farm dozer?

[334 lawn co]

does anyone know of a good sized dozer for maintaining roads, knocking down trees, field prep... for a 1000+ acre tree farm.

 

[rino1494]

Depends on what size trees. A good all around farm dozer is a 450 or 550 size. They can take down up to about a 8" tree.

 

[334 lawn co]

alrighty. thanks. ill see about it.any more opinions would be great. i had the opportunity to use a d5g lgp when we were building roads and i loved it. it was only a rental though...:crying i have the opportunity to buy a komatsu
d32p-its a 2000.-under $28,000
by the way, the trees are usually a max of 6 in. maybe the occasional oak

 

[Cowboy-1948]

Jd 450c

I knock down alot of trees up to 12 to 14 inches with my John Deere 450C. I do have very sandy soil, mostly decomposed granit.

 

[dominikat12]

Yes a good sized dozers for trees are planty mate475,d11r,d575a-3.Planty of them to choose

 

[Big Tackle Boy]

does anyone know of a good sized dozer for maintaining roads, knocking down trees, field prep... for a 1000+ acre tree farm.

Just a suggestion but have you considered a crawler loader? Would it not be better suited for your type of situation?

A good used 953 or 963 I should think would be alot more versitile as a farm dozer/loader.

BTB

 

[334 lawn co]

yeah, but we need something that we can angle to get the crown of the roads cut and such-plus, all of our tractors already have loaders.

 

[pushcat]

A crawler loader is your best bet. I build roads and drives all the time with a 953, easy to put a crown on. You can do anything a dozer can do with a loader cat, plus a whole lot more.

 

[td25c]

953 cat with the 4 in 1 bucket sounds good.

 

[track shoe]

We are looking for the same thing. We have over twenty acres of land that we want to do some clearing and road work. We have looked at Komatsu 31 and 37 and the John Deere 450 - 550. I think any of these would do what you want to do.

 

[stumpjumper83]

set me straight, are you looking for a dozer to maintain a 1000 acre farm and only part needs cleared or are you clearing 1000 acres?

For maintence work on 1000 acres, I agree with a small to medium trackloader. If your clearing 1000 acres and plan to finish sometime soon, it might take two are three pieces. Maybe you can chain it aussi stlye, then root rake it... I dunno.

 

[roddyo]

Farm Dozer

does anyone know of a good sized dozer for maintaining roads, knocking down trees, field prep... for a 1000+ acre tree farm.

If you are looking for maintaince and clearing around 80 acres or so a year I would go with a D39EX Komatsu. If you are looking to clear much more than that a year a Caterpillar D6C 10K is one of the best Ranch Dozers ever made IMO. I own both and you can't go wrong with either one. If you are in mostly a sandy or dirt soil a D4H LGP is a very good dozer. All three of these machines can be bought in good condition for between $20,000.00 and $30,000.00

 

[EddieWalker]

On my land, I started out with a JD 450G that I thought was great. But after a few weeks of using it, I realized it was just too small to get very much done. If you are just maintaining roads, it might be enough dozer, but for taking out trees, it was very limited. Then when the trees were down, it was even worse for moving them to the burn pile. Just not enough power or weight to get anything done. If you buy a small dozer, be sure you have allot of time. It will get the job done, it's just going to take forever.

My next choice was something in the mid 100hp range. I was open to all brands, but wanted something that I could get parts for locally. Deere, Case, New Holland, and Cat all have shops here in Tyler. I went to about a dozen different dealers and maybe another two dozen ranches looking at dozers. The more I looked, the worse they all looked.

I bought a Case 1550. The hydrostatic drive really impressed me, but also the fact that it's 169hp, 40,000 pounds and has an 8 way blade with full ROPS and screens. Since buying it, I've become a backyard mechanic. When it's working, it's awesome. When it's broke, it's about as big a pain as anything can be. Recently, I had the fan break off and tear apart part of the shroud. Parts were $900. I've rebuilt the engine, one hydraulic pump and drive motor and had a track come off. I've replaced most of the hoses and rebuilt most of the hydraulic cylinders. When I use it, I wonder what will be next. I also paid $25,000 for it and have done enough work with it that it's more then paid for itself. When I sell it, I will be both happy and sad. I hate it and love it. But for what it does, I won't get rid of it just yet.

Buying a dozer means that you will have to be able to do the repairs yourself unless you get a warrentee. Mechanics don't have time for us guys who don't have allot of equipment and accounts with them. When I lost my track, I had four mechanics tell me they'd come by to fix it for me. A month later, none had shown up and I started my journey of figuring out how to do these things by myself.

As for how big, pines in wet clay come out easy. I've pushed over pines well over a foot thick with it. If it's dry out, I've had pines 6 inches thick snap off on me. Soil conditions will determine how big of a tree you can push over with a dozer and how much digging you will have to do to get them out. For most of my larger tree removal, I use a backhoe. If I had an excavator, that would be even better.

Getting the trees down is fairly easy. Getting them to the burn pile is where you will spend all your time. I've added a grapple to my backhoe with a quick attach. I can take off my bucket and put on the grapple. This is by far the best, fastest and easiest way to get trees to the burn pile. Using the rake on the dozer will get it done too, but you spend allot of time doing this and end up with dirt in your burn pile. The more trees you push, the more dirt you get. Even with a rake, the tree itself will plow dirt all the way to the pile. It doesn't take very long to get yards of dirt in front of your burn pile!!!!

When pushing trees with the small 450G dozer, it would go ok pushing straight, but would just spin the tracks when trying to turn. The bigger dozer will push a full load, and just keep going during a turn.

My advice to you is to buy the biggest dozer that you can afford with a 6 way blade. A cab would sure be nice, but if it means buying an older or smaller machine, pass on the cab. Some of the newer machines will have allot of electronics that can be very expensive to replace. I didn't have the money to mess with those, but saw one that needed a new panel for $1,200.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[special tool]

On my land, I started out with a JD 450G that I thought was great. But after a few weeks of using it, I realized it was just too small to get very much done. If you are just maintaining roads, it might be enough dozer, but for taking out trees, it was very limited. Then when the trees were down, it was even worse for moving them to the burn pile. Just not enough power or weight to get anything done. If you buy a small dozer, be sure you have allot of time. It will get the job done, it's just going to take forever.

My next choice was something in the mid 100hp range. I was open to all brands, but wanted something that I could get parts for locally. Deere, Case, New Holland, and Cat all have shops here in Tyler. I went to about a dozen different dealers and maybe another two dozen ranches looking at dozers. The more I looked, the worse they all looked.

I bought a Case 1550. The hydrostatic drive really impressed me, but also the fact that it's 169hp, 40,000 pounds and has an 8 way blade with full ROPS and screens. Since buying it, I've become a backyard mechanic. When it's working, it's awesome. When it's broke, it's about as big a pain as anything can be. Recently, I had the fan break off and tear apart part of the shroud. Parts were $900. I've rebuilt the engine, one hydraulic pump and drive motor and had a track come off. I've replaced most of the hoses and rebuilt most of the hydraulic cylinders. When I use it, I wonder what will be next. I also paid $25,000 for it and have done enough work with it that it's more then paid for itself. When I sell it, I will be both happy and sad. I hate it and love it. But for what it does, I won't get rid of it just yet.

Buying a dozer means that you will have to be able to do the repairs yourself unless you get a warrentee. Mechanics don't have time for us guys who don't have allot of equipment and accounts with them. When I lost my track, I had four mechanics tell me they'd come by to fix it for me. A month later, none had shown up and I started my journey of figuring out how to do these things by myself.

As for how big, pines in wet clay come out easy. I've pushed over pines well over a foot thick with it. If it's dry out, I've had pines 6 inches thick snap off on me. Soil conditions will determine how big of a tree you can push over with a dozer and how much digging you will have to do to get them out. For most of my larger tree removal, I use a backhoe. If I had an excavator, that would be even better.

Getting the trees down is fairly easy. Getting them to the burn pile is where you will spend all your time. I've added a grapple to my backhoe with a quick attach. I can take off my bucket and put on the grapple. This is by far the best, fastest and easiest way to get trees to the burn pile. Using the rake on the dozer will get it done too, but you spend allot of time doing this and end up with dirt in your burn pile. The more trees you push, the more dirt you get. Even with a rake, the tree itself will plow dirt all the way to the pile. It doesn't take very long to get yards of dirt in front of your burn pile!!!!

When pushing trees with the small 450G dozer, it would go ok pushing straight, but would just spin the tracks when trying to turn. The bigger dozer will push a full load, and just keep going during a turn.

My advice to you is to buy the biggest dozer that you can afford with a 6 way blade. A cab would sure be nice, but if it means buying an older or smaller machine, pass on the cab. Some of the newer machines will have allot of electronics that can be very expensive to replace. I didn't have the money to mess with those, but saw one that needed a new panel for $1,200.

Good luck,
Eddie

You're probably right.
Much as I love my 450, 1000 acres is too much for it - you would need good lights to work 24 hours a day.
Best to stick with a D6 or a 963.

 

[stumpjumper83]

953 or 963 w/ a rake grapple combo. If there was alot pf tree pushing, maybe putting a tree pushing bar on instead of the rake or bucket will work better for pushing them over.

 

[334 lawn co]

i only work 8 hours a day and it would only be used once or twice a week for grading and lveling old logging roads amd maintaining fire lanes. its not like we need to clear out all 1000 acres. only if we want to make some new fields. and since i first posted this i have used a deere 450 and it worked fine for what we needed. a cat d3 did alright but a little low on power. and as far as a burn pile, we have a small hitachi excavator with a grapple and we also have a cat grapple skidder.( it is after all a tree farm)

 

[OCR]

i only work 8 hours a day and it would only be used once or twice a week for grading and lveling old logging roads amd maintaining fire lanes.

This is almost blasphemy... coming from me... LOL

But, have you considered a decent quality grader?...

You already have a grapple skidder and an excavator with a grapple... this should basically take care of the tree issue.

A grader is hard to beat for grading and leveling old logging roads and maintaining fire lanes.

Although, I wouldn't trade our dozer for a grader... I sure would like to have one... :cool2


OCR...




With joysticks... OMG

 

[334 lawn co]

but i work for a logging company and seriously, what logging company is complete without a dozer? but i have brought up the idea of a grader but they are afraid it may get stuck too often.(it is pretty boggy out there sometimes) my boss was actually looking at a d6 the other day. noe that would be nice. no cab though....:Banghead

 

[334 lawn co]

and the 450 we have been looking at--- more affordable option...man, now that i look at it, that right track sure does need tensioning

 

[334 lawn co]

this was also on the lot-badass