Hey guys, I bought a D5M XL a few years back for the farm. I have finished most of the work on the farm and now I am looking to send my operator out on the road doing dozer work. If I had someone out there hustling up work for us, about how many hours should I expect in a year? I was thinking around 1000, but I am not sure.
ABF, That might be a little light on the hrs. I have my budget set up on 1200hrs per year and it works out just fine, it sure is nice though to put 1400 to 1500hrs per yr. on it.
With todays economy that may be more like wishfull thinking. Good luck though. Let us know how it works out.
Thanks for your thoughts. I ran the numbers and a 1000 hrs is making it however like you said 1500 is better money! I figured that we would really have to work though just to make 1000 hrs. I will let you know how it goes!
I have a small dozer -case 850h. I am lucky to put 1000 hrs on it a year, but up here a dozer is a special piece and when you need one you need one. I believe bigger companies with production dozer are probably in the 2-3000 hrs. But what do I know. Up here the excavators get the most hours- 2000 and up. I would not hire someone to look for dozer work unless you plan on running that cat 50 hours a week , minimum. good luck
hrs I was getting 200 to 250 hrs per month , 5day work weeks, now my dozer has only worked 4 weeks since july of 08. D5GXL dual slopes, and laser 135 per hr (Live in Southern California) i could use a job for this machine ! If you are still getting a thousand hrs you are doing great. Tell me were to ship my machine for work. I will rent for any reasonable rate right now.
Depends on the work...Are you building ponds, clearing fields...we have people putting 200+ hours a month on our machines...Also it does not put in account you using the dozer when it is home...So I would say that you would put about 1250 to 1500 hours year on the high end.