Ain't she a purty little beasty? Our first bona fide fire dozer - been fighting for one of these for several years and now we've got 'er. I've spent a healthy amount of time on 450H and J fire dozers over the years in a few different states - there's definitely more of this honey. Now if I'm on a fire/prescribed burn, I won't be suckin' so much smoke 'n dust through the gaping cracks and holes in the cab of our well-worn 650G, not to mention the safer feeling with all the cab/window guarding (nothing but unprotected glass on the G). Pushing firebreaks and access trails means no more cramped/locked knees from standing on the pedals all day convincing her to turn, a comfortable cloth seat that's not slicker 'n snot, A/C and heat that actually work, and the K is amazingly quiet too. There's so much more to this machine than the old G. Just thought I'd share the joy....
Nice! I think a company in Birmingham makes the window screens, sweeps and other guarding for JD. Does this machine have any additional specs being a fire dozer over a normal 650K, other than the guarding and plow?
Nice machine, congratulations. It sure is nice to have the right tools for the job.
That is a sharp looking unit, have you pulled a firebrake plow like that yet? we still have the tow plows and rear winches here in my area.
That's pretty sexy. What's it like to drive a new dozer?
Yup, G.R. Manufacturing in Trussville added all the external guarding and the blade modifications, as well as a number of internal mods/adjustments. The machine is purpose-built as a fire dozer from the factory - it's not a base 650 pulled off the lot with some extra do-dads welded on. It's also only available in this form to .gov agencies (state and fed) involved in/used for fire management - your local dealer can't just order one up. Besides the obvious external mods, a whole bunch of heat/fire protective coverings on internal hoses and wiring, some internal cab/ventilation mods, and some cutoff/lockout/access mods, I'd have to look back and refresh my memory on what some of the other unique specs were. No particularly earth-shattering mods, but some tweeks and adjustments not available on standard K's. AFAIK, Deere has the major chunk of the fire dozer market east of the Mississippi, at least for this size dozer and smaller (650/550/450, @ 100 hp and less). Actually a mounted plow is all I've ever used. When I was in southeast VA, the next county/city over had a 450C LGP (I know it was an LGP, maybe a C or D) with a pull-type plow, but I never ran a fire with it. I did pull it out of a mud hole once with the blade winch on my 450H, which kinda surprised me seeing as how that LGP was sunk to the top of the tracks. I half expected to be heading home with a bunch of shredded hoses and shattered pins, with the blade left in the mud still cabled to the LGP, but that blade winch works surprisingly well. Well, I haven't lost the grin yet, and I sure don't talk to her like I regularly do the G - feels pretty darn good! It's interesting how many small preference adjustments can be made by the operator on this machine over the H and J's I've run - you can adjust the aggressiveness of the F/R shifts and decelerator, steering input/response, decelerator for rpm's or track speed only. The hardest things to get used to are A) remembering what all the blasted idiot symbols/lights refer to (only three gauges on the dash, a few line LCD screen for text messages, and a whole mess of symbols that might light up at some time or another), and B) getting back into using a joystick from running the G for several years - my right foot keeps tapping the decel to turn, and I tend to either pull back into reverse trying to catch a higher gear or try to push farther forward and over to change directions... I had just the opposite problem when I got here and went back to the pedal-steer G after years spent on joystick H and J's.
Deere's are all I have ever seen the AL Forestry Commission using. I grew up in a rural area and remember the old B's and C's plow a few fire lines. These machines have come a long way. I never knew G.R. was located here until I was looking on Deere's website.
Is that a 1250 or 1500 plow? sure wish mine was a k, we run a remanufactured 350c, with a 750 plow on it, small but it does what we ask of it. The K also has the fire plow performance mode in the EPM, deere can access it in the J's though. Boosts speed and HP quite a bit over stock settings. I'm with a VFD which have our own plow, one of my sons is resource technician with TX Forest Service and they started a switch to Cat with mixed emotions. They already wish GR made brush armor for it.
That's nice. Does it come with curtains in the event of being caught? MN had a new one down in tx a year or two ago and it was slick. Even had a 50 gallon h2o tank with pump for mop up or self protection. Brett
Going by memory, I think it's a RM1000, have to check to be certain. IMHO, don't need a larger plow that cuts real deep/wide here, 'cause the soils in places won't allow it (shallow/exposed rock/ledges), and the fuels (hardwood litter mostly) aren't deep like yellow pine stands or lowlands/flatlands. GR does a real nice job on the guarding - I can see where they've modified and improved some things from the past 450's I've run. On this new one, the operator can open the side guard from the inside (uses a latch now) and knock out a side window to escape - older versions were bolted down or could only be opened from the outside. Even though there are two doors for exit options if the machine goes over, they're heavy as @#%#! to push open when the weight's working against you. Add a "Gotta git out NOW!" situation to a rollover or other incident where the doors aren't easy to open or even accessible, well those side latches could be life savers. Nope, no curtains, not sure if they were an option or not, IMHO our fuel types just aren't of the explosive variety where curtains could make a difference. Will keep a couple shelters inside though. I skipped the on-board water tank/system because, with our climate and the fact that this machine will spend most of its time outside/uncovered, there's too good a chance of it be forgotten one day, freezing, and ruining the whole deal. Those tanks can be a worthwhile option - knew an operator who had a dozer burn up after hanging it on a stump pushing a snag down - no on-board water tank and no way to get water to it in time. Then again, that old dozer was replaced with a new H series, so a water tank could be seen at as a mixed blessing, provided nobody gets hurt of course.