So I recently bought a T650 with wide tracks. Ive been spending some time getting to know the machine on my hilly property. I want to cut some roads along the contour of a side slope. I searched and people were saying make a flat spot for your tracks, take a bite of the slope with tractor on the flat spot, use that soil to extend flat spot, make another bite, etc... I gave that a try and it is pretty slow. My results were kind of lumpy and a lot of back and forth, over and over. I wonder if there is a better way? It seems like a 6 way dozer blade or a side to side tilt plate behind my bucket would be better by far. I could have the tractor sideways on the slope, tilt the blade/bucket so that I was taking a bite of the slope and and slowly drive along the contour in a constant cut. It seems like it would go really smooth if I took small cuts. realize my slopes are variable and I am not talking about a super steep side slope- I have some of those but I am not building roads on those sections. Am i missing something? I have less than 50 hours on any sort of heavy machinery- so I have a lot to learn. DD
Ive heard that the 6-way does not work very well at cutting into the ground, more for grading loose material. I don't have any expertness with this but was looking into a 6-way for my 259D. My next choice for cutting into hills for road maintenance, may be the tilt plate and a tooth bucket. Id like to know if anyone has had luck with that setup? I also have a lot to learn.
I had a six way dozer blade years ago for a track skid steer, it does not turn the skid steer into a full-size dozer by any means, and it's a bit awkward to operate. A tooth bucket alone would make a world of difference and adding a tilt plate would help,but pushes the bucket out a little farther so you lose a little break out force.
I borrowed a 6 way blade, It may have done better if i was better operator. I got tilt attachment for my tooth bucket. It and me work very good together. cutting/grading it works as long has you take small cuts. My equipment doing my projects so i know its not a dozer, but its does the job for me. I cut in roads at my cabin with it alot. I just got my excavator so now the clean up / finish will be done with 259.
My dad has a tilt plate on his and he won't use it for heavy digging, he says it isn't strong like a direct coupled bucket.
It's pretty easy with just a digging bucket. The key is to start with a rather extra large road entry easement. Paint your line for your high side of the road across the hill, then start up the hill from that point of road entry 30' up and 30' feet over min. You can adjust and fix the easement later once you get settled into the actual road building down the slope. Ease the slope transitioning into your flat grade onto the side of the hill. As you say, this takes a lot of creative digging and moving side to side. Start 30' up the hill with the bucket digging down going down the hill and at an angle and move dirt to the far side of the road. You may then need to turn around and dig up the hill once you get a bit flatter. Once you get to a flat surface you can then start the road building across the slope. Make sure your flat surface is pretty level with min 2 percent slope off to the side down the hill. Yup, it's dig with one side of the bucket and then when full move it over to the down side. Seems slow, but a big digging bucket can still remove as much dirt or way more than a mini excavator bucket. Start the road going a bit wider than the machine. Then back up to the road start and clean up the road grade digging down a bit and take a bit more side bite out of the hill side making the road wider. Make sure the dirt bank on the downside is getting enough dirt to make the road stable. Finally back blade the grade and use the tracks to compact.
The six way blades on a CTL are not that easy to use. Cutting virgin soil with a small CTL like a BC 650 would make matters even more difficult. The short distance from the blade to the end of the tracks makes it difficult to achieve smooth results. The bigger and longer the machine the easier that is. Using the bucket as described will likely give you the best results, depending on soil conditions a tooth bucket would likely speed up the process and be easier on the loader. I have a BC grader attachment that works very well at smoothing the road and spreading gravel. I use it grub off new roads but it would not work for cutting into a side slope either. Cutting a road into a cross slope is not the easiest task if your inexperienced.
If you're going to do this type of work, I would only use a digging bucket. A smooth bucket would not work at all. A Wheeled skidsteer machine would not work at all unless you have tracks on it. Don't bother if the soil is wet and muddy. When you're building the road, don't try and be too perfect as you're digging. Just get it roughed out a bit. Then back way up the road and continue to smooth it out and adjust the width. I agree the it's not an easy task for someone just getting going. Regarding digging with the bucket, it's important to try not to just ram into the dirt with the tracks slipping for traction. As the machine starts to loose traction, the operator needs to gradually pivot the bucket angle up a bit, while lifting the bucket arms up. Start the dig entry with the teeth angled down slightly into the ground, and then level off and up as needed as the bucket grabs dirt and fills. Drive down your road with the bucket grabbing the top inch or so to smooth it out and continue to dump as needed on the downhill side to build a strong road edge bank. Fill in any dips in the road with fill and run over.
Also, may not be obvious to the beginner. Cut the road a lot wider than you think it needs to be. Cut a big ditch on the uphill side and drain it off regularly with big culverts. Slope the drainage of the road toward the ditch, not over the bank. Otherwise all your work will be for naught when it rains.