Dozer vs Tractor w/ dozer blade

[pjbci]

I think a 2500$ dzr is going to be a maintence nightmare. I would get the front blade for your tractor. You will find it very handy. Take your time and you can move a mountian with it.

 

[crazyal]

I found that an older dozer doesn't have to be a money pit. There are things that you can do that limit the wear on them. If it was for a business then I wouldn't want anything but a good running machine. But for my home my older 450 has been great. Avoid mud, it takes it's toll on the undercarriage. So does using the dozer on the side of a hill, level ground and pushing down a hill are best. Pushing up is hard on the pins and pushing sideways on a slope is asking for trouble with almost everything underneath. One thing to remember is that you can sell it after you've done what you needed so maybe a $6k dozer would just be a temporary out of pocket expense.

 

[scoutcub]

Understand a bit better now with the additional info.
Keep in mind....what a lot of guys do is buy the big piece of equipment, do the job, and sell it.....which fits into your situation exactly. If you can swing spending the money for XX amount of time. A $2500 dollar dozer may very well require some additional $$. A 6 or 10K dozer may or may not. All depends how much you want to risk. I took a chance on a Komatsu with 6500 hours at an auction about 3-4 years ago.....and I've spent 500 bucks on it, and done a LOT of work with it. And I could sell it now for at least what I paid for it, probably more.

Good luck!

 

[TractorBob1529]

This has been a long term project, not meaning to be going on 4 years now. I stared out with no level land and couldn't open the back door without hitting the bank. I'm about ready to get it over with and move on to the next big project. Having limited funds leaves you to work with what you got. Even a bigger tractor might be an improvement sometime. Decisions, decisions!

Well, thanks eveyone for their input, I know I can alway turn to you guys on this forum if I have equipment questions.

 

[Arc weld]

Rent a skid steer or hire one. Wouldn't take too much to out work a 310 Case.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Rent a skid steer or hire one. Wouldn't take too much to out work a 310 Case.

Agreed, the larger skid steers are what basically replaced the small dozer and crawler loader in this country.

That said, you aren't going to buy much of a skid steer for $2500, so maybe it's worth the risk on the 310 Case. If you pretty good with wrenches and have a decent area to work on it I might try it. Just be sure to give it a good workout before you buy it, run it for at least 30-40min under real world working conditions.

 

[TractorBob1529]

The guy backed out on the Case 310 dozer. Does anyone here have any experience with a dozer blade on a tractor? I'm trying to see if it's worth my time an money to buy the dozer blade for the tractor and do the light dirt work. It has to be better than the FEL? The blade has hyd hookups for I guess the up/down movement and the angle. Thoughs or comments

 

[pjbci]

Daddy bought a 10 ft dozer blade for our 105 hp tractor in the mid 70's. We used it all the time for nearly 30 yrs for dirt work, pushing silage and light clearing until i bought a dozer. I know this is not the same size as your machine but i picture it being just as handy to have around.

 

[Rustyiron]

It takes "tonage" to push a blade full of dirt. Dozers (blades) that are designed to carry dirt are in a "U" or simi U configuration. I just don't think you'd be happy with a flat, lightweight blade on a 3500# tractor. Not downing your machine at all, but for pushing as much material as you describe, and the price of the blade, you may as well pick at it with your tractor fel & box blade. Now that blade you describe would prolly be real nice for finish grading (1" minus cuts) but it just is not heavy enough to do what you describe, the slightest down pressure on the blade will make your 4wd inefective real fast. Ever noticed how when using your fel, that slight uplift when loading your bucket transfers a bunch of weight onto your front axle giving you some good "grunt" into the pile? You will not see this effect with the dozer blade on your tractor, if anything, the opposite, or what I described above will ocour.

 

[MBTRAC]

IMO I wouldn't be wasting my $ on fitting a dozer blade on a 30hp tractor & particularly after looking at the photo's of what you're trying to achieve - heavy pushing with dozer blades causes all sort of drama's/fatigure on Ag tractors.

Sure we've had & currently have Ag tractors with blades & they're a cost effective alternative to industrial dozers in light clearing /silage applications...etc, but pushing dirt day in day out is too big an ask.....even with some of our heavy duty set up's (as pictured) I wouldn't be tempted.

Instead given you're on a limited budget use a 3PL HD Grader Blade on your tractor (it'll keep more of the push load on the implement, rather than like a front mounted dozer transferring direct torsional loads to the tractor.....) ideally with offset/angle/tilt adjustment which will keep the tractor further from edge of the undulation you're trying to fill - & unlike a front mounted dozer blade (which will require constant foward/reverse direction changes) should make the exercise a lot quicker provided you can safely dump material (in a low fairly even row rather than single dump piles) close to the fill site, then it's a relatively simple matter of running the tractor/grader parallel to level & (more safely) move material over the edge (or grade the site level using the rotational arc method of grading to again move excess material to the edge & into the fill site.

Also below is a photo of IMO the ideal 3PL grader blade for this task with offset/angle/tilt adjustments & blade bolt on end caps which helps carry/flow the material off the blade in these types of applications (offset, angle the blade back, slight tilt, fit one end cap to th opposite end & the material will roll/flow along the blade easily using less hp & wear/tear on the equipment):-