The Ultimate Small Dozer

[Steve Frazier]

This is on the same thought as the Medium Dozer thread. What would you operators like to see on a D4 or smaller sized dozer if you were designing it?

 

[qball]

A nice, long and wide footprint.
A blade that is wider than the tracks when angled.
An actual power shift three speed trans and a real deaccelerator pedal.
Foot steer or two lever steer like a D4-h.
Hell, gimme a D4h with a little more balls and I'd be perfectly happy.

 

[Swamp rat]

PTO and three point hitch.

 

[td25c]

Hesston/Fiat made a small dozer with 540 rpm pto and 3 point hitch swamp rat.Pretty handy machine,first one I ever saw was at a Hesston tractor dealer in the early 1980's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Montepulciano101.jpg

Cab was also an option www.farmerservice.net/en/article/FIAT-AGRI-80-75-cingolato/282.html


Buddy of mine still has one but I think the engine has trouble.I may have to take a drive and check it out

 

[Oxbow]

I wish that the oscillating track frame, or swing frames, like on larger dozers was available. I just completed a job in which I had a D5K rented, and although it is a very nice little tractor, it cannot follow contours as smoothly as larger tractors without cutting the earth with its tracks, as in a 90 degree corner on a 3:1 slope. I also prefer the feel of drive train and direct relation to engine sound and feel of the powershift tractors as opposed to hydrostatic, whether large or small. They are getting better, but I much prefer a D6N for finshing topsoil and blending into existing topography over the D5G. As for smaller than D4, the last tractor that I ran of that size was in 1976, and it was a JD 350 (my first dozer experience) and I thought I was really something on that "bulldozer". My how times have changed.

 

[pp13bnos]

I'm with Qball. I really like my D3 series 2 LGP dozer, but I wish she had a little more power. I'd probably be really happy with a D5 size with a D6R power level. Hehehe. I don't need all the bells and whistles, I'm fine with a power shift (I've ran/rented Hydros) open cab, and just plain old simplicity.

 

[Swamp rat]

td25c - nice looking machine , seems to be well built from looks atleast.

 

[DipInMyLip]

I agree looks very well built! :usa

 

[bowen]

This is on the same thought as the Medium Dozer thread. What would you operators like to see on a D4 or smaller sized dozer if you were designing it?

Well you could buy one of these...
http://www.struckcorp.com/

Now be sure to scroll down and watch the powerful video of the little beast in action:falldownlaugh

 

[pp13bnos]

Well you could buy one of these...

Now be sure to scroll down and watch the powerful video of the little beast in action:falldownlaugh

That sir made my day! I wonder if I can get a SU blade?:lmao

 

[Turbo_Drive]

Well you could buy one of these...
http://www.struckcorp.com/

Now be sure to scroll down and watch the powerful video of the little beast in action:falldownlaugh

I saw one of these a few years ago in person, guy had it out in the yard going to town on the wife's flower beds :laugh

 

[oldcrawlerman]

Case 450 with power...

 

[totalloser]

Single lever clutch/brake wet system with clutchless reverser and wide ratio direct drive transmission for a couple decent working speeds and a medium and tallish travel speed. Six way blade and true direct injection. Oh wait, Deere 350c 400 series and 450 series have all that! Hopefully I'll have mine on the pad this week.

 

[Roadgrader]

Ultimate dozer would have drawbar pull at least 2x it's weight. Good ac, out of the last 4 dozers I've had the ac sucked in all of them case and cats. Quiet cab. Enough hp to push loaded blade at regular dozing speeds without bogging down, basically no bog at half speed at least. I like the stable blade and Eco modes on the cat d5k2 and d6k2. A simple push button auto level that would keep the blade level to make doing pads easier, don't know why no one has done that yet. More blade weight to penetrate hard soil better. My d5k2s tracks will just stop pushing on stumps even though the engine doesn't lug much however the d6k2 will lug down too much pushing dirt or stumps but the tracks haven't quit like the d5. The case 650k I had was the best dozer pound for pound although it didn't have as many features as the cats but would over heat after 2 or 3 hours of heavy dozing. Dozer I wish I had for finishing would be a d5k2 at 130 hp with 42000 lbs of draw bar pull with a much improved ac and a auto level feature on the tilt. D6k2 needs 190 hp with 60000lbs of draw bar pull, better ac, much quieter cab, auto level tilt. My 2 cents

 

[mudober]

I would like for dozers to have quiter tracks. I wonder if having the front idler toothed to run on the chain and have short flats that would mate to the rails would help? 750J I been running is noisy as heck

 

[shaunw7708]

Hesston/Fiat made a small dozer with 540 rpm pto and 3 point hitch swamp rat.Pretty handy machine,first one I ever saw was at a Hesston tractor dealer in the early 1980's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Montepulciano101.jpg

Cab was also an option www.farmerservice.net/en/article/FIAT-AGRI-80-75-cingolato/282.html


Buddy of mine still has one but I think the engine has trouble.I may have to take a drive and check it out

That thing looks awesome, if it was anything but a hesston it would probably be fantastic, but as soon as they put their name on it, it usually means it is pretty low budget, repair often.

 

[Coleman396]

Here is my Struck. I have done some upgrades since these shots were taken. No more winch on the blade. I used a linear actuator on the blade so it now has down pressure. These machines are so handy for a hobby farmer I'm surprised there are not more of them around.

 

[Big Dave]

Here is my Struck. I have done some upgrades since these shots were taken. No more winch on the blade. I used a linear actuator on the blade so it now has down pressure. These machines are so handy for a hobby farmer I'm surprised there are not more of them around.

I just found these. Is that a kit built dozer? I'm thinking of buy one of them for myself for Christmas. :usa

 

[Coleman396]

That's up to you Dave. You can get them as a kit which you assemble or buy them ready to go from the factory. I will say that the service from Struck is excellent. They have a lot of long term employees that know their stuff right back to the older models like mine. It's nice to be able to call there and get proper service. These mini dozers are light weight but can do a helluva lot of work if you plan your work according to the limitations of the machine.

 

[Big Dave]

That's up to you Dave. You can get them as a kit which you assemble or buy them ready to go from the factory. I will say that the service from Struck is excellent. They have a lot of long term employees that know their stuff right back to the older models like mine. It's nice to be able to call there and get proper service. These mini dozers are light weight but can do a helluva lot of work if you plan your work according to the limitations of the machine.

I'm planning to go with the kit version because I think it would be fun to build and also make maintaining it much easier. It's really more of a toy for me to play with rather than something that I need to do work with. I'm retired on disability due to a couple of bouts with cancer and I miss working on and running heavy equipment. I was a factory worker and mainly operated forklift trucks and my hobby was restoring and maintaining historic railroad equipment. I've got three Wheelhorse garden tractors that I'm working on now, which are ok but that little dozer looks so neat and I've always wanted to run a crawler tracked vehicle.

I see from your new photos that you've put the linear actuator on your blade. Is that an electrically driven screw jack? How is it working out for you?

Thanks for your reply. :