starting in a few days i am going to be building an access road in north dakota, on site i have never seen before, with a D7, having never run a dozer before, by myself ie a one man site so i guess i just want some basics on what to NEVER DO on/with a dozer
What length of road and what type of terrain? Hard to give much advice other than go real slow to start. There is a thread on head protection that has some good safety ideas you could read.
Bring an experienced dozer hand along, especially if your pioneering a road up a side hill.
the road is already there, the problem is that it is more of a cow path than a haul road
Just take your time go slow until you get some time on it and get used to it.
We all more or less learned the same way that you are going to.If you have concerns about steep ground respect them until you get some familiarity with the machine.You will slowly gain confidence and tackle the tougher parts a little at a time. Don't use topsoil in your roadbed,even as fill.Strip the topsoil first and separate it from your road building material. Don't run the dozer out of fuel where you cannot get to it with the fuel truck.Good luck.Ron G
Wear the seat belt and NEVER stand up to get a better view of what you are doing while the machine is moving . Always look behind yourself before backing up.
Im not sure how much experience you have with other tracked machines but dont think just because they have tracks they cant get stuck. That was the hardest lesson I had to learn. It is niether easy nor cheap to unstick a burried dozer.
scout it out first put some ribbon on questionable spots,if its thick and dry material have a larger fire extinguisher on the machine,watching the machine burned and the woods is not good, go slow have fun..
My advice will change dependent on your answers. Is this a professionally maintained machine as in rental from Cat or other major dealer ? What type of heavy equipment have you operated ?