Grading Tractor and HD Box Blade vs. a small Dozer?
- Thread starter Piston
- Start date
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fried1765
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2015
- Messages
- 10,086
- Tractor
- Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, 8N Ford, Gravely 12 HP "Professional", 48" SCAG Liberty
YUP!
RENT !!!
Unless you have barrels of money, and weeks of spare time, forget ... THAT particular D3.
If you really want a dozer, go buy a GOOD dozer, use it for your project, and then sell it!
Renting is the BEST idea!
I once owned an old crawler loader.
I am speaking from experience!
DieselBound
Elite Member
I agree with fried1765. If you own the equipment and it breaks down on you you will then be faced with repair costs that you might not be ready for. And there's the need for BIG tools. AND, where it breaks down could be highly problematic. (I got a 9k lb excavator stuck and it was no fun; fortunately it wasn't the big excavator that I rent that I got stuck!)
I would like to have one but I don't feel that I can't justify the costs. Tracked vehicles are just a lot more expensive to operate and maintain. Yes, they can get a ton of work done; but, unless you have your projects all lined up and you're really applying that machine you're going to be under-utilizing it all the while risking a costly event occurring. My equipment rental guy (I rent excavators from) doesn't have a dozer; I suspect that if he did I'd be renting one from him.
I would like to have one but I don't feel that I can't justify the costs. Tracked vehicles are just a lot more expensive to operate and maintain. Yes, they can get a ton of work done; but, unless you have your projects all lined up and you're really applying that machine you're going to be under-utilizing it all the while risking a costly event occurring. My equipment rental guy (I rent excavators from) doesn't have a dozer; I suspect that if he did I'd be renting one from him.
Piloon's statement about getting a qualified heavy equipment mechanic nailed it.
If the dozer is a dud then it is a cheap learning experience, and if it is good then you have peace of mind from the outset.
good luck.
If the dozer is a dud then it is a cheap learning experience, and if it is good then you have peace of mind from the outset.
good luck.
fried1765
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2015
- Messages
- 10,086
- Tractor
- Kubota L48 TLB, Ford 1920 FEL, 8N Ford, Gravely 12 HP "Professional", 48" SCAG Liberty
I doubt that any mechanic will have x-ray vision.
There is no such thing as "piece of mind" if you own an old tracked earth mover.
Something is about to break .....all the time!
When that something breaks,..... your wallet will get a thorough flushing!
Billrog
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2014
- Messages
- 2,051
- Location
- Armstrong, British Columbia
- Tractor
- Kioti 2610, 580 SuperM Case Backhoe
Sounds like the price must be right . If it runs good goes forward and back turns both ways along with some of GGs advice buy it and play all summer. I bought an old cat with more hrs. than that used it for a couple years and was able to sell it for more than I paid without even painting it.
atsah
Elite Member
Another vote for renting if you can, I have done many projects around my property and have rented dozer, excavators etc to accomplish them and use my light weight equipment to clean up after them.
Rustyiron
Super Member
Hey Piston, what's up with the excavator you were looking at?
You're as bad as I am:laughing: Iron junkie!
You're as bad as I am:laughing: Iron junkie!kevin37b
Veteran Member
If it will start and move as cold as it looks , good thing . Get it backed out and run it an hour . You will know what kind of shape the tracks are in pretty quick . Get off and do a walkaround on leaks , in the snow . Surely he has a place you can do a little pushing . The trans is something to consider with that many HRS . As far as work done it will bury your tractor and no flat tires guaranteed . Good luck , I enjoy your posts .
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I started out renting a John Deere 450G dozer on my land and quickly realized it was too small for what I wanted to do. It couldn't break through the hard packed, dry red clay, and when pushing a full blade of dirt, it would quickly become too much and spin its tracks or kill the engine. It was great at shaping and spreading loose dirt. I bought a bigger Case dozer similar in size to a D6 at 170 hp. It does everything I want a dozer to do. It's also a never ending project of fixing things. I could never afford to rent one to do everything I want to do, or hire it out, so wrenching on it is how I save money. Hoses go all the time, cylinders fail one at a time until you've rebuilt every one of them. Then I think they start the process all over again. Branches are your worse enemy. Never run over them, they will catch on the tracks and then get through your belly pans and break something. I had a small, green pine branch bust off the oil sensor on the side of my engine block that created quite the mess of oil spraying through the engine covers!!!
Buying means that you have it there 24/7 and you can use it for as long as you want, or just let it sit until it's needed. Never expect it to work right away, there will always be something to fix on it. Renting means killing yourself to get the most out of it while you have it. Usually it will run perfectly while you have it, but hoses break, things happen, so even renting brand new, don't be surprised if you break down.
As to your original question, I personally hated my box blade. I never became proficient at it and found it to be extremely frustrating to smooth anything out with it. I tried digging ditches along my trails with it, but I just created a mess. I tried using the back blade for filling trenches when running water lines, but found it painful twisting in my seat going backwards all the time. After sitting around in my yard for ten years, I gave it to a friend who is now experiencing the same issues I had with it.
My personal favorite way to smooth out a road or a pad is to back drag with the front bucket on my loader. I have the best control that way, and my results are always good. The dozer is great for filling trenches, or spreading dirt, or digging the pond. It doesn't move dirt very far, but for short distances, it's good. Hopefully this year I will level off about an acre to create a parking area close to my pond, build up a pad for an event center and shape a two lane road to get there. I'm also clearing trees for my fence line and it looks like a war zone with all the craters left from digging them out. I'll reshape the side of the hill with the dozer and use that dirt to fill in where the holes from the stumps.
The one thing that I find that most people don't understand is how much running a dozer beats you up. The first hour is fun, but then it turns into work, and after you've been on it all day, your beat up. Both mentally and physically. My brain feels numb, and my body is exhausted. If you break down, you are doing the repairs right where you stopped. Most of the time it's on uneven ground, or in a location that's not ideal. I've had to cut down trees and haul off debris to get to where the problem was. I've had to use my backhoe to dig a pit so I could get under the dozer, and I've resorted to digging with a small, garden hand shovel to get to where I needed to be.
Whatever you do, NEVER GET STUCK in the mud with a dozer!!!!!
Hope this helps,
Eddie
Buying means that you have it there 24/7 and you can use it for as long as you want, or just let it sit until it's needed. Never expect it to work right away, there will always be something to fix on it. Renting means killing yourself to get the most out of it while you have it. Usually it will run perfectly while you have it, but hoses break, things happen, so even renting brand new, don't be surprised if you break down.
As to your original question, I personally hated my box blade. I never became proficient at it and found it to be extremely frustrating to smooth anything out with it. I tried digging ditches along my trails with it, but I just created a mess. I tried using the back blade for filling trenches when running water lines, but found it painful twisting in my seat going backwards all the time. After sitting around in my yard for ten years, I gave it to a friend who is now experiencing the same issues I had with it.
My personal favorite way to smooth out a road or a pad is to back drag with the front bucket on my loader. I have the best control that way, and my results are always good. The dozer is great for filling trenches, or spreading dirt, or digging the pond. It doesn't move dirt very far, but for short distances, it's good. Hopefully this year I will level off about an acre to create a parking area close to my pond, build up a pad for an event center and shape a two lane road to get there. I'm also clearing trees for my fence line and it looks like a war zone with all the craters left from digging them out. I'll reshape the side of the hill with the dozer and use that dirt to fill in where the holes from the stumps.
The one thing that I find that most people don't understand is how much running a dozer beats you up. The first hour is fun, but then it turns into work, and after you've been on it all day, your beat up. Both mentally and physically. My brain feels numb, and my body is exhausted. If you break down, you are doing the repairs right where you stopped. Most of the time it's on uneven ground, or in a location that's not ideal. I've had to cut down trees and haul off debris to get to where the problem was. I've had to use my backhoe to dig a pit so I could get under the dozer, and I've resorted to digging with a small, garden hand shovel to get to where I needed to be.
Whatever you do, NEVER GET STUCK in the mud with a dozer!!!!!
Hope this helps,
Eddie
