40ish HP Dozer Thoughts

[cosmaar1]

Hello folks. New to the Dozer forum but not new to HEF.

I MIGHT be in the market for a dozer but honestly haven’t looked much.

I have a New Holland 555E which I use to dig up stumps, move dirt, etc., however for grading it’s not the best because of how big it is.

When I built my pond I rented a Cat D4 that had about 90HP and it did everything I wanted.

However recently in my local market I’ve seen a few 40HP Komatsu dozers that are in my price range and perk my interest.

The question I have for you all is what can you do with a 40HP machine? Just move a little dirt to final grade an area or will it actually be a machine I could flatten a small hill, scrape up hard clay, and push stumps?

Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

 

[Welder Dave]

I think a skid steer or CTL would do just as much work and be a lot faster. A lot more versatile too without the high undercarriage replacement costs. Any bigger stumps you could dug out with your hoe.

 

[epirbalex]

Hello folks. New to the Dozer forum but not new to HEF.

I MIGHT be in the market for a dozer but honestly haven’t looked much.

I have a New Holland 555E which I use to dig up stumps, move dirt, etc., however for grading it’s not the best because of how big it is.

When I built my pond I rented a Cat D4 that had about 90HP and it did everything I wanted.

However recently in my local market I’ve seen a few 40HP Komatsu dozers that are in my price range and perk my interest.

The question I have for you all is what can you do with a 40HP machine? Just move a little dirt to final grade an area or will it actually be a machine I could flatten a small hill, scrape up hard clay, and push stumps?

Any and all thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

Is it a D21 ? Popular little tractors , plenty here seem to have them . There is a thread about Komatsu and other grey market dozers . Have a look at it , assess the tracks and bottom rollers , if they are worn consider staying away from it . Then delve deeper into how it operates , blade lift power by using down pressure to lift the front of the machine . If you can see it cold started rather than have the seller start it before you arrive .

 

[OzDozer]

You can do a surprising amount of work with a 40HP dozer, but their effectiveness depends a lot on their all-up weight.
So, an older and generally heavier 40HP dozer will perform better than a newer, lighter-weight, higher RPM, small cube engine, current model.

If you want to move hard ground, you need to rip it, it's that simple. Whether you do that by fitting your dozer directly with a ripper, or use an independent, towed (or trailing) ripper, is up to you.

A 40HP dozer is not going to be able to remove big tree stumps, but it will handle smaller-size stumps, especially if the ground is wet.

 

[cosmaar1]

Appreciate all the info from everyone. In the ad that caught my eye it was a Komatsu D20-7 that supposedly had 1,400 hrs on it. It's sold now and I wasn't able to look at it.

I agree a skid loader would be better, however I haven't been able to find one of those within 100% of my budget that doesn't look like a pile of crap with a ton of hours on it.

The biggest thing I would be using it for is final grading and smoothing out my terrain. The backhoe does a great job of ripping up hard dirt, but grading sucks. My property right now would be great for testing of pick-up truck suspensions.

 

[Welder Dave]

What is your budget? I think there was a thread about parts being hard to find for the little Komatsu's. If your budget only affords a beat up skid steer with a pile of hours, you're not going to fair much better with a small crawler. New undercarriage will cost more than the machine is worth. For finish work you can't beat a skid steer/CTL unless it's very large area's and/or you have a lot of experience on a dozer. A skid steer/CTL let's you see exactly what the cutting edge on the bucket is doing. A tooth bucket will dig into all but the hardest ground and you can get special attachments for digging stumps. I'd say you need a budget at least in the $10K range to get something that will still do a good days work for a year or more part time. Sometimes deals come up but for the most part it's still you get what you pay for. If you only wanted to spend say $7500 you'd probably have to spend a bunch of time and more money fixing it. The lower cost would be wiped out. You want something with good parts support for sure.

 

[cosmaar1]

What is your budget? I think there was a thread about parts being hard to find for the little Komatsu's. If your budget only affords a beat up skid steer with a pile of hours, you're not going to fair much better with a small crawler. New undercarriage will cost more than the machine is worth. For finish work you can't beat a skid steer/CTL unless it's very large area's and/or you have a lot of experience on a dozer. A skid steer/CTL let's you see exactly what the cutting edge on the bucket is doing. A tooth bucket will dig into all but the hardest ground and you can get special attachments for digging stumps. I'd say you need a budget at least in the $10K range to get something that will still do a good days work for a year or more part time. Sometimes deals come up but for the most part it's still you get what you pay for. If you only wanted to spend say $7500 you'd probably have to spend a bunch of time and more money fixing it. The lower cost would be wiped out. You want something with good parts support for sure.

Budget I would say up to 15k but would want to stay around 10k if I could.

I by no means am in a rush to get something. To be honest with y’all I can rent a skid steer locally for $500 for a weekend which I’ve done a few times already for a few other things.

I don’t want to buy a POS but also don’t know if this is the route I want to take quite yet. Just trying to get opinions from others. Appreciate all the ideas.

 

[OzDozer]

If you want to mostly do final grading and smoothing out the terrain, buy a cheap old motor grader. Even a worn one will smooth the ground out better than anything else.

And you can form up road and track formations, and install ditches and runoffs to carry away excess water with a grader, far better than any other machine.

 

[cosmaar1]

If you want to mostly do final grading and smoothing out the terrain, buy a cheap old motor grader. Even a worn one will smooth the ground out better than anything else.

And you can form up road and track formations, and install ditches and runoffs to carry away excess water with a grader, far better than any other machine.

I agree with you however most of my work is in between trees and on the side of my pond dam. My 555e is too big I can just imagine rolling that thing around

 

[Welder Dave]

I think a skid steer/CTL would be your best bet. It's also the most versatile machine for a wide variety of jobs.

 

[materthegreater]

I think a skid steer/CTL would be your best bet. It's also the most versatile machine for a wide variety of jobs.

$10k isn't going to buy a CTL that won't need constant or major repairs. It might buy a wheeled skid steer but that won't have traction or weight enough to do anything a small dozer would do.

 

[Welder Dave]

$15K might get a CTL. If the majority of work is finish grading a skid steer will do circles around an older worn out dozer. I have a track loader that is about 4 times heavier than my skid steer. If I need to spread loads of topsoil for a finish grade the skid steer is much more efficient. Rough spreading the Cat is faster but the instant direction changes and response of the skid steer controls is way more efficient. For big area's I also have a tractor with a 3pt. hitch that can run a host of implements.