Grading a pad with my D4H XL

grunk36 said:

if you grade something properly you can just roll it over with a roller then the trackmarks will be gone
allright i might have been a little to hard on my comment before sorry about that but grading backwards and backdragging is just as bad for the machine as runnning it in 3rd gear all the time
but if thats what works for you fine with me

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see we don't have a roller so I had to build it up above final grade, roll it with a loaded truck then cut it back down to the hard and put it on grade....i just like to smooth my track marks out......

dont the bolts on your cutting edge get worn from making a deep cut with the blade? you know when you drive the blade in hard to pick up a full blade full in a short distince. I know that backdraging will wear the bolts a bit but you dont realy get two runs out of a set of bolts so as long as they last one turn of the edge all is well? and yes i can cut a grade going forward. lol

Anyone out there seen cutting edges fall off because the bolts have been worn through backblading? I really don't get this no backblading rubbish. If you're putting force down on the blade you're going to do damage, but floating the blade or carrying the blade just above the ground to wipe out a windrow, no problem.

Also, anyone graded topsoil for reistatement, then been asked to roll it for the seeding gang? I think from some of the comments posted there are one or two operators who possibly don't have particularly broad all-round experience.

ih100 said:

Anyone out there seen cutting edges fall off because the bolts have been worn through backblading? I really don't get this no backblading rubbish. If you're putting force down on the blade you're going to do damage, but floating the blade or carrying the blade just above the ground to wipe out a windrow, no problem.

Also, anyone graded topsoil for reistatement, then been asked to roll it for the seeding gang? I think from some of the comments posted there are one or two operators who possibly don't have particularly broad all-round experience.

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okay i take it ill be one of those two operators
well let me explain it for you first of all i have 20+ years experience in everything from roadbuilding quarrywork golfcourse building/shaping rairoadbuilding you name it
now to the backblading when you backblade dirt will roll under your cuttingedge bolts and wear them out so you have to cut them of when replacing cutting edge(not a big investment though)...when i work on golfcourses shaping i backblade a little but only when i lift the blade and then lower it over the small pile left andd level it out going backwards again this takes only 1 meter to do then i lift the blade again
and by the way i never mentioned rolling topsoil did i ??? when topsoiling i grade forwards and do the finishing work with a tractor with boxblade before seeding
but a building pad should allways bee compacted with a roller

BradyHill1 said:

I know it's not perfect but I have seen a lot worse

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Lol. Nothing wrong with being humble, . Do you ever mount that receiver to the ROPS? I used to use one like that on apartment pads and mounted it to the cab right outside the window. It worked pretty good on bigger pads if you couldn't get a rodman.

got a few comments, everyone will know what I'm replying to when they read them

1. I don't believe backblading wears your bolts, after all the cutting edge is where the real pressure is on the ground.

2. I don't see how you can put much force on a machine backblading when the cutting edge is angled to pack and not to cut.

3. With a high track, you're going against an Idler in forward or reverse so you're not wadding the tracks under the machine, so the wear factor can't be that much higher.

4. When you work with you have you do what you have to do to get by, this pad passed the compaction test.

5. R.E. Goodson a multi million dollar company that only bids on 50+ million dollar road projects, their packer had a flat tire Thursday so they rolled it in with a loaded truck...hmm.....

6. Why would I spend $150 and take 2 hours bringing in a box blade when I can spend 3 minutes with the dozer and finish the job?

7. It doesn't matter how many years someone has been working in this line of business, nobody knows it all and everyone can learn something rom just about anyone.

8. No I have never seen cutting edges fall off from worn out bolts, if you wear your bolts that far, you won't have a moleboard when you go to put the new edge back on.

9. The guy that I think is one of the best dozer operators in my area, especially with a rake, likes to backblade certain things.

Could you explain how you do the initial set up to get the blade to grade, do you use a standard staff and receiver to set the height?

Hendrik said:

Could you explain how you do the initial set up to get the blade to grade, do you use a standard staff and receiver to set the height?

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I find a spot that is the grade i want on the pad or cut with the blade to grade and check it with the grade stick, once i get my blade on grade I cange the reciever from the grade stick to the dozer. Most pads that i build only have to be 6"+ above surrounding ground so I can pick a spot and start, i will do a video and post it next time i get this out which will be soon since i got another pad to grade this week or first of next week

No operator here ,but I can run machinery ...Brady looks like a fine job to me...

Years ago a man I worked for didn't like my way of building a transmisson ..tear down and knowing what parts to order ...I felt inferior till he said "you can't argue with sucess " ...what ever works for you keep on keepin on ..

BradyHill1 said:

I find a spot that is the grade i want on the pad or cut with the blade to grade and check it with the grade stick, once i get my blade on grade I cange the reciever from the grade stick to the dozer. Most pads that i build only have to be 6"+ above surrounding ground so I can pick a spot and start, i will do a video and post it next time i get this out which will be soon since i got another pad to grade this week or first of next week

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That would be great, I bought a receiver for my excavator but have not yet fitted it to the machine as it needs a bit of angle iron to screw onto.

Brady you do a fine job and that grunk36 guy is full of beans.

Hendrik said:

That would be great, I bought a receiver for my excavator but have not yet fitted it to the machine as it needs a bit of angle iron to screw onto.

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I have put mine on the stick of my older hitachi before, it's magnetic so i just stuck it on there, worked pretty good

Brady, nice job, I use a Lecia laser with a magnetic mount and do the same thing, I also made a mount for my skid steer. Thanks for sharing. Bill

Looks good to me too. Dirt's not going to wear too much on the cutting edge cause it'll wind up sticking and forming a cushion. Sand or gravel and stuff like that would wear on it though.

I don't think I'd ask permission to do it. I'm sure we've all got certain ways of doing things that are comfortable to us and not to others.

Nice bit of engineering there, da Vinci. Necessity is the mother of invention. Had a salesman that had the gall to ask me about $15000 for the same idea. I told him to order me two of them with a little sarcasm and did the same thing you did.

For me i think the keys would be

#1 finding a good reciever that you can see easily from the operators station
#2 a good solid post to mount on
#3 a reciever that has reasonable corse and fine adjustments on it
#4 with a 6way blade a way to make sure you dont accidentally get the blade out of level

that is why i was curious about his equipment i think the specs on the reciever would be key items in making it workable

ttazzman said:

#3 a reciever that has reasonable corse and fine adjustments on it
#4 with a 6way blade a way to make sure you dont accidentally get the blade out of level

that is why i was curious about his equipment i think the specs on the reciever would be key items in making it workable

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Depends on how fine a grade is required, for general work like a concrete pad it should be fine because you have a tolerance of a couple of centimeters.
Once you get into fine grade you really need something more fancy like those 13K dollar set ups or a laser equipped grader or a skid with a box.
End of the day if this makes the job quicker and the customer is happy with the results and lower costs, then you are way ahead.

ttazzman said:

For me i think the keys would be

#1 finding a good reciever that you can see easily from the operators station
#2 a good solid post to mount on
#3 a reciever that has reasonable corse and fine adjustments on it
#4 with a 6way blade a way to make sure you dont accidentally get the blade out of level

that is why i was curious about his equipment i think the specs on the reciever would be key items in making it workable

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Just curious what you guys think about this one. http://www.johnsonlevel.com/ProductDetail.asp?cat=Tripods,+Detectors+&+Accessories&ID=19&pID=83

looks like a nice unit...i noticed on the course adjustment it was +/- 25mm (1inch), I think i would want something about 2" for roughing in a grade and that may be what they are saying with the +/-, that unit can also work with a in cab remote which would be nice and can be clamp mounted (mag mounts can be a bit scary IMHO), still would need a way to make sure it was plumb or have one on each end of the blade.

Just my opinion

My Apache laser receiver.

Not a dozer but this is the mast I welded on to the 613 so I could clamp my Apache receiver on, it works really well.

Apache and Leica (maybe others too) both make receivers that will indicate level (plum) and grade.