Who Backdrags?

[Sharky]

Just curious as to how many "Operators" run the blade backwards as much as they do forward?

Years ago I was "Smoothing up" one of my fills, and my boss came yelling and screaming He said If I could not run the blade forward, then I should not run it at all:Banghead

From then on out, I learned to rarely, if never backdrag, (unless I am trying to seal up a muddy fill to get it to drain or pull back a little material from an asphalt tie in or something), Now I seem to get irritated when I see operators drag the blade backwards with every couple of passes or so to make their work look better. We have a "Long time" catskinner who drags his blade backwards quite often, and I just shake my head to myself when I see it.

We work alot of shot rock, so its not like crushed stone or mud.

Am I the only one who is bothered by this? (Besides my old boss). I know when we changed the cutting edges, the paint was still on the backside of the bolts. Thats how it should be.

 

[diggerop]

I do sometimes but rarely. I work in a coal mine and we have to swap out other operators and sometimes park light vehicles in safe parkup areas for our own use, as the mine works 24/7 and I operate all the equipment so it is not very often that I would get the chance to backblade a small area where someone is going to be walking around. It depends on the material too, if its good to work with it won't need a quick back blade, if its blocky but not too hard, yes. If it's hard rock ,no. If its suitable material and will make somebodys (including me) day a bit better I won't hesitate. If we are causing damage to any machine through bad operating practise the workshop lets us know and in all my time operating I've never once heard of any damage done by backblading;

thumbsup

 

[Haul-Pak]

Yeah Ive seen Drivers do that with Big Dozer's (Rec Blade) Pushing down to a Shovel. They Back Blade Mostly to fill big holes they left while pushing Gung Ho.

Dont bother me TBH. If I cannot get the Cutting edge bolt off first time I have them Arc'ed out of there. This can be Bad on the Tag link though if material fills the space and the front end lifts on the link.

The wost offenders Are Grader drivers ........ Back Blading with a 24 Grader can do all sorts of damage.

 

[RonG]

I back blade a lot,depending on what I am doing of course but I can get a lot more production out of a machine by grading in both directions.
One consideration can be to reduce the amount of standing water on an area that you have worked........I find that backblading also increases the surface area for exposure to the wind and sun when laying out wet material to dry such as topsoil so that you can complete your task sooner.
It also is a considerate thing to do when finishing an area that people will have to drive over if their wheels will be running over the grouser tracks in the surface of the road or driveway.I even backblade with a grader at times.
It is not an issue of carrying a grade at all,it has to do with production and the final product.Ron G

 

[stumpjumper83]

It depends on what machine I'm on. Backblading with finish dozers produces good results, backblading with bulking dozers, it alot more difficult because of the increased blade weight, and I'm not sure how productive it is. For me The d7 is the line. I do know that backblading in a 824 does an awesome job.

 

[Deas Plant]

Back-blading.

Hi, Sharky.
I'd just LOVE to see your old boss do some of the jobs that I have done with a dozer without back-blading. F'rinstance, how do you get the material out of an area 16 feet by 16 feet with vertical walls 3 feet high on 3 sides with a Cat D5B wide gauge dozer if you can't back-blade it out? How do you get the material out of a right-angled blind corner where two vertical walls meet if you ain't allowed to back-blade it out?

I once dug a hole for a swimming pool with a Cat D7F. The deep end was 6 1/2 feet, the shallow end was around 2 feet, the hole was around 30 feet long by 12 wide - not a lot of manoevering room for a Cat D7F. That involved a LOT of back-blading to get the last of the material out of the hole.

Why didn't we use an excavator or a loader? "cos we didn't HAVE an excavator or a loader. What we had was a Cat D7F - and a hole to dig. I might add that the D7F also had a tree pusher bar fitted to it - just to make life a little more interesing.

I'm all in favour of doing all the work that you possibly can travelling forward, the way the machine is designed to work. How-wevver, sometimes it just ain't possible to do it thataway and then I don't even think about it. I just do it. As Diggerop said, I have yet to see a blade damaged by back-blading, especially an an Original Equipment Manufacturer's blade.

Just my 0.02.

 

[trackfanatic]

I'm the xxxxing boss

on this show anyway, and I backblade all the time when working dirt. On production jobs if I can fill a bit of a hole that's slowing me down on the run back then that's great. On the trim dozer I can touch up a gravel road to "grader was here" standard in reverse can't do it that good going forward.

If the cost of a set of cutting edge bolts is an issue than don't own a dozer. Yet I have heard people comment on this, while getting around with the tracks overtight. On their show they's the boss. I replace the bolts every time I roll the edges anyway, and always blow them off because it's faster than arguing with damged threads

Works for me

 

[OCR]

Back-blading.

As always, you have the ability to look at the hole picture, Deas...:notworthy... :thumbsup


OCR



the hole... :laugh

 

[nextdoor]

Gday all, I try not to back blade but a certain D47U with small front idlers got me started for obvious reasons and as they say "old habbits die hard". Im am an owner operator and so when the edge comes time to be changed ( not on the D4 nowerdays- shes retired and restored) I have to give myself a good talking to over the bolts! But like Deas said some jobs give you little choice. Cheers.

 

[dirt digger]

only when i need to get rid of track marks finish grading

 

[Dozer575]

Back dragging doesn't hurt a thing. Since the dirt builds up under the blade between the cutting edge and the underside (some call a frog plate) there is very little abrasion because of that. There is way more wear pushing forward, the cutting edges and the whole front of the blade (face), thats why those plates wear out. I'd like to see the finish work your boss did, how did he get rid of the track marks? And wouldn't those track marks go over big on a fill before compaction. That is one reason to own your own dozer and not have to put up with some idiot bosses whims, and idiocys.

 

[SouthOnBeach]

I back blade any time I need a smooth finish, doing the final on a flat or finishing off a road. Grouser marks just don't go over well with some people in the final finish :beatsme haha

 

[D6c10K]

Consider me a novice, but isn't that what the "float" position on the blade control is for? (I'm refering to older style machines like my D6c)

 

[stumpjumper83]

Even the new cats have float int he blade control

 

[DPete]

I always make a mess backdraging, rarely do it except to get material away from an obstical

 

[Dirtman2007]

I always make a mess backdraging, rarely do it except to get material away from an obstical

Same here, I always get those nice wind rows that roll off the corners of the blade when backdraging. Going forward I can get it perfect. Plus I just like so see a nice smooth as glass pass with nothing but the track marks showing. I can just get things smoother blading forward. I'll back drag slopes and to pull dirt out of corners but that's about it.

 

[Turbo21835]

Well heres what I was taught from a 20+ year finish dozer/grader operator. I was grading going forward. I would work an area, finish it up. Then drag out my track marks. He told me im burning up the uc on the machine doing that. Told me to make my pass, grab a little material at the end of that pass and drag it back to the start. He said that does two things for me. 1 That piece is finished, no need to track over it again. 2 You need material to grade with. By backdragging that material back to the start it gives you a little material to start out on your blade. Even if there is cut right there. By having the material on the blade it helps take the bounce out of your dozer.

 

[GPSGrader]

good for drying. I blade and drag when required. Here's my complaint: it "hides" dirt consitency/compaction. course im a grader man, i like clean cut grade.

 

[ok dirt witcher]

I'ts kinda like backtracking

Sometimes youv'e got to cover your tracks. I know it's hard on undercarriage components but the float must be there for a reason and haveing a u-blade its the best way of smoothing out roads without haveing to cut into new dirt.

 

[dieseldave]

Bulk pushing material when we're building dike leaves lots of windrows. When the cut is almost finished (or on the last pass of the day if it looks like rain) I'll backdrag the windrows on the way back to the cut. I could knock them down going forward, but why waste the time and UC? I AM irritated by someone who backdrags to cover up a lack of skill. If you can't make a smooth cut, learn how or find something else to do.:drinkup