Anyone tried/use a skid steer with a blade.

[Taylortractornu]

Ive owned my 96 and 2000 1840 Case skid steers about 2.5 years now and have been around skidsteers since I was 16. I build most of my attachments I use for my demolition and site prep work. Out of my five attach ment the only one that isnt home built is my older Bobcat grader I picked up last year. I havent gotten it completey ready to use yet. Heres my main question has any one used a dozer blade attachment on a wheeled skidsteer without tracks. I dont have the cash for tracks at the moment and I have a nice 4 way blade I bought off a trencher conversion for a Ford tractor. Its only a manual angle which is ok but I only have one auxhilary and thats a rocker pedal in the floor. I will add tilt to it with a forklift cylinder. Id like to have the blade real close to the machine but I can see the corners of the blade in the mock up. I ll have to go out a little further than Id like to. I know it wont have the same performance as a regular dozer to finsh with but alot of my work is rough grading drives and spreading mulch and topsoil, and one of the most importan is to be able to more efficiently bacfill trenches. I can do these with a bucket but it can be hard to push that last bit of material without a full bucket. Plus with the tilt I dont have to try to start off on a level spot. I m more at home with a blade as I mainly run a dozer at my main job. Take care Taylor L.

 

[Construct'O]

I have a Grouser 6-way blade on a CTL,which for what i use it for i like,but also own dozers ,so no the CTL and blade isn't as good as small dozer.

You will have to add a divertor valve to the blade setup and a switch for the two extra function angle and tilt when your done.

I do thousand of ft. of trenching a year(farm drainage tile) that is the min job of the CTL and blade! I also like the blade over the bucket for the reasons you posted.

I did buy a 4-1 bucket for if i start another crew up i will get rent or buy another CTL and use the 4-1 blade on it.My thought here is would wether have a different attachment then two blade.For backfill what i do the 4-1 will work okay.

For grading and serious dirt moving you can beat a dozer, as for garding with the skid it will be tuff,unless material is light or loose.If compacted forget it.Good luck:usa

 

[lewi1969]

I have never owned one but I've had a lot of people try to sell me used ones that still look like new. That gave me a good indication that it would not do alot of grading. One of the construction companies I do business with has one and all they use it for is to spread gravel. You might rent one and see if it will do what you need it to do before you spend a lot of time and money building one.
Neil

 

[Taylortractornu]

Thanks I figured it wouldnt do as a good as a dozer. because of the lack of weight and the lack of a undercarriage length. I have my brothers D3C for big jobs. I ll mainly use it to backfill and light dress up. Im staying away from the diverted valve right now as I really onely need the one for tilt and with one pedal for each foot to tilt like an old toe tilt Cat. The angle will be manual for now as its got a nice set up. Another use for it is to trim up my compost windrows before turnings. I get a few sodding jobs at the lake where most of the ground is Chert/Gravel banks and I have to lay down a little 1 to 2 inch layer of topsoil or compost first. Its a pain to always have to keep a bucket full there to use where you have to push. I built a straight blade with 2 caster wheel like my grader im redoing has on it. It helped but I still had to get the wheel over the pile first. When I do field lines Ill mostly doo the heavy backfilling with the PC50's bucket and then the last of the dressing will be skid steer. Consruct'O can you see the corners of the blade? Ill have to leave a bit of the subframe on this one to get to see my corners. Not really a biggy I run D5 with a straight with a tilt so I dont see corners there either. And when I m back filling Ill be able to see the far corner that will be on the turf.
As for renting any attachment theres not rental stores for 50 miles and they dont rent attachments. Right now Im building a power rake think it may run around 900 to build it. Everything is slow here like elsewhere, and I work by meyself with can be a curse as well as a blessing especially when laying sod.

 

[pushcat]

A blade on a wheeled skidloader doesn't work worth a darn. It's too "3-legged", meaning every time one of the wheels goes over just the slightest bump it translates to the blade. They do work a little better on a CTL, but still, just not enough of a machine. I suppose for just rough grading or backfilling trenches it would get the job done, but a bucket will do just as good or better of a job anyway.

 

[HeyUvaVT]

i like our blade on our RC100..but never thought a wheeled machine would work..especially something smaller than the 100...i wish i had a few thousand more pounds of ooomph behind ours when using it

 

[Taylortractornu]

Most of its use will be for the trench filling. I want to be able to parallel my trench for the finshed work. The mini Ex and the loaders bucket are too time consuming having to back up each time and steer and push again. I thought of making a trench auger like a Brown but I got the blade nearly free. For years I used my little Farmall Cub with a factory blade to back fill some of my trenching but I hated changing the blade to the Cultivators every weekend to garden. It worked good with 12 HP I thought the 53 HP loader thats about 3500 pounds more will do a bit better. I can always dress up with my grader attachment. Thanks for the input I, yall have helped tremendously in my planning.

 

[Shifty]

I have a 277B with a cat 6 way blade. I am used to a larger dozers, So when I got the blade for the 277B It took a while to re-learn the controls. The big problem is that with a CTL you sit almost on top of the blade,unlike a conventional dozer your more to the rear. I have to admit they take a lot of practice to get productive with but once you get on to them you can move a impressive amount of dirt. On a wheeled machine I wouldn't consider a blade.IMO they pitch to much.

 

[Construct'O]

Able too see???

As far as being able to see!!!!! the answer is no.

My CTL is 82" wide,so a 84" blade won't work the best when it is angled .The track will be runing on the windrow.

I have a 96" blade and at one time had a 120" blade ,but downsized.So with the 96" blade your not going to be able to see the corners of the blade for sure.

As far as running the blade to finish with it takes some getting use to ,just like with a dozer but more so. Since things are completely as far as seeing the corner bits or under the blade(backside) like said above........ because of closeness to machine.

It is run it by the seat of you pants for sure thing.More so then even a dozer.For the main purpose backfilling trenches it works great.Trenches i backfill are spoils(wet damp clay and black dirt) from a trench 24" wide and fro 5 to 6 ft. deep so you don't do angle backfilling.

Trenches 6" wide and 3 to 4ft deep yeah.

But we usually angle the blade and shape the trench with dirt to fill small voids in the filled trench.:usa

 

[Taylortractornu]

Thanks That really answered a great deal ther If I went too far out to see the blade it would lever against my machine. Moslty here we have driy clay and damp sand.. most of the time when Im walking the hoe back to the truck I take care of most of the backfill but its ridgy and humpy I also builts a trench compaction wheel the other day to help on some of my smaller jobs like water lines. Its a scavenger hunt to gather all this stuff to build with but I think thats part of the fun the challenge, plus I can stay out of my wifes hair lol . I ordered my joystick ends to run the diverter valve on my Bobcat grader. Just using it with the arms to raise and lower it dose a good job.