Need a little input, I have 160 acres that went trough a forest fire 4-5 years ago. It's very remote, 2 hours away from my house and 45 minutes up a so so dirt road. Now the trees are rotten enough that they are falling over and the buckthorn / whitethorn and bitter cherry are growing like crazy all over including the road system. I know I need a dozer but it cant spend the winter out there so I would need it hauled twice a year at probably a thousand bucks a trip. I have a 8000 lb excavator that I take out with my pickup and it does a great job on the trees (most are 10"-15") and pulling up the brush. It's slow and I have a straight dozer blade on it which makes water bars and crowning the road a pain. My thought is a CTL that I can haul with the pickup , 10,000 lbs machine and trailer, like a Takeuchi TL-8 or a Kubota Sl-65, with a quick attach tilt and a 4 way bucket. The ground is soft rock Decomposed quarts stuff. Could I get the roads cleared any quicker with the CTL over the excavator? I know that it would work better on the water bars. Thanks in advance on your opinions.
Just curious about this? Most construction equipment is designed to live its entire life outside, in harsh/remote areas if need be. Is it better to keep it in a shed when not in use, sure, but that isn't a reality for most. Are you worried about weather, vandals, theft or something else? With that being said, I own both a Case 450C wide track dozer (~13-14K lbs 70hp) and a Kubota SVL 65-2 CTL. There is no comparison over the amount of work the dozer can do vs the CTL when it comes to land clearing. The CTL is great with a grapple rake for cleaning up debris, very light clearing (brambles/brush/trees under 3") and moving stuff around but that's about it. Same with the large frame CTLs, they are handy and stouter than their smaller counterparts, but still not a dozer. Clearing land, building roads, putting in water bars, a decent sized dozer with a 6 way blade would be the ticket. It will also lay down those 10-15" trees faster than your 8000lb mini ex.
If you go down the CTL road a word of caution. 1 of the fastest ways of buggering a 4n1 bucket is to use it as a clam picking up trees, they twist out of shape in no time. A grapple bucket with individual clamps is the best option.
Yes, grapple bucket is the best option, your not depending on jaw pressure to hold the load. Mine has a solid bottom and back, I can grade with it or move a little material if needed. Teeth were added so I can rake with it. Ed
It's the weather, It's at 6000' and we get a LOT of snow, like 8-10 feet worth. The snow has collapsed pipe gates, picnic table flattened with the legs poking thru the top,outdoor sink shoved thru the steel frame, ripped the outhouse roof metal with a 6" overhang etc. I don't want to build a structure that can withstand the elements as its only used during deer season. If a dozer was left out I don't believe it would fare very well. I also have a couple other property's that I could use the equipment on so it would be great to be able to transport from one to another with out having to hire transport.
I’ve had various CTL and minis over the last 12 years. I bought my first dozer last week. So far I’ve mainly only moved dirt with it and knocked over a few trees. I’ve always thought dozers aren’t very versatile/rather specialized compared to an excavator or CTL. I still think that’s true, but it’s wildly productive moving dirt compared to my other machines. The PAT blade makes grading/accurately moving dirt efficiently comparatively easy. Which machine is best is work specific… but you say you need a dozer. 160 acres is a good spread.
We don’t get snow like that here, maybe others that do can chime in, but I still think it would be fine. Park it up on planks, winterize the fuel system, take the batteries out, seal the exhaust stack, oil it down with some rust preventative and throw a canvas tarp over it. The few hours it will take to winterize it and dig it out in the spring will more than be made up for in productivity.
Our dozer and excavators wintered over at 6000-7000’ elevation for many seasons. Machines have to be hauled 100km on steep gravel/mud roads off loaded, then walked in 10km.…so impractical (and expensive!) to lowbed twice a year. Covered all stacks & heavy sheet of plywood on excavator engine cover/electricals. It is important to prevent snow building up in excavators (especially) in the battery/night switch/computer compartment. Some years I would snowmobile in mid winter and shovel snow off rv, equipment. Could you do this? Or impractical? I quit taking batteries out years ago as discovered machines started every spring (good batteries, left charged, master switches off). Minus 40 Celsius is common each winter….possibly not a good policy but worked for us! BUT….we only get 4-6’ of snow at that location. North of Revelstoke where they can get 8-10’ of heavy wet snow I have seen crushed campers etc. But even there have never seen damaged mining equipment left over winter (dozers, excavators etc). Must watch windshields/glass though. First start of year I always use block heaters… For your use I suspect a small/medium dozer with 6 way blade…or even angle blade dozer with outside push arms would be very productive. Good luck!
That pretty much makes the decision to go with a CTL if you want to move it with your pickup. What's your budget?
I think if I could find a Takeuchi or Deere ( my excavator is Takeuchi and I LOVE it) with under 2000 hours and in good shape for $25-30k I would be happy. Then add a tilt plate and 4way bucket, good used if possible. A 450 Deere or D3-4 dozer that isn't worn out around can be had for 40 or a little under but that transport cost to other properties would kill me in short order. One other thing is I am a lot more capable of repairing a CTL than I am a dozer.
What exactly are your plans for the property? Just keep the roads/trails open and let nature take its course on the rest? Clean up large areas that were burned and replant to more desirable forest or pasture? How steep is the terrain? How fast do you expect to do the work? If you aren't planning on clearing large areas and the terrain isn't too steep you might get by with a CTL. Steep ground, tough conditions, clearing acres at a time you need a dozer.
Just clearing road system, The baby trees are popping up all over, In 5 years or so the trees will start shading out the brush, The property is fairly steep in a lot of areas but the previous logging had a lot of skid roads to access the majority of the property, I'd be happy just keeping the majority of them open for travel. As for how fast to complete the work ? I'm 65, I don't think I'll get it done!
In that case a CTL will probably do the job. Kubota and Takeuchi are my two top picks. Get the largest one you can safely haul. Forget the 4-in-1 bucket, the grapple bucket that Bumpsteer posted is far more useful for what you want to do. I have one and it stays on my Case 1845c almost all the time, thinking about buying a second one for my SVL65-2, very versatile attachment.