Cat D6, D8 vs Excavator & dump truck

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I agree with Wingnut on this one. I looked into renting a smaller Cat dozer (D3) and was give a "deal" on it at $350 for a weekend with only $50 for delivery and pick up. Like you, I was enthused about operating that baby and moving dirt around.

I then contacted a contractor who offered me a slightly larger Cat dozer (D4) AND AN OPERATOR for $50/hour. Instead of the 'learning on the run' method and probably not getting it done right or done in one weekend, I'll now get it done right by a professional for about the same money. The contractor estimated "about 8 hours... mebbe a little more, but not much..." He also offered to haul out a tri-axle load of stone for my drive "since we'll be bringing the truck out anyhow. No sense in bringing it out empty, you know."

It took me more time to type this post than to make that decision.

 

[MikePA]

Hi Pete,

I bow to the others in their expertise on dozers /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I'll just comment from experience...you will get plenty of tractor time cleaning up the tracks the dozer leaves behind /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif and not just where they do the work. There will be tracks from where they unload the dozer to the work site. They can smooth some of the tracks out, but, depending upon what you want to use the area for, it may not be good enough.

Also, I assume the guy will first strip the top soil, cut the bank back, put the swale in, etc. and then put the top soil back?

 

[Egon]

Go for the bigger dozer perferably with a U blade and a good operator. You could also use the dozer pulling a scrapper. Be able to a much better job finishing with the scrapper.

Egon

 

[wallysue]

Weed, here are charts of production for towed (cat and scraper) and self propelled scraper. I'll post towed first then self. Wally

 

[wallysue]

Here is the self power scaper chart. I don't have a dozer chart but have track and wheel loader charts. These are scans of copies from the research I did for the dirt moved here. Settled on a track loader.

 

[Jag]

Good call Gary... Weedsportpete. looks like the big dozer is the way to go... I must disagree with some, if you have a good operator then rough grading is no problem... I could not do it but have seen some good ones. By rough I mean pretty darn good.. I watched an operator yesterday cut the top soil and then haul in a couple of loads of fill and work it down for a concrete slab extension. One one side where he had to start the cut and did most of the work the ground sloped down a a very good angle were he would really have to adjust the blade for the first ten feet or so. When he got finished the base was to grade with no place being even a 1/2 inch out... that's good.

 

[weedsportpete]

Franz, I'll ask about the shank ripper.. sounds like a tough implement, which is a good idea since our ground is so hard.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll bow to experience and let the pros do the job; I'm sure I'll get plenty of seat time cleaning up after the big machines.

I'm hoping I get a good operator, Jag, as you have seen with that grading operation. Grading will be very important to me, to provide a good surface to mow on, for drainage, and to compact our riding arena.

I called the local Cat dealer and got a name and recommendation of a business that has some big equipment. Now if they can only free up some time... Everyone around here seems to be busy.

Pete

 

[Hoeman00]

Hey if bigger is better my father-in-law's buddy runs
a D-11R w/26' U blade and over 100 cu. yard capacity.
Couple of passes and all done.
Go w/ dozer.

 

[Darren]

Looks like you have a handle on moving material. One thing I've seen over and over is that contractors don't do a good job of compacting the material.You might think a heavy dozer would be all you need but the tracks are designed to lower ground pressure to prevent it from sinking into the soil. That prevents a dozer alone from being able to compact soil unless you're running really thin lifts.

If you're not going to be doing anything with the area over which the excavated material is placed, the material will settle over time. You might end up with soft spots especially after rain even if the material is graded to slope. If you have immediate plans for the area, have the contractor run a vibratory roller with a pad foot drum over the area after the dozer spreads the material. Keep the thickness of the lifts down to make them easier to compact.

It'll cost more but it beats ending up with a soft area.