It is the typical modern winter in Vermont, nothing extraordinary, snows a bit, then it melts. The ground has only frozen shallow, then it thaws. Friday we got rain changing to snow late in the day. By Saturday morning, 7" of snow. It didn't need doing, but giving the Dresser TD7G (7 tons) a bit of exercise seemed like a good idea. I plowed the road to the "land". Other times I've done it I've had better luck. This was dry snow mostly, with a thin layer of wet sticky stuff at ground level. It was plain miserable to plow! I couldn't adjust the height of the blade fast enough to make a flat layer of snow without making moguls! Tried raising the blade a few inches, leaving it steady, that made it worse. Tracks seemed to ride up on something, then tip forward as it came down. I couldn't raise the blade fast enough to avoid digging into the gravel. Nothing seemed to work well. Am I doing something wrong, or is this an impossible thing I'm trying to do?
Float ? No porpoise puns intended Tongue firmly in cheek How about back blading ? No need to rotate the mold board 180 degrees either.
I can't remember if your blade angles or not.... or were you trying with it angled?
Road is soft with all the freeze thaw cycles. It's made of crushed stone, so it drains well, but the freeze thaw cycles leave it pretty loose. Dozer blade just digs in. Running backward was about the only thing that did work. Doing that, it floated OK. It occurs to me the cutting edge on a dozer blade lays down to slice a layer of dirt. A snowplow blade is steeper where it hits the ground. Every snow plow I've had I use shoes, but I doubt they'd be enough for a heavy blade like this. I wonder if a piece of pipe 8' wide cut open to fit over the edge would allow me to float the blade?
Is there an adjustable arm on either side of the blade ? If there is, screw it out to change the pitch of the blade. I never had to do that for snow plowing, but when finish grading hard dirt it makes a huge difference to stop the blade from diving in like you are having problems with.
Also most plows have shoes to prevent gouging soft roadways. https://www.bossplow.com/en/products/accessories/truck-plow-accessories/cast-iron-plow-shoes
No provision to change the angle on this one. PAT I believe it's called.
The dozer blade is heavy, I figure it'd need a very big shoe to float this Maybe a full 8' wide shoe would work.
I'm no tractor man, but I can spread lose material without the need to back drag. I can also carry a grade. With a large machine, I can Handel a strait blade, but I can't run say a D4 unless the blade is angled. I have never been able to cut hard material without the moguls as you say. I think I'm doing good, then when I back up..... Kaplunk, Kaplunk, Kaplunk, spills coffee.
talk about killing a fly with a sledge hammer..LOL...the dozer blade is just TOOOOOO heavy for that..I have used my D-58 for moving large frozen solid piles of snow into the field when I run out of room from pushing snow with a tractor and bucket on frozen solid ground...otherwise I have some BIG divets to replace...I think even an 8 inch pipe with slot to slide over bottom of the blade will still dig in if its that soft or just go over the top and not move anything, but its worth a try...only other idea is some type of wheel mechanism to put on front blade to keep it off the ground, as large tires wouldnt get pushed into the ground like shoes could... my roto tiller has steel wheels in the back to keep it at a set height...
I thought it looked easy seeing it done. I'm getting to where I can spread processed material. This was an exaggerated version of what happens first time cutting small sapling stumps out of overgrown pasture. I'm not clear what it was riding up on, I think the wet snow at bottom was lifting off the road stuck to the tracks intermittently It'd climb something under the tracks like climbing over a tree trunk (small) then pitch down the other side. Like a boat on waves. Correcting the blade to compensate was near impossible. I'm thinking of adding shoes to the blade to see if it helps. I've considered a real snowplow, did it once on a backhoe, it was ungainly, and any blade angle at all it pushed the tractor sideways.
That's all I had there. It wasn't likely necessary to plow at all. Probably be melted by Tuesday. I wanted to charge the battery & exercise the old girl. I'd have thought the crawler would be functional for this. When the ground freezes it works great!
Willie is officially the Picasso of HEF!!!
Don't laugh! When I'm dead the value of my original art will skyrocket.
Not that good a operator myself where would need guide wheels or shoes to keep from ending up with a Motocross jump track. Can eventually smooth out road cuts and grade outs but a well worn machine weak hydraulics that tend to drift, slowing reflexes and a bad set of peepers makes a LONG Day!! That using either my old farm tractor and drag blade or bucket or the track loader(mine is a full 12 T)
Willie; Is there any chance one of the hydraulic cylinders has a piston leaking badly ?? That would explain the quick drop problem.
Every time I try to plow snow when the ground is not frozen, I screw it up regardless which machine I'm using. I find it's best to just drive over it until the ground freezes good, then plow. The downside is there is always going to be an inch or so of packed snow/ice on my dirt driveway, I just have to live with it.
How about hanging a 'ski' of some kind over the blade on a chain..... About 2 feet long and in line with travel ? Though I don't have a dozer, I have a short tracked unit with blade that does the same thing. ( Bombardier J5 ) I also have a crushed stone driveway and just pack it till ice forms on the ground and I can use my snowcat.
plowing snow with a dozer is the exact opposite of spreading gravel with a dump truck you can`t set the blade first you have to be moving then lower the blade gradually until you get to the ground. pop the tailgate then take off with a load of gravel and you`ve left a hump
2016 we went through it. Underbelly pins replaced, bushings not replaceable but not bad. Everything else on the blade and C frame got new bushings & pins. The tilt surfaces got replaced, shims done, the blade is probably tighter than new. All works as spec, including bigger pins & bores throughout the valve linkage. Blade works perfectly. Now one might argue my anticipating a needed maneuver soon enough could be improved, but yesterday it was riding up on something, then tipping as it passed over center. The hydraulics were just not fast enough to lift the blade before it dug.
No leaks. I wouldn't say i have a quick drop problem. The tractor was climbing up something, then tipping as a short tracked crawler will as it passes the center of gravity, the nose of the tractor tips suddenly. I'm not able to lift the blade fast enough to prevent it diving into dirt. I believe it was cold snow freezing to track shoes as wet snow provided liquid water from below. This storm began as an inch of rain at 35 degrees F, then turned gradually to dry cold powder snow through the night. Only the top was dry powder at 18 degrees F. Below at ground level was translucent water saturated snow.
I feel like the first 60 years of my life the ground froze reliably. Last few years it never seems to be frozen. There might be some merit in the ski idea.
Ok, That gives me a much clearer idea of what you were dealing with. I pushed a lot of snow in my days and never had that happen. I had tracks get packed with snow and they would get so tight the engine worked really hard just to go forward.
A fellow up north has the same tractor as me, but he has new undercarriage. He tells me he gets popping & snapping in snow as snow packs hard in the gullets at rear & between chains & idler in front. Mine has some wear, so I haven't experienced that. Other times I've found plowing snow over thawed road is a matter of plowing most of the snow, leaving a couple inches to pack.
IDK if this would work in your situation but it might be something to think about. A number of years ago I bought an old plow truck plow that the guy had retrofitted to mount on the bucket of a 930 Cat loader. To keep it from gouging he mounted a long roller just behind the cutting edge of of the plow. So basically when you set it on the ground the cutting edge of the plow was about an inch from the ground. IIRC the roller was about 3" in diameter. The reason I bought it was because we had a 920 Cat loader at the time. I used it for a number of years and it worked pretty darn good. Like I said it might not work in your situation but something to think about.
I like the idea. You are talking of an 8'long roller. How are the bearings done to make it roll? I was leaning toward an 8' wide plow shoe, or even a snow pusher. I'm trying to imagine how to keep it rolling.
I should have worded that a little different. I believe it was a 12' plow off of an old truck that the state used to plow the roads. IIRC the roller was @ 10' long. I think it was a little bit narrower that the blade. It's been a number of years ago so I'm struggling to remember the specifics. I do remember that it had grease zerks on each end that were recessed in the center of the roller. Maybe something like one of these less the sprocket and longer. I wish I was more help
What would likely take the beating would be old Quarry Conveyor rollers.