I am new to dozers and am looking for one to use on my hunting property. I need to remove a few large stumps and clear some land. I will not be pushing over trees with it but do need some power to get stumps out. I have found a few for sale near but not sure if some have enough power. I found a Cat D2. does anyone know if that has enough power to remove stumps? If not what is the smallest size you recommend?
Stumping with a D2 is possible, but pack a lunch, it'll take awhile. For general use around some acreage, a loader backhoe would be my recommendation. They are generally cheaper and easier to maintain and a little more versatile. The hoe can dig around the stump cutting the roots pretty handily. I'm sure others will chime in soon.
Well, I asked a similar question a few years back, a small dozer will work but as repowerguy stated, it just takes longer. I purchased a cat 933 track loader, cat D4H dozer, JD 310 backhoe, Link Belt 330 excavator, Bobcat E50 excavator and Bobcat T770 track loader. For 75% of my land clearing jobs around my property, I use the backhoe or excavators depending on the size of the tree. Don't get me wrong, any dozer is fun to operate and every grown boy should own one for his sandbox but if you really want to clear up your property and only own one piece to kind of do it all, a backhoe is hard to beat.
I've had an old jd410 loader/backhoe around my farm for over 13 years, tough as nails, cheap on fuel. Only wish it was a 4wd, I think it would be perfect then. It prefers solid, relatively level ground. Built a mechanical thumb for it, great for clearing and stumping. Not as fast stumping as the excavator, not the greatest in the mud or on slopes, but usable for many different jobs around the place. I have a small 350 size gas crawler loader (read gutless) similar size to the d2 fun to play with but not the most productive. Does work better than the backhoe in the muck, though.
I was poking around a few weeks ago wondering the same thing, what's a Jack of all trades, master of none machine. The answer I came up with was a crawler loader. Pickup material, move it around and still be able to grade things flat. However if your going to have 1 thing, a backhoe is hard to beat.
How large of stumps are we talking? And how many acres roughly? If its not a large acreage, I'd pay someone to do it. If they are really good sized, I'd say forget the dozer and get a excavator.
I agree with some of the others if you are getting one thing go with a backhoe and add a thumb. You can find good used ones cheap as dirt. If you are stuck on having a dozer I would recommend a d6 size as the minimum for clearing, a 7 or 8 would be much better. Excavator will do the work as well, but it will take a big one to keep up with a decent size dozer on stumps. A dozer and an excavator would be ideal... :drinkup
Amen Brother !:yup