I have been looking around at dozers for the last while, and noticed that rippers on any machine smaller than D7 are almost non existent. Is this because of the buying price with a ripper, or that it is not economical on a smaller machine?
Usually 6's and under are finish tractors dont use them much for ripping
It depends more on where the machine was first sold. In the Pacific Northwest I see plenty of D4 and D5 machines with rippers. Judging from the condition of the teeth I would say they get used quite a bit. It seems this area is partial to full length rock guards also. I hate them and would never buy a machine with them but around here most every tractor has them. I'm told the rest of the country agrees with me that they are a big waste of money.
Yair . . . It may have changed but, over here in my parts of Australia there was no such thing as a "finish dozer" . . . the size of the tractor just determined how long a job took. There have been many millions of yards of dirt pushed by D6 size and down. In the late 'fifties I pushed out a couple of 5000 yard dams with a D4 and a mouldboard "roadplough" to do the ripping . . . the farmer or his son were on the handles. With proper dozing techniques you can move a lot of dirt with a little tractor provided it has a decent set of three tine rippers . . . not saying it is the cheapest or best way but it can be done. I was explaining dozing techniques to a couple of fellers the other day and I chanced upon an explanation that seemed to click . . . I told them they should forget they had a hydraulic blade On bulk pushing any time you see an operator constantly jacking up the front of a little 'dozer trying to get it to cut you are watching B/S. If the ground is cross-ripped the tractor will bury the blade down to the next floor in half a tractor length with the blade control in the float position . . . this replicates exactly the conditions of slotting with a cable blade. Cheers
Agree with John C about location, there seem to be alot of bare back dozers in the mid West where the dirt is mello. Here where I am a dozer without a ripper is almost useless.
We have a jd650 with 3 rippers, have dropped the middle one at the mo. definitely twice the dozer with rippers wouldn't buy a dozer without them
Buying a used bareback dozer is foolish, unless its a dedicated backfill tractor or something that a rear attachment would interfere with. Alot of times you can buy a used tractor with a winch or rippers for simular or slighty more than barebacked ones and you get a second tool. Where I'm at winches are king, my 550g has a carco, I made a winch for the rear of my 450c track loader. I would like rippers at times building skid trail in the woods, would make it alot faster to cut thru shale or even hardpan, so If I went to two tractors the second will have rippers. Yes you can blade corner it, but it isnt rippers.
For me any tractor has to have something on its butt, be it rippers or winch, or scraper. You can still do a hell of alot of work with a D4 size machine. Biggest thing in my part of the world was transport, it had to go on the back of a 3 axle truck, was 2 axle in the early days and main choice of tractors was HD6, TD9 and D4C/D. On small jobs a D4 and 5yd scraper can still move alot of dirt in a day. Biggest problem today is alot of people seem to think diggers are the do all machine. But for moving dirt any distance they are useless.
you are right, D6Merv, I have a 6D with a cat #6 ripper and 3 teeth, cleaning a terrace is very fast after you cross rip along the channel two passes then shove it out. It will take ever bit of that foot or so of soil across those two ripped areas and have so much boiled dirt out front you can't possibly cut any deeper, so you just push it to the ridge. I almost think it will come close to double production with a considerable savings of fuel since you spend so little time laboring through a cut. Cutting a slot lenghtways works just about as well when you rip then clean out all the ripped dirt. Cutting solid soil is what really takes the power, pushing loose soil takes much less effort.