Dozer usage

[greenerdreams]

Mr. Patrick, I have watched Squatch 253, along with Dirt Perfect. Both provide high value content on dozers and I've watched enough of them to start thinking "I should try that..."!

The pond is planned to be 20 to 25 feet at the deepest...it's an area that has some springs and stays wet all summer...unusable otherwise.

Which is a blessing for keeping it filled long-term...but a curse for digging out all the clay soil it's sitting on.

It WILL be very soft initially. Still researching how to do it, and if it's going to require "expert" level credentials to not make it a dozer burial ground.

Thanks for the information above...greatly appreciate it.

suggest an excavator instead of a dozer. not only is it easier to get one out by itself when it gets stuck but also can work much larger areas without having to move. suggest building pads with logs or trees you cut down and dig as much as possible from as few locations as you can. also try to make an initial drainage until you get most dug then dam it back up to fill. i had a wide track dozer
and could go across spring areas once or twice in the same area but working those areas is almost impossible, it turns to quicksand like mud. A stuck dozer is no fun.

 

[rtshinn]

Case 350 here. Use it sporadically all year long. Might sit for two months at a time. In the winter I'll use it to clear my driveway, once or twice. The driveway is about 1/3 mile long. Right now it just sits outside in the open, but I'm building a barn and will have a lean-to that I can park equipment under.

 

[Fxfymn413]

Check into leasing an excavator. It is the right tool for what you want to do.

If you are not sure about which machine to use ask a contractor for a bid and find out how he intends to go about the work.

 

[BackRoad]

Sounds like good advice...Thanks all...

 

[CJONE]

Just a little more to add, the dozer is new enough not to have issues from sitting. New style oil clutches brakes ect. But as long as everything is good when the machine is hot you should have no major repairs needed. That's where it gets expensive. I do this myself so I buy machines cheap and fix them. That is where you will loose money with a dozer and as was stated they are the most $$$ per hour machine to operate especially if you don't know what you are doing. Do the majority of the dirt removal from the DRY areas with the cat, then rent a long stick ex for the spring areas. I have helped remove stuck dozers and excavators out of ponds. I don't think it would be fun watching your machine get covered with water and mud and it is NO fun getting em out!! Cj