. I have a question about dozer / scraper pans and sand. Could a D4 or D6 dozer ( direct drive or powershift ) pull and load a scraper pan in Florida / in just sand / or clay sand mix by itself ? .
First of all, you must have the right size pan behind the tractor. A D6, hook up a Cat No. 60. D4, hook up a Cat No. 40 which is going to be tough to find. Any size scraper behind any size tractor in pure sand is going to be a real bit-- to get a desent load on. Sand don't cut like clay, shale or the like. Clay sand mix, going to depend on the clay sand mix.
Yair...Bumpus. As Greg says, the tractor has to matched with the pan...and in sand you have to forget all you were taught about loading. If it's a power shift go in fast and deep and you'll have to give it a couple of pumps to get a half-way decent load. Cheers.
I have a very good Cat 60 for sale; it's been converted to hydraulic. But, I would sure look for a different type of scraper if I was going to put it in the sand. I also wouldn't want to put steel tracks in the sand. Rubber tire or maybe rubber tracks would be better than steel. Direct mount scrapers do a better job than the dollied scrapers in sand. Most scrapers made today, have a less severe angle on the cutting edge. Less angle will load the sand better, it will also pull much easier. A D6 for sure pull most brands of 12 & 13 yard scrapers. The newer 6's will even work pretty well with 14-18 yard scrapers. I'm referring to dollied scrapers behind a 6.
Big difference between just sand and a sand clay mix. The way we used to get rubber tired through the cut in pure sand was to flood it but if there is clay in the mix, it can create a lense of pumping soil. The water also helped in the fill. Keep another Cat there if possible to push out when the "uh-oh" happens.
From my experience I think you will run out of traction on a D6 trying to pull someting as big as 14 to 18 yards. Hooked a Cat No. 80 behind my D7 one time. Was okay on the level and loaded slow because of cut being to wide and weight. Get it pulling an up hill grade and spun out in fairly short order.
A cat 80 or even a cat 70 pulls way harder than modern scrapers such as: Toreq, Ashland, Reynolds ect. A D7 pulls a 18 yard Toreq easily.
So what happens when you get a 14 or 18 yard pan behind a D6 when it is full and run out of traction on an up hill pull Toreq? That is where I ran into trouble with bigger pan behind D7.
Greg, I pull a 13-yd scraper behind two different MFD tractors. One has 215 HP one has 185 HP (PTO), I usually stop loading when the dirt is running off the sides. There is no way that either one of these tractors has anywhere near the traction that a D6 or a D7 has. The 13-yd scraper that I pull has the same size bowl as a Cat-70. but the angle of cut is not near as steep. There is no way that I could ever load a Cat-70 but I would have no trouble pulling it loaded anywhere that I needed to go. A 200 HP MFD tractor, in my opinion and in most dirt, has more trouble loading a Cat-60, than it would have loading most modern 13-yd scrapers. Yes, I have seen some sub-soils that a MFD would struggle to load. But, in the 4' deep cuts I was making this fall for a diversion, I was still able to load a 13-yard scraper. Keep in mind that north central Missouri had one of the driest late summer and falls on record. The clay was very hard and I'm sure some brands of scrapers I would have had trouble with going into the ground, and some other scrapers would have pulled too hard for me to load. Although I have no trouble loading a 13-yard in Missouri gumbo, I have seen some gumbo's, such that is in some places in Minnisota, that I would struggle in or not be able to load.