“Some of the Most Underrated Dozers” – Review of Case’s 750M, 850M

00:00:06:12 - 00:00:30:17

Bryan Furnace

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Equipment World. You're watching The Dirt. I'm your host, Bryan. And today we're here to do a review on the new Case 750 and 850 M dozers. What's so special and what's different? Well, they finally converted from pilot controls to electric-hydraulic controls, joining the rest of their fleet on having each controls. And in this, since this is going to be a relatively short review because not much else has changed about the machines.

00:00:30:18 - 00:00:58:23

Bryan Furnace

Sure, there have been some minor tweaks and modifications to undercarriage components, as well as some wiring harness changes. Absolutely. Those can make a difference. But when it comes to, as an operator, the functionality of the machine, the true, big and exciting update to these machines is the conversion to the control system.

00:00:59:01 - 00:01:14:20

Bryan Furnace

Now, if you've never run a Case dozer, let's do a quick rundown of the machine. First, there's not going to be anything that just totally stands out as you walk up to the machine. It's really when you get inside and you start pushing, the Case really starts to shine. And I'm going to be honest, I've always felt the Case.

00:01:14:20 - 00:01:17:22

Bryan Furnace

Dozers are pretty dang good pushing machines.

00:01:18:00 - 00:01:32:04

Bryan Furnace

So these dozers push a phenomenal amount of dirt. I've always been impressed with how much Case dozers push when you're talking to your production. These are some of the most underrated dozers on the market. My personal opinion.

00:01:32:06 - 00:01:54:19

Bryan Furnace

And above all, they're really good grading machines. I would put Case up there with Liebherr when it comes to the smoothness of the controls, and the ability to lay down a flat grade. Now, Case does offer a couple of extra features that I do really enjoy. On your right-hand joystick, you have several buttons, one of which is Blade Shake, which we've gotten accustomed to on other competitive models, but the other is a fine grade mode.

00:01:54:21 - 00:02:15:07

Bryan Furnace

And I absolutely love this aspect of Case, because what I can do when I operate the dozer, if I'm doing a lot of heavy, bulky, pushing over piles, things where I need a lot of rapid blade movement, I'll just set the machine to have an aggressive blade speed because I know with one push of a button on my joystick, I can cut that down by about 40 to 50%.

00:02:15:09 - 00:02:23:00

Bryan Furnace

And now I have fine grade mode without having to go into the menu system and adjust the sensitivity of the blade. It's just right there at my fingertips.

00:02:23:02 - 00:02:47:18

Bryan Furnace

So you can see I've got a much more aggressive blade handling right now, so I can get in here and do what I need to bulking. And then when I'm ready, I can hit my button and go right into that fine grain mode. Just roll right into it so there's fine grain. Now I'm going to get nice gentle movements.

00:02:47:20 - 00:02:49:11

Bryan Furnace

And then back to aggressive.

00:02:49:13 - 00:03:11:22

Bryan Furnace

Now unfortunately when you do switch over to using GPS with this machine and start using machine control, those buttons change functionality and become the increment and decrement button. So you do lose a little functionality. Now that being said, there is a button right below the screen on the dash that you can hit, and you can convert those buttons back from GPS mode to your fine grid mode and your blade shake buttons.

00:03:12:00 - 00:03:41:17

Bryan Furnace

It's not that big of a deal, unfortunately. You just can't use both at the same time. Now, overall, I absolutely love the way Case machines grade. Take the fine grade mode out of it. The actual blade movement on a Case machine is just very smooth, very fluid, and allows you to put down some very nice grades. And for whatever reason, I've just always found that Case is a very easy grading machine.

00:03:41:19 - 00:03:57:06

Bryan Furnace

Now, when it comes to aggressive dosing, these dozers perform well in that aspect too. These guys really know how to push some dirt, and you can get aggressive with the machine.

00:03:57:08 - 00:04:23:17

Bryan Furnace

Now one of the common things I hear as a complaint with Case dozers is they just don't have enough oomph to spin the tracks, and what people aren't understanding is Case has built in a load management system that detects track slippage, and you can actually watch this in action. As you're going into a pile, the tracks will start to spin, and then you'll see them start to spin a little less and a little less, until the machine actually stops and limits the machine from going forward because it's not allowing those tracks to slip.

00:04:23:19 - 00:04:51:16

Bryan Furnace

Now, that's not a loss of power. That's not the machine not being able to push more material. It's literally the load management system saving the undercarriage where of you spinning the tracks with a load on the blade. Now, my one critique on this is I do wish there was some adjustability from the operator standpoint. In its current iteration, this load management system can only be changed by going into the advanced menu system or using a computer, and it is unacceptable to the operator.

00:04:51:18 - 00:05:15:18

Bryan Furnace

I will say there are some instances where I do want to have a little bit of track slippage, because I am able to gain a little bit more of an ability to push some more material again in certain conditions. Now, one of my other small complaints about this machine is the fact that if I want to go in and change my diesel pedal from a diesel pedal to a clutch pedal, I actually have to go two menus deep on this push button system.

00:05:15:23 - 00:05:30:01

Bryan Furnace

That's a small thing, but again, it's there. By far my biggest complaint about the Case dozer, is the loudness of the cab.

00:05:30:03 - 00:05:55:12

Bryan Furnace

I would love to see on future iterations. Case addressed this issue with just a little more soundproofing. Now going back overall, like I said, these are pushing machines. They're excellent for fine grading. And I will say, what's so exciting about the conversion on the 750 and the 850, outside of the fact that it's just easier on your wrist and you get the functionality of blade shake in fine grained mode.

00:05:55:14 - 00:06:19:09

Bryan Furnace

The other exciting aspect is if you want to convert this machine over to machine control, there's no longer a large charge to switch a valve out. You are now machine control ready with these machines, which is, let's face it, in our day and age that's necessary to really be viable in the workplace. So it's great to see Case put these two dozers up with the rest of the lineup, and having those controls.

00:06:19:11 - 00:06:24:10

Bryan Furnace

As always, I hope this helps you and your business. Thanks for watching and we'll catch you on the next episode of The Dirt.