I really wish I could have done logging road pioneering back in the day, I've always enjoyed working the high and steep areas. I also would have liked a chance at fighting wild fires. Anyone here do any of this sort of work?
I am new to heavy equipment…steep scares me a lot.
Steep is no place for Flatlanders Pioneering was a great job especially without any safety frames in scrub hill country. Its a good place to learn limits, yours and machine. If you're not living and working on the edge you are taking up to much space
Limits of machine. I learned the hard way about not having the proper overfill in the transmission bevel gear, working on steep ground, yes it was a fun ride.
Another dozer dream job of mine. Its at the 6:13 area.
Looking back I would've quite fancied working on building the road up to the Ertsburg & Grasberg mines in Indonesia.
I had an introduction to dozer diving at Cowlitz Falls dam job. The river was rising fast as it comes right off glaciers that can put out some water. We had been flooded out twice before by underestimating that flood rise. This time we were dumping terex loads of shot rock off the edge, then I would bail over with a D7G and ride the wad down to the rock dam we were building, then come back up the switchback haul road and repeat. That was fun standing on the dash more or less, but I did wonder what coming up against a big rock on one corner would be like. We won the race that time. They sloped some 2:1 with a wide track Komatsu just a few years back and Yo-Yoed it with a 470 excavator in Tacoma by the yacht club. It was dicey as all get out. I was up on the flat fill with my D8T and happy to not be a part of that. That slope started where it says chutes and ladders and stairs and slides on this map, and ran down to that little road and the water below, and all the way to the end of the marina to the right. it did not have a happy landing spot. https://goo.gl/maps/N96acSQNvRcANKfZ6
I've done that steep down the slope and then go around a small road back to the top for the next go. I would have liked a chance at yo yo hill side work. I'd like to see pictures of some of that stuff. Slippery rock hills are the most fun, and can be like working on ice and snow. Yeah wish the digital camera's were available like they are now maybe I'd have some pictures.
I still get to do some pioneering here in the mountains of Va. It's probably one of the most fun and challenging things I do with my dozer. There are no plans, just the need for a road or trail from point A to B. Our mountains aren't huge, especially compared to out west, but still can be very steep and rugged. I don't mind steep terrain by itself, but pioneering through dense brush on steep terrain is especially nerve wracking. We have some terrible thickets of Rhododendrons that you almost have to crawl on your hands and knees through to try to plan a course. Inevetiably they are on the steepest, rockiest, sections just for extra excitement. Never done any wild land firefighting with a dozer but it's something I've read and study up on in case the need ever arises. Its something that I think any dozer operator working in the woods should have at least a basic knowledge of. There are quite a few interesting videos on youtube about it, many are old USFS training videos on proper technique and as well as case studies of what went wrong on certain jobs.
I've done my share of wild fire fighting . I don't need to do anymore. If you like sore eyes its for you.
In the old days of burning the clearing debris I also did minimal fire fighting too, though nothing like a huge wild fire. Sore eyes, that is the nature of running equipment especially a dozer in the dry and dusty conditions while clearing then there is all the pollen or what ever in the brush, don't forget the stinking bee's.
I would have liked to cross this hill through the bush and up the ridge to the top . Would have needed to fit a rear wheel tractor blade to the back of the D4 and pull down the last steep bit . Times were tough for farmers early nineties and the neighbor was out of funds , I'd spent that most of that up another gully . Pity as there were not much regulation to stop the job as there is now . It was a satisfying job being the first to open up land for 4 wheel drive access and the odd car to . Which I did on the 1000 acres covered in pines now in the background that was mine . This photo is quite recent . D4's suited that steeper country as stock have to access the tracks from above and don't like 20 foot drops ,