HI guys, Great site you have here. I recently had my forty acres forest logged off. I want to build a couple roads on the property. What remains are black spruce, balsam and polar stumps cut low to the ground. They are anywhere between 6 to 10 inches. Soil is pretty much sand. I don't think any of these trees have a deep tap root. I want to push these stumps out with a dozer. Here's my question. What's the smallest size dozer I could use to do this? I'm currently looking at used D2's, D3's, D4's, JD 350, JD 450, Case 350, Case 450 and others in that same size category. How much dozer do I need and what features should it have? Thanks guys for any info!
Dirt Moving What size dozer should I look for?
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m1garand762
Gold Member
Me personally i would look for a track loader lile a jd555 with a 4 in 1 bucket. You can push tje stumps oit and then pick up and shake the dirt out
fried1765
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A track loader is definitely the better choice!
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
What is your budget? Do you plan to keep it or sell it when you are done? How good are you, or should I say, how willing are you to wrench on it?
Small dozers take a lot of time to push out stumps. They also have to remove a lot of material to get the stump loose enough to come out. You burn a lot of fuel using a dozer to remove stumps.
Low priced dozers are well worn. Parts and lots of tools are needed to keep them running.
Of the three brands you listed, I think Deere is going to give you the best bang for your buck. Cat is a better machine, but parts can be pricey and the machine will cost more then any other with the same HP. Case does not support older equipment very well. It will be the cheapest HP out of the three, but if you can't find a part for it, then it's not doing anything for you. Deere makes a good machine and they are better about parts then Case.
If you just want to get stumps out and you have no other use for the machine afterword's, an excavator is going to do it faster and easier. When you are done, it will be a lot easier to sell compared to a dozer.
I own a Case 1550 dozer. It's 170 hp and weighs 40,000 pounds. I also own a New Holland 555E 2wd loader backhoe that's 80 hp. The backhoe will take out stumps night and day faster then my dozer will. And after the stump is out, I can fill in the hole created by the backhoe a lot faster then what I created digging out a stump with my dozer. But this is in hard packed red clay.
Sand would be totally different. Root structure also makes a huge difference. Some trees pop out like they want to come out, others will hold on like they are held in with concrete and super glue. Given how different our soils are, what I say probably wont apply, but then again, stumps are very tough to get out and I would still want something to dig them out instead of trying to push them out.
Small dozers take a lot of time to push out stumps. They also have to remove a lot of material to get the stump loose enough to come out. You burn a lot of fuel using a dozer to remove stumps.
Low priced dozers are well worn. Parts and lots of tools are needed to keep them running.
Of the three brands you listed, I think Deere is going to give you the best bang for your buck. Cat is a better machine, but parts can be pricey and the machine will cost more then any other with the same HP. Case does not support older equipment very well. It will be the cheapest HP out of the three, but if you can't find a part for it, then it's not doing anything for you. Deere makes a good machine and they are better about parts then Case.
If you just want to get stumps out and you have no other use for the machine afterword's, an excavator is going to do it faster and easier. When you are done, it will be a lot easier to sell compared to a dozer.
I own a Case 1550 dozer. It's 170 hp and weighs 40,000 pounds. I also own a New Holland 555E 2wd loader backhoe that's 80 hp. The backhoe will take out stumps night and day faster then my dozer will. And after the stump is out, I can fill in the hole created by the backhoe a lot faster then what I created digging out a stump with my dozer. But this is in hard packed red clay.
Sand would be totally different. Root structure also makes a huge difference. Some trees pop out like they want to come out, others will hold on like they are held in with concrete and super glue. Given how different our soils are, what I say probably wont apply, but then again, stumps are very tough to get out and I would still want something to dig them out instead of trying to push them out.
Farmer495
Veteran Member
Track loaders can be had with 4 in 1, seem to be an orphan machine now.
I was talking with someone a while back and they made the comment that some of the bigger dozers can be had for same money or less as the ones that are sized to trailer behind a tandem truck.
I was talking with someone a while back and they made the comment that some of the bigger dozers can be had for same money or less as the ones that are sized to trailer behind a tandem truck.
shooterdon
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Call a contractor and see what it will cost to put your roads and trails in. We did that and it was cheaper than we thought.
I own a Deere 550 dozer. It’s around 90 HP and around 20k lbs. it is between a D4 and D5 I think. This week I ran it around fifty hours and I also rented a Deere 850 and had them both running. The 850 is 225 HP and weighs 50k. Their capabilities are night and day different. There were a lot of stumps even on smallish 6” trees the little dozer couldn’t budge and the big one blasted through them. If you spend long enough digging around at all angles the smaller one would work but you are talked seconds vs ten minutes. We got an amazing amount of stuff done in one week.
With forty acres I would just rent a decent sized machine. I paid around 4K to have the 850 for a week. It built a pad for a cabin, cleaned out three ponds, and dozed about 12 miles of new roads in some very rough terrain. It was burning about 90 gallons a day of diesel.
With dozers bigger is better. Anything less than 30k pounds is likely going to disappoint you. As an example I was cutting down a small hill to make a road over it. With my 550 I was only able to take about 4” off a pass. We ran the 850 across it and were taking about 2’ off per pass.
With forty acres I would just rent a decent sized machine. I paid around 4K to have the 850 for a week. It built a pad for a cabin, cleaned out three ponds, and dozed about 12 miles of new roads in some very rough terrain. It was burning about 90 gallons a day of diesel.
With dozers bigger is better. Anything less than 30k pounds is likely going to disappoint you. As an example I was cutting down a small hill to make a road over it. With my 550 I was only able to take about 4” off a pass. We ran the 850 across it and were taking about 2’ off per pass.
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
I own and have owned dozers for MANY years, I'm betting you would be better off paying someone else to do your job, or if you insist on trying to do it yourself, rent a dozer....a BIG one, just so you know, a 450 is small...
SR
SR
Citydude
Elite Member
Ive said it before but a tracked dozer without a ripper is less efficient. Especially the smaller framed ones.
fried1765
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