I posted a video of me grading a pad and I like to drag over them when I get done to make it smooth and look good in my opinion...but on to what this is about, everyone says that backdragging is so bad on the machine, "it's worse than running in 3rd gear all the time" I have not heard one thing that it actually hurts to backdrag other than the fact that the old timers used to give one another hell if they ever were "sharpening the blade"
Take a look at this thread - The topic of back-dragging was throughly discussed, argued, tore-apart, etc..
I always thought if you have to back drag to make it look good you shoudnt be on it. But thats just my opinion
How do you get rid of grouser marks? Grouser marks fill up with water when it rains and can make a real mess of a final grade.
Ive never seen anyone complain about the grouser marks left on finish grade my a D6, and if it is something that has to be slicked off we would have a motorgrader do it. But if you didnt have one there you would have to back drag, but if you are back draggin and you dont have to, dont be surprised if alot of ppl laugh at you. I like to show off my work when i cut grade on a dozer, and i feel that back draggin is cheating, anyone can but a blade in float and drive backwards and make it look good.
if you grade with a laser and float your blade, you've messed up before you get started
Whe I backblade,my blade is not in float too often.If you dont backblade when you finnish around a house,you wont finnish many houses.
I have to agree. The whole float thing is talked up to much. Even experienced operators who claim to use float actually don't use it much if you watch them work. After all in float - well it floats! When you're finish grading your trying to make it better, not just follow the ground and make it look pretty.
Anybody want to take a shot at the original question, which was, is it any harder on the machine?
With the old cable controls you were always in float, the angle set on the blade is what made the bite.
At slow speeds it's not. But high speed reverse is terrible on track and sprocket wear. Not to mention what you could back into. jr
We dont use lazers, we use Topcon GPS
the worse machines to use that way is the john deere dozers. 450,550,650,700etc....H's and J's. the pivot ball is shimmed to the pivot ball socket on the blade. when back dragging you are constantly pulling on these bolts. with a little wear, or alot, the pivot ball bangs around in there and loosens the bolts, usually breaks them. i've seen this a whole lot! i call it job security. Haha.
i never worried about it and have never had any problems because of it although i have seen 2 komatsu dozers break the ball socket off both times they were backblading
So its safe to say that if its a 6 way blade, dont back drag!
after 8 years of it on the same dozer with no problems ill keep doing it but i can only speak for cat dozers
i'd say that u/c wear is lower on a high track in reverse than a conventional since the rails are working off the sprocket and against an idler in either direction, maybe a conventional would wear quicker since it "wads" the the slack in the rails under the machine
Good information didn't know that Just to add to that a little Jeremiah shop isn't far from me. Back dragging is VERY common here and is widely done more then any other region I have worked in. To the point of being absurd.
I've yet to have a problem with back blading on a D3C. The only thing is can be a pain to remove the bolts to flip the cutting edge but you can all ways buy different hardware and as far as the wear on the bottom back side its not that bad but I guess it depends on what your blading right.
good point, slag or rock would put more wear on the backside of the blade than dirt would:Banghead
I would never stop backblading with a John Deere because of the way the blade is mounted in that socket setup. I agree that it could have been designed better but it is what it is,use it. The early versions used to have grease fittings to lubricate the ball and socket but they had to be greased every day if you were using it regularly.It became apparent that they were not getting greased enough so John Deere eliminated the grease fittings and just sealed the joint as best they could.It was considered a wear item to be replaced when it needed to be replaced. I have run the same dozer for years and have never had one wear out so that it wouldn't work anymore. Backblading should not be done in the float position,you are grading when backing up and as such there is not always a large accumulation of material behind the blade if you graded properly while going forward. I have yet to run a dozer that performed as well as the John Deere line of small dozers.Ron G
Have had lots of 350's and 450 Deeres over the last 37 years backblading in float or not,have never witnessed any abnormal wear on anything.For residential excavating,if you don't backblade when leaving a site you won't last long.I really don't understand what all the hooplah is all about.
Those ball sockets break from impact loading. That is dropping the blade hard or slamming into things on the corners. Have fixed many a Cat and Komatsu because of this. It's an easy thousand bucks, so keep right on slamming into things. I need to add to my retirement funds
Well then I'm certainly glad both my 450D and me don't have---sockets that is.
Backblading was common doing reclamation in the coal fields of Kentucky during the many years I worked there. This was in the 70s and 80s. So a lot of those operators were of the old school and most are now pushing up daiseys. I remember one old operator named Warren Berg. He was bigger than the side of a barn but the nicest old gentlemen you ever talked to. He was proud of his reclamation work and always finished with backblading as he called it. Sometimes we would seed then just track the seeded ground to crimp in the seed and provide the micro-habitat for good germination. The dozers were all Cat D8/D9 that we used for reclamation. I never remember the maintenance crew complaining about the practice. They did complain about other issues but not backdragging!