Dresser Td8g won’t grade to save my life

[Willie B]

I do back drag if for some reason I need to leave something perfectly smooth like dressing top soil in a yard, it works on loose material but what I have found that on something that is going to be compacted, like a building pad or a driveway, if you washboard it going forward, then backdrag it smooth when you pack it every ripple and bump you put in it going forward will show, in other words compacted material has to be cut smooth to be smooth

I sure hope repairing your mechanical issues clears up your problem.
Few operators I know can perfect finish grading with a short 5 roller crawler. My sense is the short track, combined with the long C frame & the extreme rake in the cutting edge makes these less than ideal to cut a perfect surface. The tractor is like a boat in rough sea as it climbs each bump the blade rises. As you pass center of gravity the blade dives. Continuing makes the problem grow. Correcting the blade height helps, but I am only quick enough when moving very slow.
Very short pushes can help a lot. Start on flat ground, expand the size of the flat. First time you feel it dig back up.
I don't know anyone able to make a perfect surface on mixed soil. Little stumps, rocks, roots, even clumps of sod will hamper your efforts.

Last weekend I expanded a clearing I had made earlier. This area is known as "The Lower Meadow" When I was a kid it was a typical Vermont hay field, rolling hills, humps, and the occasional boulder they must have mowed around. These days it's grown up to scrubby 18" diameter White Pine. A small tornado a few decades ago knocked down 100 of these pine, small swamp Maple grew in their place.
My clearing efforts left the ground shaped as desired, but it'd be a wild ride on a lawnmower! I'm going to try the York rake to smooth it out.

 

[johndeere2240]

I sure hope repairing your mechanical issues clears up your problem.
Few operators I know can perfect finish grading with a short 5 roller crawler. My sense is the short track, combined with the long C frame & the extreme rake in the cutting edge makes these less than ideal to cut a perfect surface. The tractor is like a boat in rough sea as it climbs each bump the blade rises. As you pass center of gravity the blade dives. Continuing makes the problem grow. Correcting the blade height helps, but I am only quick enough when moving very slow.
Very short pushes can help a lot. Start on flat ground, expand the size of the flat. First time you feel it dig back up.
I don't know anyone able to make a perfect surface on mixed soil. Little stumps, rocks, roots, even clumps of sod will hamper your efforts.

Last weekend I expanded a clearing I had made earlier. This area is known as "The Lower Meadow" When I was a kid it was a typical Vermont hay field, rolling hills, humps, and the occasional boulder they must have mowed around. These days it's grown up to scrubby 18" diameter White Pine. A small tornado a few decades ago knocked down 100 of these pine, small swamp Maple grew in their place.
My clearing efforts left the ground shaped as desired, but it'd be a wild ride on a lawnmower! I'm going to try the York rake to smooth it out.

Willie B, I hope that what I am doing helps, I’m not expecting a miracle, but I would like to get this machine to preform close to what my previous Td8e did, I could do very satisfactory work with it, I understand that the wider blade is going to make it more difficult, but the way this machine acts is past difficult, that has been what has weighed on my mind the most is how can something so similar be so different, and if it acted like this when it was new who would buy something like this?

 

[Willie B]

As I said I have no familiarity with your specific machine.
Friends (elderly brothers) have two TD7E. Both machines are heavily worn. Mine is TD7G, virtually identical but for Cummins. Mine is very tight.
Any member of that whole family can climb on any of the three tractors and lay down a layer of crushed stone 1" thick in a driveway, or processed topsoil on a lawn. They routinely prepare house sites smooth as a golf course preparing for topsoil. They are NOT smoothing out mixed dire full of rocks or roots, clumps of torn up sod.
I don't do nearly as well.
I hate to say it, skill doesn't come easily.

 

[Welder Dave]

I sure hope repairing your mechanical issues clears up your problem.
Few operators I know can perfect finish grading with a short 5 roller crawler. My sense is the short track, combined with the long C frame & the extreme rake in the cutting edge makes these less than ideal to cut a perfect surface. The tractor is like a boat in rough sea as it climbs each bump the blade rises. As you pass center of gravity the blade dives. Continuing makes the problem grow. Correcting the blade height helps, but I am only quick enough when moving very slow.
Very short pushes can help a lot. Start on flat ground, expand the size of the flat. First time you feel it dig back up.
I don't know anyone able to make a perfect surface on mixed soil. Little stumps, rocks, roots, even clumps of sod will hamper your efforts.

Last weekend I expanded a clearing I had made earlier. This area is known as "The Lower Meadow" When I was a kid it was a typical Vermont hay field, rolling hills, humps, and the occasional boulder they must have mowed around. These days it's grown up to scrubby 18" diameter White Pine. A small tornado a few decades ago knocked down 100 of these pine, small swamp Maple grew in their place.
My clearing efforts left the ground shaped as desired, but it'd be a wild ride on a lawnmower! I'm going to try the York rake to smooth it out.

Sod or grass clumps are the absolute worst especially with a skid steer. Did a job once for a horse guy (almost forced to do) and he wanted sod filled dirt and manure leveled flat like for a lawn. Not going to happen.

 

[DMiller]

Need a rototiller to get those to smooth down.

 

[Tinkerer]

The width of the blade has no relevance to the hop situation. IMHO !
Roto-tillers are good as Dave pointed out.
But, a harley rake is the absolute perfect attachment for flower bed type finish grade. Especially on a skid steer.
They remove sticks and rocks as good as a hand rake. A good operator can fill in low spots as if they were never there.

 

[Welder Dave]

Harley rake is nice if you can afford it. Good topsoil I could level really nice. I always back bladed so no tire marks. Usually was getting sod put down. Some operators/people think that's the sign of a not so good operator because they could level everything going forward. Maybe with a dozer on something that isn't critical if there's track marks in it? Skid steer is instant reverse so not a big deal forward or reverse.

 

[skyking1]

The trouble with sod clumps and sticks is having to deal with them even after a rake gathers them up for you. It's like you have to have a perpetual hole somewhere on your property to toss the stuff, and it has to be somewhere that you don't care if it settles a little bit over time

 

[Willie B]

I have three dumps. Only organic material goes in. Always a steep "cliff" If it rots & settles more room for more. I can drive the crawler on them.
I have tried burning stumps, but the process is full of red tape. You schedule your fire. If everything is too wet to burn (VT) your permit expires with no fire.
They won't issue a permit unless it has rained three days in a row, but if it has rained three days in a row, good luck getting it to burn. Just easier to shove it off a steep hill. My grandchildren will call it compost.

 

[Willie B]

Your front idler runs on a track with shims to correct for wear. At 3500 hours mine were spanked. I priced new, they were in the $1000 range. I made my own swopping hours for dollars.

 

[johndeere2240]

Progress has been made, new rollers are on, track adjusters resealed/replaced, and all 3 crossbar pins replaced, ordered a new pivot shaft for the blade handle and that took some slop out of the handle.
So after re assembly took it out back to the only place we had at the shop to do any playing, and as I was tracking across the parking lot the first thing I noticed was no more blade hop! It tracks smooth, no more chug chug chug as your tracking on hard ground, the blade is not moving at all!
So went out back and scraped off some topsoil, and got down to the clay and I could tell a big difference in how much more control I had over the blade, I had no problem making a cut and keeping it smooth, I could also run the side of the blade into a pile of dirt without the tractor wanting to nose down, it will just load up and carry on level.
So, I just hope I haven’t imagined all this, loaded up and moved to a job today but it’s just a clearing job pushing some brush and small trees, so probably won’t be able to get a full impression of the changes yet, but next week we move to a driveway job and that will tell the tale..............I will report back as soon as we do

 

[johndeere2240]

 

[johndeere2240]