Dozer brush cleanup rake

[Highbeam]

Here is my latest project.

I priced the steel from the actual steel market and came up with over 1000$ so I scrounged our city's municipal junkyard and came up with well casing, stop sign posts, and luminaire bolts. Add to that a chunk of 1/2" plate and a lot of welding rod and you get a brush rake.

I will post a series of pitures for the assembly process.

Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

I set the angle for 30 degrees of "rake". Welding galvanized isn't really good for you. Best to grind the zinc off, welds better too. The zinc still burns off from the inside though.

 

[Highbeam]

Heres the attachment to the dozer blade. Lots of 7018.

 

[Highbeam]

Here it is on the dozer finished except for paint. Maybe I'll leave it bare.

Note the welder cranked to 225. Lots of heat needed with the 1/8" 7018 rods. The welder is powered with my 5500 watt coleman generator.

 

[Highbeam]

One more sideways shot to show the angle. This picture was taken during mock-up as you can see by the missing weld on the vertical member.

The bugger works great so far. It pushes the wood forwards and leaves the dirt behind. Then when I back blade the hinged rake lifts up out of the way to allow a smooth finish.

Can't wait to try it on a fire.

Note the storage container garage.

 

[notamustang]

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Can't wait to try it on a fire. )</font>

Having survived the Cedar fire here in San Diego Dont even say things like that /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif ,

I do like the design and the fold away while using features pretty neat design.

 

[Highbeam]

By fire I mean my brush clearing pile fires. I have no intention of running my dozer near a forest fire. The main reason I built this thing was to be able to pile brush with a minimum of dirt included. Wood burns way better than dirt. Also I tend to make a brush pile that is too big to burn at one time so I want to be able to pull off bites and push them onto a starter fire. I have smothered fires this way because of all the dirt.

The other benefit is to give the ground a good raking after the big stuff is removed as a finishing pass.

 

[GuglioLS]

Hi Highbeam,

Great idea for your project, I like it.
Very ingenious the way it tilts up when going backwards.

I here you about steel prices - it's getting out of control - like gas and diesel.