hi fellas, sorry for the complete novice questions,but i have only ever been involved with skid steers and am now moving up a notch i need a machine(or 2 ) for the following tasks on my rural property dam construction and maintenance scrub/tree clearing firebreak maintenance road(unsealed/forest) construction house pad preperation "farm" earthworks now initially i was thinking of a largish(??20T??) excavator,steel tracked,,,,,then a friend of a friend suggested a bulldozer-D4/5 size- and a smaller -5T- excavator since looking around i kinda fancy the versatility of a traxcavator as a single machine what do you guys reckon also bear in mind i've never driven a dozer,i have had a fiddle in a 1.5T mini excavator that i'm sure i'll pick up quickly,however it remains stationary while you are digging which is less to concentrate on are the controls on a dozer/traxcavator anything like a skidsteer,i notice the mention of clutches,is this on all models or just the older ones (like the old clarke 610 clutched bobcats),what is powershift?what is angle tilt blade?what is a 6 way blade..........aaahhh....anyone got a link to "Dozers 101" anyhow guys,appreciate any feedback,sorry to be annoying Z24O
Paul , you are asking questions in the right place. There is plenty of guys here who can help you with this. To help them out, what type of soil types and terrain is your property on?.. I'd say you could be on the right track...literally...with looking at a Track Loader...or Trackie. With a 4 in 1 bucket they are one of the great all-rounders. Here in the West they are not popular except at the tips......so picking up a good 2nd handy cheap from a council (at auction normally) is a definite possibility. I can put you in touch with a used equipment wheel dealer in Perth if you like. The hydraulic excavator is a very universal machine but its short coming is travelling any distance. Its strength is obviously trenching...and it is the king of stumps when someone has felled the trunk off short at the ground. Small (minis - Less than 8 tonnes) are no good for loading any decent sized trucks. Never underestimate what can be acheived with a hydraulic excavator in capable hands. Don't forget the ultimate Jack of all Trades (and master of none ) the Backhoe. Lots of threads hereabouts related to your questions, have a bit of a read. I'll let the gun Cat Skinners answer your other questions.:cool2 Start here:
For what I see, to do everything with the proper piece of equipment your going to want several pieces. A medium or large dozer for heavy earthmoving and land clearing, and a small excavator would be a good start. Now if your earthworks require dirt to be hauled any distance you would want a scraper, either a self propelled or one that could be hooked to a large farm tractor or the dozer. Now for the fine work your going to want a small dozer, I've seen guys fine grade with d8r's but the driver has more than 20 years under his belt. With the big dozers, d7 up, frontal visibility is low and diminishes with size. But the can move alot of dirt in a day. Oh, the blade question. 4 way blades move 4 ways, up, down, rt corner up, lft corner up. 6 ways add the ability to angle the blade so either corner leads, while the blade remains level. Powershift is just like the new farm tractors just that you only have three gears. Shift on the fly, some of the new hydrostatic dozers have infinitly variable drive motors. For more info, look around the dozer pages. And yes the older dozers have the clutches. Good luck with your equipment search.
cheers squizzy, i am in perth as well but am moving to tasmania soon the terrain is quite steep and was very slippy in winter....lots of clay.....the cows were loosing traction coming down hill!! and they are 4wd the scrub clearing is about 10 acres of a nasty thorny bush called gorse,worse than blackberry and a bitch to get rid of apparently(pull it/poison it/burn it....repeat in 2 years ) they trees are sparse and less than 600mm trunk diameter a backhoe would have been great but i don't think it would make the gradient or the traction.....he says after never using one,however a bobcat would be hopeless this i know....any comparison??? i would appreciate you pointing me in a dealers direction,guess i would need to work out transport to see if it was viable....what about eastern states,any cheaper or more plentiful?? tassie's got bugger all i will do a bit more research,but assuming the trackie is the machine for me(what can a dozer do better?) are all the cheapies clutched?is bigger better in steep/clay terrain or is the weight a drawback?any recommendations as a starting point appreciated thanks guys keep em coming paul
Paul, Tasmania. ..your gunna dilute the gene pool Okay, now you have described the terrain I'd be more inclined to say excavator 8 to 12 tonnes with a thumb and preferably a blade (most 12 tonners {120 sized} don't have blades. More on that later. BUT!..(There is always a but) the correct advice I should give is to check out the local contractors and landowners for what they have used or are using. It may well be the D4-D5 is the popular machine of choice knowing Tasmania. Mexico (Victoria ) is the place to shop, I think the freight will kill you from WA and the pickings should be better. Back to Trackie/Excavator/Dozer thing. Firstly you need a Deas...its from Queensland but don't let bother to you. The Deas can advise you on the Dozers and Trackies better. Excavators I can help you with. On steep sites and rough terrain the excavator can get itself around like nothing else because of its ability (in skilled hands) to use the stick as like an extra leg. It can haul itself up near impossible slopes, cut itself a pad and work where most machines can't. With a thumb it can pick rocks and logs with unmatched precision. For the life of me I don't know why hydraulic thumbs are not more popular in Australia...I digress. With the right attachments I'd say clearing the terrain you describe it would be a good choice ...BUT...(here we go again) Firstly I'd hate to be the one who sent an inexperienced operator up a slope on a machine he/she wasn't familiar with and on ground they didn't fully know the characteristics of....and Secondly, its well possible that a dozer or Track Loader could do most of your work....I haven't seen the site. Do you have any photos?. So whatever the outcome you need to quite literally start at the bottom and work your way up. Fully understanding the machines limits is essential. Many accidents occur with well experienced operators but operating on unfamiliar ground...just something to think about. The machine selection might actually be less critical than the manner in which you approach the task.
:usa You know kobelco has a nice track with a six way dozer blade and they work wonders the only thing is you need some open area when using the dozers blade cuz it is easy to forget about your boom bad things happen when this happens but just thought id give you my two since good luck and shout back at us if we can help at all :Cowboy
cheers squizzy already onto Deas:notworthy i will send you some snaps of the site...do i have your email?? i plan on playing with any new machine in the paddocks for many hours before attempting anything tricky(see->more than 2 degree in/decline off the hardstand:cool2 ) points taken on the excavator however i remember from my bobcat days seeing those guys in there mini excavators trundling along from point to point at a snails pace....guess it's just what you are used to,i've only got 100ac i guess as someone suggested maybe i would be better with a cheap old dozer/traxcavator AND an excavator???????????????? although with my financial constraint of $25-$30K i am not expecting top of the line gear but always have found that it is better to have one decent tool than two POS (ie one stanley spanner rather than a WA Salvage set.....that way at least you have one tool you can rely on ointhead ) keep the advice coming guys,really appreciate it paul
update well guys on your advice i had a look at the gear being used over in tasmania not a traxcavator to be seen....excavators galore though.....had a look at one working.looks like i am in the market for an excavator,boy you are right they are very versatile especially on steep slippy slopes my next question is...."is bigger better" when it comes to excavators? obviously transport between sites becomes more expensive with a bigger machine,but is there an ideal size for 40 degree clay slopes or will they all work well(and not get stuck) but just at different speeds due to bucket/lift capacity? thanks guys
newby If you are going to go with one machine, I would recommend something like a Kobelco SK115 with a dozer blade, that way you get the power of a 12 tonner but you still have the blade. Komatsu also makes a PC128 with a blade. Both can be found reasonably priced. We have a 115 and love it.
I think everyone already knows what I'm going to say If you got steep terrain to work on then one of these is the way to go. Its a little more money then a track hoe but worth it. No need to bench into the slopes, travels way faster, works far more efficiently/safer on slopes and it has 5 auxiliary hydraulic lines (track hoes only have 2) to run a ton of different attachments. No blade though.
One of 'THESE'? Hi, Brian Hay. I agree that 'one of these' is a very handy tool for all manner of things. How-wevver, they are a whole lot like hen's teeth and rocking horse manure DownUnder and I suspect that it may have something to do with the quality of the back-up, service and spare parts supply and I'd hate to be responsible for recommending a machine with spares made of 'unobtainium'. I do have to admit though that such spares can 'last' for a very long time - 'cos the machine can't work 'without'em'. Just my 0.02.
Hi Deas Plant I fully understand your concern there, the same ones I had before buying mine. Sure glad I studied up before drawing my conclusion though. There are only a handful of these machines in Canada and only one dealer that just started up and is a very long ways away from me. There are a few I found for sale down under when I was looking. Parts aren't as big of a deal as one would think. Lots of them are common. For example it has a Perkins engine in it, the pumps are common to although I forget off hand who makes them. Everyone I talked to that owns one (think I hunted down almost every contractor in North America) say it is the most dependable machine they have ever owned. And anything that can't be found local can be shipped in no time at all. I investigated every manufacturer of them before deciding and Kaiser is the only kind I would buy for a few different reasons. One being even though they are so far away the dealer support is second to none. They will go to any lengths to be sure that their customers are taken care of. They hold their value better then any other machine out there to(that didnt much mater to me though). Even if you have to ship one from over seas it's cheap to do considering. If a guy wants to do his own work on his land and then resell after he is done, good chance you wont loose much money on it. There is one in the Heavy Equipment trader here right now selling for double what I paid for mine including the shipping from Switzerland. It has less hours but is older and a model down from mine. I'm getting mine straight from Kaiser for far less money and it's getting run through their shop and made to be 100% before shipping.
Welcome to HEF earthworm2006! :drinkup