Anyone here have bulldozer experience?

ovrszd · Feb 22, 2020

edgarrian said:
Class act buddy.

We are not buddies.

1930 · Feb 22, 2020

JasperFrank said:
If your real goal is to "Have a Blast" then by all means rent a Dozer. But if you want to get something done, you should hire an operator with their own machinery. For myself, there was no difference in cost, since it took so much extra rental time, learning how to use the machine and cleaning up the mistakes I made. It was a very fun experience. But further work, I left to the pro's.

I appreciate all the advice and for sure Im gonna get some seat time but after reading all these posts Im gonna go this route. Ive already had the dozer ( which seems sorta small in my opinion ) dropped off. The guy is supposedly gonna start work next Wed or Thurs and Ill meet him Fri evening again.

Hopefully I will learn half as much as I did with all the seat time I got on the wheel loader but Im not counting on it. He is also gonna bring his skid steer and a second operator supposedly.

He is gonna grade the entire 5 acres ( fill in all the holes from stump removal as well ) and the cost is 4500 dollars.

Id have to pay 2 gee for my own dozer if I rented, Ive noticed I typically go thru about 60 dollars in fuel a day with this heavy equipment ( pushing material like a dozer does will prob consume a little more ) and Id have to find a good operator and thats another 200 a day from what Ive experienced, so this guy is costing me a little less than 1500 dollars more than doing it myself with help.

He and I are also gonna set up my three containers in the back corner ( U shaped so I can put a roof over them eventually )

At this point I want this part of the project over with so I can get my well in and start getting some vegetation ( trees ) re planted.

Here are some more pict I was able to take today before leaving.

ovrszd · Feb 22, 2020

Awesome!!!! Post more pics of your progress. This guy is going to transform your site into exactly what you want!!!! Perfect grading dozer!!!!

1930 · Feb 22, 2020

Thanks, Im wondering if anyone here has any experience with bolting these containers together? Like I mentioned I want the U shape so I can lay some gravel maybe on the inside, put a roof over the top and have additional storage space ( my campers going in there in the meantime )

I looked a little at the corners today, hard to tell if I can get a straight shot thru some heavy material with these containers.

Im gonna have to do some research

ovrszd · Feb 22, 2020

I don't remember ever seeing them bolted together as you explain. I agree, the strongest, thickest metal in the containers is at the corners.

Keep us posted on that part.

D2Cat · Feb 22, 2020

After you get the containers located where you want them, and level, weld some clip angles at the top, middle and bottom of the inside corners.

1930 · Feb 22, 2020

D2Cat said:
After you get the containers located where you want them, and level, weld some clip angles at the top, middle and bottom of the inside corners.

Another problem possibly to overcome, we are gonna drag the containers to the pad and thru the pad, the pad is level and packed pretty good but sand nonetheless. Im sure that all that is gonna go away fast once we start dragging the containers thru.

Obviously best solution would prob be to rent the offroad forklift mentioned but money is going out faster than its coming in right now so Im trying to make things happen with what I have.

I also wanted the containers secured together so that all three would settle evenly and together.

Im prob gonna have to come up with a jack of some sort to lift them once in place so that I can get them even in height, then comealong the tops together and start drilling and running hardware thru.

Still trying to put it all together in my head.

They are going directly onto ground, its sand, it sheds water super fast, I wont have any issues in my lifeteime with rot

1930 · Feb 22, 2020

ovrszd said:
Awesome!!!! Post more pics of your progress. This guy is going to transform your site into exactly what you want!!!! Perfect grading dozer!!!!

What cant be seen in the pics is that I am standing approx 7-8 feet above the grade of the house pad and the surrounding yard in that right rear corner. The only thing left around the circumference of the property is 20 feet of driving space that I created. All that material was moved to the left front of house pad.