How many of you would find this useful? The outer wings are capable of being extended and/or angled to form a U-blade. Seems to be pretty slick but I'm no skilled dozer operator by any means. :beatsme Here is their website: ROCKIT Power Blade . Make sure you check out the videos in the "Downloads" section.
So, essentially, it's a Blizzard snow plow, mounted on a dozer?
intresting design. It be neat to see and really put it through the paces to see the blade does stand up.
John, the Blizzard plow was derived from the Rockit Blade, they were the same company. Rockit Blade came first, then the Blizzard.
So, I was right. (Except for being bass-ackwards.)
I guess Im just suprised that i never heard of the dozer blade, even though it been around since at least 2001.
Rockit blade good for grubbing????????????????? Hi, Folks. Neat idea. Seems like a far more useful tool than a normal PAT blade. But good for grubbing?????????????????? We still come back to the FACT that it IS a blade on a PAT frame and it's not usually the blade part of a PAT blade set-up that will fail if you go into extreme usage situations with it. It usually seems to be the rams and attachment points that letchyer down, due to the leverage against them when working heavy on one corner of the blade. So how is this Rockit blade any different from the rest in that regard? And I'm not too sure that I'd like to do too much grubbing on the end of an extended and angled wing either. Other than that, it does seem like a good idea. Thanks Countryboy for bringing it to our attention. YE EE E H A A A A W W!!
It also adds extra weight which keeps the front end down when pushing, that's always a problem in the heavier soils. My Dad added counter weights to the back side of the blade which greatly imroved the pushing power, the rear kept dopping down on the old D3C LGP, so the added weight balanced it better.
Probably be a good blade for small or fine grade work. But I don't think it would last against tree stumps, rock, etc. Pretty cool blade though!
Keeping a PAT blade down. Hi, Bobcat Ron. The chief reason that PAT blades don't dig and push bulk dirt as well as a straight/semi-U blade is that they are designed more like the older manual angle baldes, to roll material so that it will move across the blade rather than to pile it up and keep it in front of the blade like a straight, semi-U or U-blade. Because the material is rolling in front of the blade, it tends to lift the blade out of the ground to some extent when it gets close to fully loaded. Adding all the weight in the world won't stop the material from having that effect on the blade. It will reduce or stop the actual lifting but it won't stop the dirt trying to lift it. On the other hand, a straight, semi-U or U-blade is designed to pile the material up in front of it and to some extent to 'carry' some of the weight of that material which reduces the friction of the blade-full of material on the ground AND gives the dozer a bit more traction too. If you have a good look at the different types of blades, you may notice that the top of the blade is closer to directly over the cutting edge on the PAT blades and a lot further back on the bulk pushing blades. The Carry-dozer takes this principle a step or three further by actually laying the loaded blade back so that it carries even more of its load when fully loaded and tipping the blade forward at the end of the push to dump the carried material. You can also do this to a lesser extent with the dual tilt ram equipped D8's, D9's, D10's and D11's. Tilting the blade back reduces the ability of the blade to cut but increases its carrying capacity. Hope this helps.
Carry Dozer ? Hi Deas Plant, I always thought they shoulda, put a scraper bowl in front attached with long push arms, that would then pivot to dump. Couldn't do much turning movements, but for mass excavation , would be fine. ointhead
I know of a couple operates who would probably turn that u into a v before the day was over!
should say lever yankers
Operators or Cowboys Hi One Welder, Are you talking about Operators or Cowboys ? LOL :beatsme They do make a Power angle V plow for the front of graders, similar to the V Boss snowplow for pickups. Angles various positions, a forward V, backward V, Angle right, angle left, and straight dozer. The Rockit one under discussion, probably, is useful to the one machine owner, and to those engaged in the same work sites repeatedly. A niche market.
hhmm i think that the blade i question is pretty cool. there have been numerous times that i have been doing finish work, or have been wishing that i could keep the material from spilling out past the slober bits. i dont think it would stand up to popin rock or making a real cut. has any one wathched the videos in the link? the material that they are working the machine in is super nice, i wish i got to work in that type of soil at least once a year. i would like to see that machine work in rock.:usa
I think it would be great on dozer that is just grading, but general purpose could be another story.Yes i did notice the material, and it got me to wondering how well it would push a rock. A while ago I was at a Co. that hired a new man, his first machine left the yard at 8:30 by 3:00 he had broken 4 TLB. Yes They kept him ! and few others just as Bad, at the time help was hard to find
That might be a good blade to try on the front of my AW. I don't ever plan on pushing anything bigger then a marble or 2, maybe a little sand. LOL.
about people breaking stuff or just being bad handsm getting to stay working is an all to common thing i see it all the time. last winter i was on a job site were a guy crashed a belly dump in to a truck and they let the guy keep his job. another guy on that job had a screen hanging on his excavator bucket and swung into the cab of an excavator and totaled the machine i think they let him stick around too. :beatsme
You mean something like this.....or is that not what I'm thinking it is? :beatsme
Bulldozer Blade ?? Hello Countryboy, Huh! Never seen anything like that ! :beatsme Hhmmnn, a mongrel ? Looks well made. Obviously from long ago. From the looks of the canopy. '55-'61 era. There's that Italian photo site that has lots of old stuff,identified by decade. Looks like a coal dozer or light materials, except for the dropped center cutting edge like on a scraper. I kinda thought it should have a higher back and sides, like a scraper bowl. I see I have no monpoly on creatives ideas or ingenuity, somebody long ago has dreamt one up. :drinkup
I have no idea what it is either. I just happened across it while searching bulldozer pictures awhile ago. There was a caption below the picture on the website but I can't find the website again. :beatsme
Well, I did a little searching and while I couldn't find the origin of the photo, I did find a current version that's in production. Its called a "Bowldozer" and is used to move mass quantities of loose material, including aggregate. This is the website: www.U-Blades.com
The power plant here used to have a set up similar to that on their wheel dozers for quite some time. The ran the machine like a dozer, but it was pushing a scoop instead of a blade. When they got to the coal chute the scoop could be dumped. It looked like it would move double the material in a day vs a blade. I can see the plus side to a ROCKIT blade, and I can see some serious downsides. As some have said, it would be good for an owner operator. Give it to anyone else, I think it would be destroyed in no time. I can see how it can up your production. It makes an lgp width blade on a standard, or long track dozer. The v setup will help hold material. But if your back dragging you would have to sit at the end of your push and wait until the blade is straight all the way across. Personally I dont think it would benefit me that much. If I need to move a lot of material I use windrows to help hold a full blade of dirt.
Looking at the pictures, seems that this is set more for the D3 sized machines than a real production machine. Everything I have ever seen puts that size class in the finish dozing category. So, it's hard for me to see why everyone seems to be looking at these as production machines. Yes, I know that most smaller operators have to use what they have to get the job done, but really, how much rock work do you really do with your D3? I know it will happen, but I personally haven't seen much of it. I did see a local guy from where I used to live who decided that he wanted to have both angle and semi u blades on his D8H without needing to change blades. He ended up building a blade that used a bit from both designs, so he had a semi u that could be angled. He had some major strengthening he had to do, but it kind of worked for angle dozing and it wasn't bad for general pushing. I wish I had gotten pictures. Brian
There's also a blade I saw in Tracks & Treads from the pipe line industry in Northern Alberta, D8's with a sort of conveyor track mounted to the blade with a separate engine on the back to power it, they used that set up to back fill the pipe line trenches, 2 dozers working side by side and they could back fill miles of trench after the initial cover was placed with an excavator. They also used it for right of way clearing after the brush grinders did their sweeps, each dozer would angle it off to one side and get the 100 feet needed.
Its called a Powerdozer. Here's their site: Power Dozer Commercial applications... Military Application...
That's the one!!
Brian, im looking at the point of view of production in sq ft finished in a day. Not in cyd pushed in a day. Most companies I have worked for use a Jd 650 or Cat D5 sized dozer for grading roads, parking lots, and other grade work. So thats what im looking at. This machine size is by no means a hog. But you do end up having to push a fair amount of material without much help. I could see where the rockit blade could have an advantage pushing crushed stone. Your could V your blade and it would help control the stone on the sides. This way your not losing stone outside of the parking area or the road. You tend to have this problem since the truck drivers never seem to dump in the right spot. Josh
'Box' Blade. Hi, Northart. The best dozer I ever ran on damsinking - excavating farm ponds - was a 46A D8H with bolt-on wings not unlike that blade. The wings bolted to plates on each end of the blade so that they could be taken off for clearing. They started about 2" above new corner tips at the blade and were about 8-9" above the ground where they ended about 3' feet forward of the cutting edge. Whatever you got inside those wings stayed there right to the top of the dam wall. They made cleaning up easy too 'cos they left virtually no windrows. That was in 1967. That B&W photo of the D9G with the 'box' blade would have been 1959-65. The D8H mentioned above was a 1965 vintage side hydraulic tank model.