How much for a dozer?

[newcountry]

My father-in-law and I are trying to figure out what to do to clear some of our land. We think our best options is to buy a dozer and share it. How much would you expect to spend on the smallest dozer that can down up to 40-ft trees (though most are very spindley). Maybe, more accurately I should ask how little can I spend while still get the job done w/o stopping every hour to fix another broken part . We are looking at clearing a pickup-width path around our 50 acres of farmland, plus clearing 5-6 acres behind his house.

I'd love to be able to get my hands on one of those skidsteers with a tree mulcher but noone locally has one to rent out. I haven't checked into finding someone to do it for me -- Both my FIL and I are both do-it-ourselfers, what's the fun watching someone else do our job ?

 

[EddieWalker]

I really think you need at least 100 hp in a dozer to beging using it to clear land. Anything smaller is questionable and the smaller you go, the worse it will be. HP and weight are what knocks down trees and pushes them to the burn pile.

If you don't want to be working on it, then you better have $40,000 to $50,000. Less money will get you a smaller dozer or an older one. It might be better to know how much you have to spend?

Owning a dozer on small acerage is more of a perk then a smart finacial decision. THEY ARE MONEY PITS!! The fun ends the fist week, then it's misserable work. When it breaks down, that miserable work becomes something you dream of doing instead of trying to fix the dozer. hahaha

My dozer is 160 hp and I use my backhoe for taking out trees a foot thick or more. If the ground is dry, then even those are tough to get out, depending on the species.

Do some searches here on dozers. Lots of good advice and first hand stories of those who have them.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[BarryinMN]

Sounds like you are planning some serious fun.

EddieW comments are spot on as usual.

I bought a refurbished 40 hp class JD in '02. Use it to develop lakefront, build gator width trails and last summer grubbed out a pond.

Your timber may have commercial value. A forester or logger could tell pretty quick. If so, mark out the roads & let them open it up & clear away some of the mess.

There will still be plenty of cleanup and maintenance to do.

If word gets out you have a dozer, be prepared for new friends, relatives and neighbors' work requests.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've had success and good luck with my 14,000 lb Cat D3, 62hp Dozer.

First I use the ripper to make a pass in front and then on both sides of the tree... leaving the roots intact on the back side where you want the tree to fall. With the roots ripped, the trees usually don't require much effort from the dozer blade to topple.

I agree with Eddie that more HP is never a bad thing when it comes to Dozers.

 

[cp1969]

What do you plan to do with it when this job is over? If that is all the dozer work you need to do, it doesn't seem to justify buying one.

I know there is no fun in hiring people to do work but sometimes it makes a lot of financial sense.

 

[jpm]

if you really want to do it yourself how about renting? cheeper than owning

 

[RoyJackson]

If you're going to rent, you might as well go the route and hire an operator...

Per the original post:

"Both my FIL and I are both do-it-ourselfers, what's the fun watching someone else do our job "

Reckon this depends on if you want to pay for the hours utilized training yourself to operate the 'dozer efficiently.

 

[EddieWalker]

if you really want to do it yourself how about renting?

I don't think you can rent a dozer big enough to get anything done. Before I bought my dozer, I ran a JD 450G for a guy on residential jobs and minor grading. Not for land clearing. I priced renting one and was told it would be $1,000 per week. Instead, I worked out a deal to use his 450G on my land for a few weeks and learned the hard way that you can't get very much done with a 80 hp dozer. It won't dig in compacted clay, nor will it take out trees of any size.

Of couse, if you move enough dirt, you can probably get any tree out, but it takes hours to get a medium sized tree out with a small dozer. Even then, the tree is big enough to flip the dozer if ou don't know what you're doing.

It is MUCH CHEAPER to hire it out with somebody that has a large dozer. D6 size or better will clear land. Anything smaller and you're wasting time on a machine that's too small to be effective. A big dozer will just knock down everything keep moving.

Eddie

 

[scott_vt]

Afternoon Newcountry,
Do a search on " Welcome to my Nightmare ". Eddie Walker had a great thread on repairing his broken bulldozer, after reading that thread I changed my mind on wanting to own one !

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/construction-equipment/78682-welcome-my-nightmare.html

 

[Kendall69]

You can rent for a whole lot less, and do a lot of work in a day. I rented a cat for $400.00, for eight hours and did all the work I needed ( cleared 2-3 Ac of mesquite trees brush.)

The trick is get the Dozer late on a Friday, then you have all weekend to do your eight hours and only be charged for ONE day - not three. Better yet if you do it on a Holiday week end, you then can be billed for 16 hour, (doing more work in two days) and have 4 days to use it.

The Cat Rental Store

 

[RobJ]

As some have said a dozer is not the best thing for trees unless it's pretty big. And if you don't know what you are doing you can make a bigger mess with a bigger dozer...it does take some knowhow after all.

If it's a long project I like the idea of buying, then reselling. You can get a decent small dozer for say 15k (this is not brand new), maybe more. Use it for a year and resell for near what you have in it.

Someone else here at TBN that has a place around Huntsville did this and loves it. They were using the 6-way blade to cut around the tree then pop it out. Takes some time but it will do it.

Good Luck,
Rob

 

[TxTom]

Hey Rob, thanks for the mention. I'd have to say it all depends on your soil type. If your in clay or rock then Eddie is right with the bigger is better theory. I'm in sandy loam with a rock layer 2-3 feet down.

I had never even sat on a dozer but picked up clearing (without too much dirt) in a couple of hours. The tree in the pictures was live but was hollowed. From start to finish, including instructing the wife/photographer, was maybe 15-20 minutes.

Thomas

 

[stumpfield]

I got this little dozer (Nortrac NB3500 30HP 6600lbs.) When I bought it, everyone laughs at me that it's a toy and it won't do any real work. I proved them wrong. It the best tool I ever got for my road maintanence and building ATV trails. I didn't have to take down any big tree yet... For small under 4" trees, this little dozer can push it down with plenty of power to spare. For larger trees, I use my chain saw. With the 6-way blade in the front and dragging a 6' boxblade in the rear, I can almost build a trail in a single pass.

I paid more than double the price of this dozer to hire out my initial road building project. The problem with hiring out the work is you must have a good plan and know exactly what you want done. At $125 per hour and $500 per move-in fee, before I realized it, I got a $15,000 bill and my road was no where near completion. With plenty of time and patience, I could have done it myself. So, if you want something done right in a hurry, you will need to hire the pros and pay big buck$. If you have more time than money and willing to accept un-productive and frustrating days while you learning how to operate the equipment, you will enjoy owning the dozer.

 

[teg]

My friend bought a Nortrac to cut some roads, then he planned to turn around and sell it. He never got to the second part of that plan... I've used it to cut a road in (see photos). Slow is fine, I had the time and I'm a beginner, that's all I wanted. I'm never in a hurry up at the farm...

He's dug out 12" stumps, took awhile, and I think he said that's about as big as he will try again. He's put in a lot of roads but clearly it's taken much longer with this small dozer. He paid $12k but I looked and they are $15k, now.

He had problems with it, covered under warranty, now he just lives with some of the problems, just don't expect too much from a $15k dozer and don't think nothing will stop it.

 

[RobJ]

Hey Rob, thanks for the mention. I'd have to say it all depends on your soil type. If your in clay or rock then Eddie is right with the bigger is better theory. I'm in sandy loam with a rock layer 2-3 feet down.

Thomas

There you are!! Nice pics, but I may have to differ on the rock being 2-3 feet down. The limestone layer around here is thousands of feet down. It shows itself near Austin and gets shallower as you go north. What you are seeing is that highly compressed clay (probably red?). It is hard as a rock because when we are digging fence posts and hit it thats as far as we dig!! Around elkhart we have that iron ore rocks in the soil, but it's still far from bedrock.

I ain't saying so, a geologist here at our oil company.

Did you say your place is off Hwy 19? We pass by that on the way to our place.

Rob

 

[cp1969]

Don't mess around...get a real dozer.

VanNatta Bulldozers, Crawler Dozers

There are even bigger ones than that.

 

[newcountry]

Thanks for the replies! Wow, I'm gone for three days and look at all the advice I got, that's why I love TBN!

Barry - I've had a couple different sections of our land looked at for lumber. Unfortunately it is so overgrown and thick all the trees are tall and thin, good for knocking down but not so much when trying to sell them.

Our trees are mostly smaller than those shown in TxTom's pix - great pix BTW. There are a couple bigger than that. And our dirt is pretty good, low lying flood plains, more clay but that's up on the hills. Gives us an idea on what size we can look at. When we do buy it will be used, we just can't afford a new one. And it sounds like more money than I was expecting, but this is a totally new area for me (kind of like when I was shopping for a tractor )

We've got all the time in the world to get these projects done, we're in no rush. This will be one of those "I've got a few hours to burn, I think I'll knock down some trees" jobs. That's why renting is not high on our list, and hiring out isn't either. Unless I get a lot who disagree I don't see how we don't come out ahead on the money side by buying, using, then reselling later. And a relative time-saver from chainsaw and dealing with all the stumps.

 

[newcountry]

Don't mess around...get a real dozer.

VanNatta Bulldozers, Crawler Dozers

There are even bigger ones than that.

CP, you think I can borrow that one? I could clear my land in an hour, which is good since it burns through 20 gallons of diesel/hr!!

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like you have the same attitude that I do. Hope you have a good sense of humor!!!! hahahahaha

Three things you need to think of when buying a dozer. How much do you have, how much power can you buy and how worn out is it. This sounds simple, but the reality is that newer and smaller is still very expensive. Older and bigger is gonna be cheaper, but much more painful to fix and keep running.

You'll find lots of opinions of machines here, so the fist step is to decide how much you can afford. What's the budget? Can you add any more to it?

Then we can through out some suggestions. When you find a machine that you like, tell us about it and we'll tell you some things to look for. An undercairage coule easily run $5,000 to replace. An engine can cost you $4,000 to $20,000. Transmissions and hydraulics can run you from $10,000 to $30,000 real easy.

Eddie

 

[txdon]

I hired out all my dozing. Looking at what you need I would say about a week of work or $4000.00. I watched the experienced D6 operators work and they are fast and accurate. There is no risk, no breaking your dozer or blowing your hydraulic lines, no learning curve, no diesel, no repairs to cause anxiety. I would get an estimate from a local dozer operator and then clearly mark what you want to keep or push away then sit back and enjoy.