Gday i was talking to a bloke the other day, an old timer, and was talking about bulldozers. He said that bulldozers are now now not as widely used as rubber tyre machines and or excavators are doing more and more jobs that used to be the dozer's realm. Are dozers still the machine of choice for digging dams, general clearing work, cutting tracks??
For my area, excavators are pretty much more widely used due to the versatility of the machines. However, some of the jobs such as Mine and golf projects, excavators cannot replace dozers so they are still needed here.
Yeah I've heard that the TLB is dead too but I'm not buying that one either. An excavator will offer much more versatility than a dozer and will cost less to own/maintane. It will usually require another machine to move dirt, beyond it's reach, efficiently though (loader, truck, or DOZER). IMO, and most other's too, there is no better way to move dirt over short distances than a dozer. Obviously there are circumstances that this rule does not apply but in most cases it does.
The track loader received the largest cut in hrs. when the excavator came into its own. As for whats cutting into the dozers traditional time, thats the high hp ctl. Your 85 - 100+ hp ctls are a grading little machine, but I guess when you put a dozer blade on one esentially you still have a dozer, just an unconventional one. The dozer and backhoe will never die as long as its ingrained in the customer that a dozer levels & a backhoe digs a ditch.
you can do a very good back fill job with a excavator. But a dozer still has its place. It takes a very steady hand a good eye to get the degree of accuracy on a grade with a excavator that can be done much easier with a dozer.
dozers i agree that a dozer has it's place. the track get the most hours in my operation 1500-2000 per year compared to dozer 500-750 max. a dozer to push back stockpiles, cut drainage swales, backfill, rough or finish roads. i only have one dozer and a number of excavators. i think i would let a hoe go before my dozer regards, cd
Around here the small contractors are trying to get rid of their dozers. Most only get a couple of hundred hours year and it is cost effective to rent. Clearing and residential development are almost entirely done by excavators now. Road building still requires a dozer but even in that the clearing and pioneering is all done with excavators. Good thread!
My dozers with and with and with out the blades on depending upon whether I am pulling pans or not get a lot more hours than my excavator. What it comes down to is what kind of work you are doing.
Iam partial to my D4h cat but thats just because Iam more comfrotable on it then I'am on my Kobleco sx120 excavtor. But both have there place when moving dirt Theres jobs I cant do with the dozer that I can with the excavtor and vice verus
Yah that's fine when you have several hoes. Lets say, for the sake of the argument, that you only had one dozer and one excavator (say the 210x or the 225). If you HAD to get ride of one, and only use the other for all of your work, which one would you keep then?
a one hoe man if i had to go back to one hoe, it would be tough. here is the deal the 210x2 only burns a thimble of fuel, is super fast, super quiet and easy to move. the 210lx is maybe a bit stronger on swing motor. the 225 is quite a bit heavier but it also feels stronger then the rest. the 225 gets the most hours and is the most desired by the guys. me.. please i will take an x2 all day long if i had to run just one hoe i would take the 225 because of the versatality and and package. i know lot's of guys hate em. being able to suck the boom, stick and bucket up and over the cab is also huge. lots of times if you are close to a structure you always swing away from it but are constantly minding your rearend. with the 225 the conterweight is 4-6" over the tracks when perpedicular. the maintenance issues are different and i thing over time the 210 chassis is way easier to take off. so much more room in the cab and motor compartment. i know this is a dozer thread so sorry everybody. regards, cd
Is a dozer more expensive to operate per hour than a excavator? The dozer will wear out the track gear faster, but the excavator has the slew bearing, and all those pivot points to grease and re-bush and pin fairly regularly. I have heard once the slew bearing goes its big big big dollars. Take a machine out of the arena it is designed for and the work achieved per hour greatly reduces. So is operating based on cost per hour or more on the versatility of the machine? Alex
I would say yes, a dozer does cost more to operate, but it depends on how you compare them. I typicly run a 200 size excavator and a D4 size dozer on most of my jobs and the dozer is slightly less costly to operate, but when you consider that you are comparing a 22 ton 140 horse excavator to a 9 ton 95 horse dozer, the dozer should cost less. If you consider a 20 ton dozer to a 20 ton excavator, the dozer will cost signifigantly more to run. If properly maintained (grease it) the swing bearing on an excavator should outlast the rest of the machine, I know there are instances of them not, but I have never seen anyone around here have to replace one. I have one machine that we have owned since new in 1974, and while the rest of the machine has been worn out and rebuilt more times that it probaly should have been, the swing bearing has never been touched aside from greasing it, but it is a little sloppy at this point. As for the pins and bushings you should get at good serivce out of them if they are greased, have seen many machines go over 10,000 hours with the original pins & bushings and not be totaly whopped out. Keep in mind that dozers have pins and bushings that have to be greased on the blade, a lot on a 6 way blade.
Cost per hour is one of the biggest reasons smaller dozers are being used less and less. Undercarriages only last 3,000 to 4,000 if you are lucky. That's a big hit if you are running the dozer all the time. Cutting edges generally are good for a 1,000 or less is soft material. Cut that in half for any kind of rock. Dozers are also much more subject to abusive operators. Slam that blade into the ground on every push, get a run and ram trees and on and on. ror76a is absolutely correct on the slewing bearings also. It takes a whole lot of abuse and no maintenance to wear one out or damage it. I've only replaced them on logging machines and really old excavators. With the high maintenance and repair costs on dozers most people around here are finding ways to get their excavators to do the same work, even it it takes a little longer.
Here, I don't see excavators overtaking dozers at all. Most contractors still have an excavator for every dozer owned.
we use tend to use graders for most dozer type jobs, easier to move from site to site less messy and cheaper to run, but your right the small dozer is s dieing breed, i'm sure that the big ones will always be out there though
So whats the consensus on smaller dozers? I would say anything smaller than a D4 sized machine would be becoming obsolete. But then there seems to be a flood of the Komatsu d20's and similar sized machines on the market. Whether its a new toy for landowners or a useful machine for landscapers? The D5 never took off at all, very hard to find one around. alex
Help with this problem. I do logging at TROPICAL FOREST, and think to buy one of this: Cat D4 LGP, Cat D5 LGP or Cat track excavator 215. I can make one decision what is better from these three machines. Maybe Cat D4 LGP don’t have much power but the blade is small 310 cm, Cat D5 LGP is strong and the chains are bigger 86 cm but the blade is 350 cm and need more space. The Cat track excavator 215 is not wide 243 cm width but is heavy 16500 to 19400 kilo difficult to move with out low loader and slow to move 3.4 kilometers per hour. Opinions will help me.
The excavator would be less likely to get stuck. With 1 machine that would be a point for the excavator.
Thanks You think that 215 cat excavator is okay or 225? 215 maybe is possible to move with out low loader, but the 225 forget. Notice that i have also one 930 Cat loader to help. Thanks
I guess it depends what you are doing with it. I have a Cat 215c that I use to build logging roads and clear land, including some logging. Mine weighs 44,900 lbs (20,409 kilos) and is quite capable. If you plan to go long distances under it's own power, I hope you are patient. Good luck.
Where i live there are about 500 construction machines.but the dozers are only 10.most contractors have a small excavator,about 8 tons and a big one about 25tons.the dozers here are for the mountains when we open new roads.
We are a Sewer, Water & Storm Drainage Contractor. We own one Case 650 Dozer & three Excavators. The Dozer is a '90 model with around 3k hrs. and rarely gets used. We use a Backhoe & Excavator for most of our work. If it is muddy, we switch to our LGP track loader. We backfill our bigger trenches with an excavator. Works well for us.