Just wondering how you like the operator forward dozers. I am sure the visibility is better for the blade, but how is the feel? I know when I am on a mini ex, I hate sitting nearly on top of the blade! I would rather be farther back.
you mean like this one ? plummeting head first down a hill at the front of a dozer can't be any worse than careering backwards after a roller has dragged the tractor after it . Depends on the job I guess , been a few time driving a dozer by brail has not suited
My first thought was an Eimco dozer . Several threads on here about them . https://classicdozers.wordpress.com/dozer-gallery/eimco/
I was referring to the new small komatsu dozer. D37 and d39
The beast in the photo is some form of bastardized Allis. Can tell by upper roller flanges and the blade arm guide at the idler. The cab station is sitting atop the radiator hardnose, NOT where I would want to be while winching whatever the hell it is dragging uphill.
A chopper roller clearing scrub in hill country, some as steep as a hens face.
HD16 , he later used an HD11 . Article with the picture on google gives the impression he started gravity rolling without saying it , he didn't and by a long way .
Komatsu don't make mistakes so it will be alright . Rear vision is important too , D31 I did a hundred hours on had been rolled end over end backwards off a slash heap because the owner lost the sight of where the rubbish ended and the air begun , he would have dropped more than his cell phone behind the seat during his antics
Huntly Engineering Works (HEWCO) converted quite few C6 Euclid dozers for this work for various contractors back in the day. A later version of these has been morphed to a remote controlled machine assisting harvesters in the logging industry that work on steep country. There are some photos of them on the forestry operations section here. Its amazing how necessity is the mother of invention. After the scrub was crushed the need to get fertiliser and grass seed on the ground was the next problem. It was overcome with another NZ invention, aerial topdressing and the manufacture of the worlds first purpose built agricultural aircraft, the Fletcher FU24 a 225 hp. It also has been changed alot but looks similar to the original design. Some of you in North America may have seen it flying as the worlds only purpose built skydive aircraft, the PAC 750 XTOL. There are heaps of u tube videos to be seen for those interested.
Pushing off the outside edge in a large open pit mine for the drill crews... and having a moderate height issue I am thinking the Cab forward dozer would have me looking for my last check. It is bad enough to be height challenged and look out over the top of the track at a couple thousand feet of daylight (and or moonlight depending on the shift) I'd rather my seat 16 or 18 feet behind the blade. Make mine a 9, 10 or 11.
At least they got the exhaust stacks where you hear it quickly if you developed a miss...