Hey cat guys, recently just added a 2006 D5N xl to my fleet. My question is related to the ease or difficulty of operating the machine. Do i need to put a very experienced operators on this piece? It has fingertip steering, electric throttle, joystick blade control. 3450 hours, new undercarriage. If i put a newbie fresh out of school, can he mess up the transmission? I'm more familiar with hydro steering dozers. What is the most likely components a young inexperienced operator will mess up if any? Anything to really stress not to do on this particular dozer? Thanks guys. Love ain't feedback on your d5n xl experiences.
Put the new inexperienced person on an old beater and let an experienced operator learn to use the finger-tip steering. The steering brake adjustment is critical to be able to steer smoothly. The blade control lever is a really nice. Other than those two features it's just another dozer. That is just my opinion from my time on a D6M which is pretty much the same set-up as yours.
They’re nice little machines. Keep them away from tree clearing (stumps and heavy side loads on the blade anyway) and keep it serviced. Some greenhorns can break anything so that’ll be a judgment call on your part! Good luck
Is the brake adjustment possible without a cat technician? Can i perform that myself? Ive heard other guys talk about that on the site. Thx
Why do you advisw keeping it away from tree cleaning? Any particular reason?
Six way blades can be a weak link clearing trees when used improperly. Pushing with it angled, too far out on the ends of the blade etc. They’re not like an SU blade where you can tilt all the way to one side and hog out around the stump and push it over. Technique is the main thing to keep from breaking cylinders or popping it out of the pivot.
Thx for the advice. I never really considered the stress that hogging out a stump puts on all the pins and pivot points. There's nothing more fun then falling trees with a dozer. So fast and fun to cut a road into a heavily wooded area and create a road that will be used for decades to come. Is there any particular difference on which way to hog around a stump. I prefer to use my right side of blade, turn blade counterclockwise so right side is out and then tilt right side down. Really bite into roots with the least amount of cut into earth around stump. Less resistance on dozer. What say you sir? Completely out of curiosity, what dozer(s) do you own/ run ?
As far as using a 6 way to cut them out I look at how the blade cylinders are setup so as to push on them as opposed to pulling. I see more eyes busted out than rods bent or barrels blown out. If I have to push hard I try to center up on the blade to spread the load onto the frame and off the cylinder. As far as what I’ve run over the years it started with a TD20 on the farm. Spent a fair amount of time in a D5G, D6D, D65, D7R and a D11N. I’ve wrenched on them far more than I’ve run them. I agree it is fun to lay em down with brute force. I did a lot of clearing when I worked for a contractor that did reclaim work. Even pushed trees with the 11 from time to time.
Yep i think we're in complete agreement on how to dig out. I would absolutely love to get into the seat of an 11! That's a goal of mine for sure! Just recently within last 5 years started running dozers regularly, been in excavators for 15 plus years. There's nothing like a dozer! The amount of work you can accomplish in a short amount of time is incredible. I bought the D5n because I've got a 20k lb new Holland hydrastat dozer with 3 big jobs coming up. The one job is about 10000yds of fill threat needs stockpiled and then ultimately layered for parking lot about 15ft deep of fill in 12inch lifts. My little dozer can't handle the constant pushing. Wanna keep her tight for the finish work.
I can only speck of my experience with the D6Ms with the finger style steering. The brakes are adjusted with a laptop computer. I watched a Cat technician do it numerous times. Without the proper software in a laptop computer and the training to use it, I don't think you could do it yourself.
That's what I assumed. Just read a few guys talking about adjusting the brakes and thought maybe there was a way. Hell, for all i know the brakes are already set up perfectly. This will be my first dozer i own with them. I have an old 955L beast that i adjust the foot pedals every so often based on the height of the operator.
the brake calibration procedures can be done with the click box and the monitor panel, see post in shop talk on how to make your own click box. once you have done that someone on here can either guide you on the process or we can supply the information needed Mark