal. For the money, it leaves you with room to be able to put some money in it, and still be OK. Do you have a heated shop? do you do your own repair work? Are you a bit nuts? (snow cat guys) Then you should consider buying it right away...

Regards, Kirk

the only deal killer with snow cats are the rear differential and wives.

If the rear end is bad or going bad you have a headache that wears on you as it sits around.

A wife often times does not see the false reality created in our heads about how cool it is to have a tank like vehicle to operate. I find packing snow down and going places I generally could not go except in the dryest of summers fun.

Good luck you have made a great stride in dealing with the snow cat disease, you admitted you have a problem.

Good luck. Oh and If you ever need to get rid of that machine I have a grooming job for it. I use a full bodied imp to groom a segment of trail in northern WI and the inability to see the drag is starting to wear on me. (and my neck)

Great find.

Mike

Yes, I do have a heated shop and do my own repair work. Have a complete machine shop as well, my usual toys are antique off-road vehicles, mostly old Jeeps and misc. military vehicles. So I guess that is an affirmative response to your question about being a bit nuts also.

Redsqwrl - I put a battery in it yesterday, got it started, and hoped to test drive it to check the operation of the differential and get it out of the snow bank to see if I could check the fluid level. Unfortunately, with it frozen to the ground, that is not going to happen and I have to let them know by 3 pm today if I am taking it. The good news is that the engine checks out good, the trans fluid looks very good and the torque convertor engages in forward and reverse, and it looks like it has been serviced regularly. The bad news is that I will have to buy it without taking it for a test drive to check the steering or the rear end.

$4k? With drag and blade? And you haven't sealed the deal yet? +1 to 300H&H - That cat's a deal even if it needs some work. Get out the turkey deep fry kit, find a water supply, and that cat'll be thawed and slinging mud in no time. If they have service records, you'd expect to see operator's notes detailing any issues with the rear end.

NIKE, BABY! Just Go For It!

Would it be any good to hook a chain on it & give it a yank to break the grousers free & then try moving it on it's own power ???

Welcome to the forum.

Would it be any good to hook a chain on it & give it a yank to break the grousers free

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I'd think that would result in belt issues. I'd get a 2x4 and a steel bar and carefully pry up on each grouser individually to bust the ice free. Obviously, you can't pry up the grousers that are under a bogie wheel. Then carefully move it. Get the bogie wheels off the next section and free those grousers.

My SV252 froze in place and that's how I got her freed up again. It didn't take any time at all. You can still test driver her before 3 today. And ditto, if you don't want it, let me know.

If you like milvehs, have you ever considered a Pinzgauer? Great trucks.

I would have to say at that price you should you would be safe to buy it. that's a nice rig with the 6 cylinder engine and super wide tracks. also you get the cool blade and grooming attachments with it. the 2 rigs you never see up here in western Alaska are imps and krustys. the krusty is self explanatory, don't know about imps they seem built well and are of a nice size that you can do a lot with them kind of like a snow trac it all seems to be snow tracs 's bombies and 601 sized riggs up here. muskegs must have been popular at one time as I see a lot of them sitting around in some kind of un drivable state or another. there are also a lot of weasel hulks out at the surrounding mines I keep thinking of dragging one back and setting it up with imp running gear or nodwell tracks for a summer rig I like their amphibious hulls.

I decided to buy it and have already sent in my payment. We had an ice storm here last night so the roads are pretty bad, making getting back up to where the 1450 is pretty treacherous. The tracks are not just stuck to the ground, due to the freezing and thawing that has been going on, the section of track on the ground was covered with slushy water that has frozen, leaving the top of the track under about 1/2" of ice.

Thank you to everyone who has posted, I will probably be showing up around here from now on as I get this home and then up and running. These have been tops on my want list for years, since I acquired a copy of the photos and test report from the Swamp Fox tests in Panama back in 1960, where a Thiokol was one of the best vehicles to complete the tests. I realize this 1450 is significantly different than those used in the tests, but it will hopefully be better for my uses in the winter than one of the open originals.

I decided to buy it and have already sent in my payment.

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Wiser than a tree fulla owls....

leaving the top of the track under about 1/2" of ice.

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'bout time for a sack of salt....

You'll be tearin' it up in no time, fearing the sun and cursing the heat that takes away the snow.

Couple tarps and a salamander heater will melt that baby loose in a few hours. Done it with dozers before. Just watch you don't scorch the belts.