Tractor vs. Bulldozer

[4570Man]

A dozer will be way better than a tractor for moving dirt after all that’s what it was built for. But you don’t want a junk dozer. You can buy a nice machine use it and get your money back it when you’re done or you could buy a junk machine, spend all your time and money working on it and it’s still junk when you’re done.

 

[plastikosmd]

4670 has it right

I have never lost $ on my dozers. Learn to assess them ( not complicated) and buy right. Don稚 be in a hurry. Of course the unforeseen mechanical repair could always occur but usually the older maintained machines are survivors!

 

[deereman75]

Another thing to be aware of is cost of parts, even if you can do the work yourself.
Caterpillar is notoriously bad. There are some jobber parts available but they can be hit or miss.
A lot of my business as a machine shop is rebuilding worn out caterpillar parts. Even simple parts such as pins can be in the thousands of dollars from Cat.

Driveline and undercarriage is what you really need to pay attention to. If the clutches seem suspect, run away. If there are any bad noises from the transmission or final drives, or if the controls don't seem right, run away. If you are able to pull off the filters and check them for metal particles, do it. That's usually the first thing you notice when a planet carrier goes, before it gets bad enough to be heard.

And lastly undercarriage wear. A bit less of a factor for a hobby/farm cat that will see minimal use. But make your decision with the knowledge that if you have to rebuild the undercarriage it will cost you $10-30k or more depending on make and size of dozer.

 

[homesteader13]

I love my John Deere 420-c crawler, added $2500.00 to our offer when we bought the property for it.
The engine was rebuilt in 2009 and he took imaculate care of it.
That being said, if I could only have one or the orher it would have to be my tractor and its plethora of implements, much more versatile.
But for reference, dozers are for building roads, tractors are for maintaining them.
Good luck with your decision, keep us posted on what you decide!

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Having a dozer around, can be really handy.,

This one has been reliable and it's nice to have around, and when something like this,

is needed to be taken care of, or maybe you just don't want to rut your field all up with a tractor. So, you can fix that problem by using your dozer,

Like I said, handy to have around,

SR

 

[Ortimber]

In my opinion, there’s just not much common ground between a tractor and a dozer. If I could only have one, it’d for sure be a loader tractor. I have a 100HP tractor, and a 100 HP dozer. On rough ground the dozer is a pleasure to operate, the tractor is almost dangerous. Both could pull a disc or plow, the tractor would be more comfortable and probably less costly per hr based on wear and tear. For pure versatility, obviously a tractor is a jack of all trades.

 

[Mat4644]

Your limited with a 2wd tractor. Heavy skid steer or 4wd tractors might be better options.

 

[ultrarunner]

Owned the CAT D3 for 17 years and spent about $200 average annually for repair and maintenance.

When it came time to sell I got my purchase price back... the annual $200 was the cost of ownership.

I thought my Deere 110 could fill.the gap but comes up short.

Now have a Deere 350C which is much less capable but makes great trails and is a little mountain goat...

 

[Ken45101]

At one point I thought about a dozer. But hearing the warning that you had better be mechanically inclined or ready to pay a lot for maintenance, I gave up on the idea. I'm not mechanic.

For the work you mentioned, a dozer would be ideal. A skid steer might work or a mini excavator. I do a lot a trail building on hillsides. A tractor is very limited because it does its best work behind it (scraper blade or box blade.). The bucket on the front of a tractor is a --loader--, not a dozer or exavator. A skid steer is better but still has difficulty cutting into side slopes. The mini excavator of course digs a level path for it to sit on. Many times I start out trying to do a trail with the skid steer but always come back for the mini excavator. I'm often working on 20 to 40 degree side slopes.

Ken

 

[mikester]

Thank you for some great replies as always. I appreciate the mention of maintenance costs. That is something I had not considered. It sounds from those with experience like a dozer is a high maintenance machine. I do have some mechanical aptitude, but I have less and less time as my life gets longer. If I could get into a deal like Tinhack with a machine that hasn't required much work that would be ideal.

I'll probably still keep my eyes out for a good deal on a dozer, but maybe with a little less urgency. I'll also probably do a lot more investigating on a used machine than I would have before posting this thread. Are there any specific checks or tests that I should do when looking at a used dozer?

Also, any thoughts about what tasks I should save for a dozer? I.e. if I were to use the tractor for a while and then sell it to get a dozer... What land prep should I do with the tractor and what tasks should I save for the dozer?

If you need to move spoil long distances get a wheeled machine. If you need lots of grunt and low ground pressure get a tracked machine. Once you get a dozer you always find something to do with it.