Ramming a tree with a dozer

MossRoad · Mar 25, 2015

I like the little puff of smoke when he tries to outrun the falling silo by backing up. VROOM!

Shutesbury · Mar 25, 2015

YouTube posting has these comments by the tree guy...

"Time for one of the biggest trees on our farm to come down. Tree was starting to die and was a no good Cottonwood in a bad location. Took me just under an hour to dig out the roots and lay it over. Then pushed it into the ditch without any trouble."

rtimgray · Mar 25, 2015

I've pushed down a lot trees (nowhere near that big, but still pretty large) with a Case 850 dozer, and many, many more (also smaller still) with my Case 310. My experience has been that so long as the tree is alive, there is not much chance of a branch falling off. I guess when they stated that the tree was "starting to die", they decided it was alive enough that it falling apart wouldn't be an issue.

I have taken down some dead trees and they have a wicked tendency to break in the middle of the trunk when pushed. The bottom half might fall the way you're pushing, but the top half will end up on the dozer. The ones that I pushed over were small enough that I was comfortable doing it and letting them bounce off the ROPS and sweeps. The bigger ones I leave alone.

Good luck and take care.

GPintheMitten · Mar 25, 2015

It hurt my ears listening to the high pitch screams of the tree. Poor tree.

EddieWalker · Mar 25, 2015

Looks like he knows what he's doing. I would never want to deal with getting out the root ball if it was cut down with a chainsaw. That just creates ten times as much work compared to taking it all down at once. To me, it didn't look like he was hitting that tree very hard, I'm guessing top speed on that dozer at that range is about 2 mph. After it fell, you can see that he had dug out the roots pretty deep before building up the ramp to get enough leverage to push it over. This is a textbook example of how to take out a tree with a dozer. It also shows why dozers are not the best choice for taking out big trees, but if that's all you have, it will get the job done. An excavator would have been better, then a backhoe.

Nice video.

Eddie

MoKelly · Mar 25, 2015

Neat video. I was half expecting the tree to rock back and fall on the dozer. I am guessing the cab would have helped but not fully protected the operator.

MoKelly

JerryK · Mar 25, 2015

If this trees a rockin', don't come a knock'n ......

rtimgray · Mar 26, 2015

I agree with what Eddie said - a trackhoe is really a better machine to take down trees, but I'm assuming this fell didn't have a trackhoe. The biggest problem is taking trees down with an trackhoe is that once they are down, the trackhoe usually isn't the ideal machine to get them to a burn pile or in a ditch (unless its within reach of the trackhoe). For that, a dozer is better because you can push the tree to a pile and compact it into the pile so it burns better. To do a lot of clearing in an efficient manner, you probably need both.

I can't afford both - that's my problem. I get more use out of my dozer than I would a trackhoe, so I have to compromise.

I would love to add a trackhoe to the fleet - but I also like sleeping indoors, so that won't happen anytime soon.

Good luck and take care.

LD1 · Mar 26, 2015

EddieWalker said:
Looks like he knows what he's doing. I would never want to deal with getting out the root ball if it was cut down with a chainsaw. That just creates ten times as much work compared to taking it all down at once. To me, it didn't look like he was hitting that tree very hard, I'm guessing top speed on that dozer at that range is about 2 mph. After it fell, you can see that he had dug out the roots pretty deep before building up the ramp to get enough leverage to push it over. This is a textbook example of how to take out a tree with a dozer. It also shows why dozers are not the best choice for taking out big trees, but if that's all you have, it will get the job done. An excavator would have been better, then a backhoe.

Nice video.

Eddie

Agreed also.

If a stump is of no concern, like in a woods, then yea: cut it and let her rot. But this looked to be in a field, and a stump is at least 10x's harder to remove without the weight and leverage of the tree.

Didnt look like he was abusing anything and knew what he was doing. I am guessing he didnt have a backhoe or excavator of any size. He probably used the best tool he had.

farmer2009 · Mar 26, 2015

Must agree with Eddie and LD. Not the best tool but way better than a chain saw. I've done the same thing but my little dozer won't touch a tree that size. But dig out the roots and build a ramp. Once you dig out a stump and then dig out a tree the same size you would understand.