The Ultimate Medium Dozer?

[stretch]

I second the mice proof.That has been my thought on the electric drive D7E the rodents would have a field day on the electric harness

Midwest must be the only place that rodents live in heavy equipment:beatsme:usa

Nope...NE gets them too!

 

[Greg]

Ultimate Dozer

They already built the ultimate dozer. Caterpillar D8H 46A built on the cusp just before the K's were released. I have owned and run both. The 46A with the 300 HP spacer plate engine is an amazing machine. What's more, I can work on them because there are no computers or other electronic junk to corrupt the system. Just raw bullet proof horse power. We use them for dozer work as well as pulling scrapers. :Banghead

We're aware that we have several major equipment manufacturers watching our board, I thought it might be interesting to hear from the members what they feel the ultimate dozer would be.

Let's consider a D5-7 sized machine, they are what I see most often around my area. If you were designing a dozer, what features would you add? It could be as simple as a seating position change or as crazy as some new electronic gizmo that would automatically perform some function. Put all your ideas here, who knows, maybe you'll see some of them incorporated in a future dozer.

After this thread has run its course, we'll move on to another type of machine.

 

[Countryboy]

Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums Greg! :drinkup

 

[imabigdave]

Man... you got that right... I've been trying to get something figured out just
like you suggested. We've got a JD 750c, and I doubled the thickness on the
bottom... welded 5/8 plate on both pans... afraid of putting a big ding in one
from a rock. They're heavier now... but they were too heavy to mess with
originally. I usually remove them both every year to clean them... pine needles, sticks, grass, or anything burnable; do a lot of fire work and I don't
want anything in the pans to catch on fire.

The front one isn't too bad... but the back one is horrible to get back on by
your self... and it's usually "by your self"... Just mention "belly pan", and it seems you become the only living person on earth...

I can put a bar across the c-frame and use the blade to lift the front one up
(6-way)... but the back one needs to go in at a slight angle and then up.

I think I've got a winch system figured out, and I'll explore the concept the
next time I tilt the cab.

OCR

When I bought my D5B, someone had welded the oil-drain access on the front pan closed, so you had to drop the pan just the change the oil. I fixed that with an air chisel and some fabrication, but getting the pan back up was always a pain in the ass running chains underneath, and having it slide this way and that until I welded a hook on each side of the pan at the center of gravity.....now I just stick a come-a-long on each side to the ROPS and up she comes. The rear is still a pain, although I've seen some on the D6's that I've worked around that are hinged at the front, so you can put it back up with a jack.

 

[alco]

:deadhorse

I think rotating seats are good, so your whole console moves with you. Cat had this thing with right ways angled seats, for better blade and ripper visibility, so if it rotates, you can watch both sides of the blade and the ripper, hopefully at the touch of a button... Kinda like in a TLB... lets not go there...:deadhorse:angel

I have often had the same thought. Actually, there is a company called Morgan Forestry Products that builds a line of heavy skidders that have a system like that in the cab.

Here's a link to their site to see what I mean. It shows a picture in the brochures they have online.

http://www.silvatechgroup.com/morganforestry/index.html

Brian

 

[qball]

gimme a d8h. good power, good control, decent comfort, great sound.the new d3s and 4s are crapola, imho. too jerky and too light. deeres are way too light, they git to chattering too easily. 8rs are ok as are 6ms. the finger tip steering sux, though. love diff steer.

 

[OCR]

The Ultimate Dozer? With a belly pan winch.

I think there needs to be some kind of winching mechanism that works from inside the cab for the belly pans. I don't know how many hundreds of hours I've put in pulling a pan to change a hose and then jacking or stringing come along and chains underneath to get the thing back up.

Man... you got that right... I've been trying to get something figured out just like you suggested.

Took a while too... Lol

Here's some pictures of the winch I just installed, to lift the back pan on a 750c.

First, I cut a chain splice in half and welded it to the pan bottom for the winch cable... the one to the left is just to show what I used.

​

This just shows how I attached the cable. I actually double lined it by running the free end back on the drum.

​

This is the dinky little winch I used... lol
My Brother bought it a couple years ago, and it's just been laying around here. It's basically an ATV winch... I think he said it cost about $45.00.

​

Another winch picture... dragging pan under dozer.

​

This shows the winch starting to lift the belly pan.

​

I'll post the rest tomorrow.


OCR

 

[bill onthehill]

That looks like it will work great! You must be putting your snooze time to good use. LOL Getting the pan covers back on was always one of the worst parts of the job. Would also make it nice to be able to keep it in place when unbolting instead of eating a face full of dirt and grease as it gets looser and is falling on you!

 

[Greg]

What did you use to weld the chain splicer to the pan? If the chain splice link is made of forged steel no problem, low hydrogen rod like 7018 works great.

 

[John C.]

Nice job OCR!!!

You are coming closer to building our dream machine.

 

[willie59]

SSSSSSSSwwweeeeeeetttt!

I like it too!

 

[oldirt]

hinges work too

I have a couple of hinges made out of strap welded to the sides of both belly pans on mine, they swing out of the way if you don't need to do much under there, and come back easily with a comealong under it.

The winch idea is a great one too. Great job!

My idea of a new dozer would be a new 6D or 7G, made from all the old dies, but with the blade cylinders mounted on the hardnose. Not one computer, and on 12V. 3306 motor is very inexpensive to run long term. My earmuffs with a radio in them suppress the sound level just fine in those metal cabs.

Parts are already on the shelf everywhere.

 

[cummins05]

How bout a hands free headset two way radio. mount the transmit switch on the blade control and while there at it tap in the cd\radio with a volume control beside the transmit switch that way you dont have to stop working to have that 10 min radio convo with your wiggle wagon driver

 

[OCR]

A belly pan winch.

I'll post the rest tomorrow.

OCR

I guess "Tomorrow is Yesterday"... lol

For 25c though:

"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is a first-season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #19, production #21, first broadcast on January 26, 1967.

Maybe a few more pictures now...

The last picture was winch starting to lift the belly pan...

This one shows the pan about half way up... just to the point where the back starts to hit some structure for the track frame pivot. This is the place where the swearing would usually start in earnest.

In order to get the back part over the top of the structure, the pan needs to be moved forward, and the back tilted up... very hard maneuver if it's on a floor jack, or some other support.

As can be seen, all I had to do was use one hand... I was holding the camera with the other... and give it a gentle pull, and push down to lift the back end... and a gentle push, and the pan edge was over the structure.

This was kinda like a "hand shake", signifying the end to a 10 year feud... and believe me... I had never touched it with that attitude before... :lmao



Now you can see that the pan is butted up against the tab with the two bolt holes... these are the two rear attach points.

I'll point out too... all this maneuvering was easy, since the pan was hanging from a free swinging attach point, and more or less balanced.



Just a little more winching, and since it was pulling at a slight back angle, it sucked the pan right up tight to the back.

You can also get a little better view of how I rigged the cable around the chain splice... kind of a loop affair... I sure almost every one has used this "knot" themselves.



Winched the pan up tight, and every bolt started by hand!!!
I even had a hard time believing that, didn't have to pry, or move it a bit.
This just shows the bolts, inserted hand tight.



This is just a picture of the belly pan, with the bolts in... still hand tight.

But it also shows the "structure" part, that the pan has to go over, that I was talking about earlier.





And that more or less "wraps" it up... lol


OCR

 

[RocksnRoses]

This is a classic case of 'necessity is the mother of invention'. That is clever, but simple, OCR, you should slap a patent on it, before the big manufacturers copy it, you may never have to work again.
Well done.:notworthy

Rn'R.

 

[OCR]

A belly pan winch.

Thank you very much, my friend...


OCR

 

[td25c]

Excellent work OCR ! I like the double rigged cable.I'l inform "starfleet command" on your progress.Live long and prosper OCR.

 

[willie59]

Really nice OCR!

 

[Groo]

I like the idea of a reversable cockpit. might work well with a skidsteer type lift on the back of a small dozer and a bit more speed. it would make a small machine a whole lot more versitile. The Dozer would now become a dozer/skidder/mulcher/loader.

 

[Lee-online]

Most cat equipment with the waste handler package comes with bellypan actuators. The pans are bolted in place but then pivot on a hinge and are lowered by a electric actuator after the bolts are removed. Either switches mounted with the hood switch or a remote on a long cord.

These are actually more of a pain because they don't work, are seize or have been disconnected. So now when you remove the pans you have to assume they are disconnected and hook up the chain or use a jack.