I ran a D6N on a clay 3:1 for the first time and even though that is not considered VERY steep, I was wondering what steep slopes other people have ran on with dozers. Any pictures?? Trying to get a feel for what I can do as I gain more experience. I understand rock can be a different story.
this ones not very steep...but its the only slope i have a picture of with the dozer on it these little dozers can go anywhere
Dozer's are the most forgiving piece of equipment when working on steep slopes.Rock is slipery for sure.2:1 is the steepest that I build with and that's on the inside of a pond dam.On a solid surface like clay a dozer will generaly slide sideways down hill before it turns over.I always work a steep grade on an angle with a dozer,not working stait up or completely sideways.And always keep the blade on the ground,It keeps the center of gravity lower.A 1:1 slope is pretty steep,the dozer will go down it but it has trouble going back up.
my cousin rolled a D5 on the side of a frozen topsoil pile...he was going fine until he slid to the bottom and the track caught the flat dirt and she just rolled right on over
That frozen ground is slick.Rocky ground has the same effect,when the dozer starts sliding it builds up inertia,so when it comes to an abrupt stop it turns over.
In good conditions a 1.5 to 1 is easily done with a standard track dozer. Wide track models even steeper. Get into rock, chunky clay, frozen ground, or other unsuitable conditions and you will have a lot of trouble. Even a 2 to 1 gets rough in bad conditions. You can do it, just be on your toes. I have gone as steep as 1 to 1 at times, but you are not efficient. You would be better with a slope board, or a grader with the blade in slope position.
A little steep, but not bad: Just some pictures I took when back filling some holes I dug with our Cat 312 BL... prospecting for gravel. Well with in the dozer's hill side capabilities... if you get real steep, it does have a tendency to slide. OCR
I was recenetly in San Diego and saw several D6 and 8's with slope board attachments. Do these serve a multi-purposes? or are they specifically designed for sloping roads? Sorry, new guy here, haven't ever been around these. :bash
The slopeboards are primarily for sloping, but they do a great job at all kinds of clean up. When pushing, you have the ability of cleaning up the windrow from the last pass at the same time, when spreading fill or grading roads, it gives you a wider path, as long as you are not in too rough of conditions. We use them as a light duty crane to unload things sometimes, or to dig out under structures. Your imagination is the limit. I feel a utility or finish dozer without one is a handicap. Keep them off of the bulk pushing operations though, there is limits to all good things.
Hey OCR, does that dozer have a winch as well a ripper? It looks to me like it has a fairlead mounted on top of the ripper. Pretty sweet idea. I worked for a log road building outfit about 15 years ago that had a fixed grapple mounted on the ripper of there D7G for skidding right-of-way logs.
Hey guys. New guy here so I'm not allowed to post pics yet but I have a photo gallery of some pics. http://galute.smugmug.com/gallery/7897795_nqsaw#512184760_Tvggb These are some of a recent little hill we did. Sorry there are no pics of the dozer on it sideways but when I'm on those slopes I don't unbuckle that seat belt for nothing. LOL We always work those slopes sideways since we have to put it back like it was and you can't push it back uphill and sure dont wanna push it down. My general rule of thumb I use is if I can climb it, I can work it sideways. I hope the link works. Later, Rick.
It worked for me. Wow, man, those are some great pics:drinkup
Thanks dieseldave. We have a lot of fun.
Yes it does JTL, I put it on when we were logging our own timber. Here's the rather boring story... lol Also, some pictures here... OCR...
Good story by you and the rest of fourm members! Thanks guys! Jason
Stupid question! Are you putting in a pipe line of some kind? Not all the pics would load up for me! By the looks of that nuclear Gatorade ya got there, I'd say its plenty steep! Jason
Yep, pipeline. It's a 20 inch that ties two wells together.
Pipeline Crew in Blad Knob Did it take 2 or 3 minutes to put your Crew together in Bald Knob? For the people thats not from around here, theres not a lot of towns in the US with a higher percentage of pipeliners in it than Bald Knob. If you figure theres never been any local work till recently.
How Steep??? I don't know how steep it is but my neighbor rolled his D6C 10K late last week. As near as we know it made at least 10 revolutions and almost onto my property. Luck was with him as they had just installed a brand new seat and restraint system, so he rode it out. He has had a lot of experience on broncs and bulls but I'll bet he has never had a ride like that one. The ROPS held up but he is real lucky he didn't have a limb or stump come into his house. I'll try to get photos of the aftermath. They don't call this the Sierra Nevada for nothing. Casey
Wow, to say he's lucky is an understatement!....That's got to be near the record for number of rolls and still surviving.
super steep slopes im from south louisiana were the clay is very sticky,ive worked some slopes that were 1 to 1 ,1.5 to 1 measured with a slope meter.ive posted pictures before and will try to fine them again.
Nothing like a fire trail That shouldn't be much for an old Cat skinner like you OCR! That 750C looks good too on that hill side, and maybe Owl creek in the bottom?:drinkup
Hmmm... I wounder... lol OCR... P.S. Thank you for the compliments (won't use your real name) I AM IRONMAN... lol
I finish 2:1 slopes with a D8 on a regular basis. it can be tricky on rock but you get used to it. one trick is to keep a berm on the down side and that will keep you safe.
Slopes hello
when i attended HEO school the teacher drove a D4 along a slope i didnt think posible not sure of the actual degeree but it was for sure a head turnerer
Slopes: Good eye 25c... and you're right... :thumbsup I need a turn and bank indicator on my camera... lol I suppose having the screen on the grid mode might help too... How's this... better? OCR P.S. I'm a ways off in the last picture too, 25c.
Slopes: and a bit off topic, but for my friend 25c. That's interesting that you would point that out 25c... :thumbsup :thumbsup Here's another one you've probably heard... One more... and it's not the place to be... :cool2 Many more 25c, but the last two are some of my favorites... and true... OCR...
That last picture looks better.Those are some good aircraft sayings.My favorite is "remember to fly the plane ". Sorry about the hi-jack Beel.OCR and myself cant help talking about aircraft from time to time.We will get back to the steep slope topic.
I don't want to get us into a one-upmanship competition, I spent all day with a D6H on a 40-degree sideslope, occasionally steepening to 45 degree (1 in 1) and to be honest, the first half-hour was underwear-changing territory. The low point was my dinner-bag falling out of the cab door, leaving a trail of sandwiches all the way to the bottom. This was on dry clay, I wouldn't have attempted it on topsoil or anything loose. As it was a couple of times the top track spun. In a later life, I was trialling a dozer with a prototype engine for a well-known manufacturer and was instructed to see if I could make the engine lose oil pressure while pushing. This involved max side-slopes which again was 1 in 1 due to soil conditions, 1 in 1 uphill, (I could have moved more with a wheel barrow) and just over 50 degrees downhill, which resulted in a footprint on the roof-lining. My rule of thumb is your backside always thinks the machine is 10 degrees steeper than it really is.
That sure is the truth. The true measure is read with a level and rule, or with a slope meter. I do know you can get the steepest going down a hill. I have been steep enough that if you pull up on the blade, it stays and the tracks lift up instead. When you get there, it is a little too steep then, and you better be carefull not to go over forward, or to stay there long enough to loose oil pressure.
Did ya find some gravel OCR? Just wondering what you do with the gravel and what kind you find in those hillsides? It's good to see that you reclaim those hillsides when you'r done. I would imagine that if you find quite a bit of good rock, you would push it down to the bottom with that nice 750C! Easy work for a tractor like that! Gravel is always hard to come by in most places. The closer you find it to where you need it, the better! In our area in SD the County has to haul it with belly dumps for up to 60 miles one way! Sometimes keeping 10 to 15 trucks running, but only getting 3 or 4 trips each a day. But what else can you do when your roads are made of clay? We have quite a bit of limestone in our area around the Black Hills, and I work with several contractors in Eastern Wyo that have to use Scoria....kind of soft though. The way your going about it, I'm sure your going to hit the Mother Lode of gravel in one of those hillsides! Do you screen it when you find it, or just load it? I know it can be very valuable! Always fun to see how everybody does things...Looks like real nice country! :drinkup Best Regards Scott C.
Not a bit... although the other end of that hill, is an old county gravel pit... ... I think there's some pictures in the Dozer forum; Slot Dozing, of the other end. Probably just make a small road... and bench load with our excavator, Scott. Just load, if it's any good. Makes a pretty road though... Take care, Paul (OCR)
first pic of the 850 is me crowding some fill into a catch bench, second one shows where i took a hoe off to move brushline down
Nice picture
nice pics gasfield...this doesn't beat your pictures but heres another gas line job, that slope is a lot steeper then it looks, i wouldn't want to drive my truck up it, put it that way its a D7 and a 330 up there
nice, nice, around here pipelining involves alot of yo-yo'ing, just better hope you have a dozer man that knows what the ***k he's doing or it could be long day...i went off that one hill in the pic with the arrow on my own not tied to nothing...just kept flippin dirt infront of me feelin for rocks and made my way down, when i got done doing what i had to do i just made me a road on off the hill, couldnt come back up the way i went down
Going past to Steep! Here's the result of an Operator getting in trouble climbing a steep and slick hillside. While climbing up the slope, he started sliding sideways until the track went in a trench and flipped. Luckily the cab went in the trench full of snow saving the cab from breaking all the glass and injuring the operator. He was not hurt. Lots of fun helping get the machine out while it was 5 below zero in Jan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb8G3BkfRCY
JDOFMEMI I have done the same thing myself and I found it a strange sensation when the rear end lifted off the ground instead of the blade. I was pushed up the slope by a 9G because the D8 I was on could not make it up there in reverse. From what I have read and heard, I suppose that kind of thing would seldom be allowed nowadays?
as long as the safety man dont see you...lol, i know its a scary feeling and probably not the smartest thing, but i think most dozers will climb better forward than in reverse
Not all that steep, but heres a couple pics from work today. :drinkup
So what is the best dozer for steep slopes? Are they all roughly the same. I'm looking at a d5n xl or lgp for recutting some old fire roads. Are these the best for small trails on steep hillsides?
I would look around for a Deere 700H or 700J Long Track, depending on your budget. Ideal would be a LGP frame with 24" grousers, nice wide stance and easy to clean between the tracks and frame, plus a little extra HP. A ripper would be nice to. Those Deere dozers have power to both tracks with full power turns, very low center of gravity. Hydro Transmission with infinite speed. IMHO
yeah i think any john deere dozer is far better for steep slopes than any cat dozer...like he said low ceter of gravity and wide stance
Gasfield, that's the kind of slopes I'M used to. We're the guys who cut all the vegetation off and shove it down BEFORE the Big Iron comes in. So steep you can't crawl /climb up on hands and knees. Yo-yo a MUST. I don't like pushing off highwalls much. Over fifty feet looks WAY too high! KY Jim
yeah i have watched guys do that, they take 650's off stuff so steep a squirrel has to turn around and back up it
Ridin' the Rough Stock Oorrrr More Than 8 Seconds of Hell!!! I finally got all the info together. This is a testament as to how steep the will not operate. My neighbor is quite fearless as he rode the rough stock (bulls) in his younger years. This was a ride that he was lucky to survive. He has spent the last couple of years clearing his ranch of the heavy brush and trees that infests our our neck of the woods. An 85% to 90% (1st pic)reduction in cover will open up the land for cow feed and will increase the water that occurs naturally in our streams. My place will probably get a 50% reduction in the brush and tree population. Anyway in late April, things were starting to dry out and he headed for a north hillside to start in a new area. On this day he was on the D6C 10K, an early one, without turbo, but an angle blade and rippers. From what I understand, he was backing up a steep hill to prep for another pass when the right track slipped out from under him either a rock or mud. The tractor turned 45 degrees to the left and started to roll over on the right idler. Those that were there and witnessed the aftermath said that he rolled at least 10 revolutions, maybe more and traveled in excess of 200 yards. In pic 2 I have traced the line that it rolled. Pic 3 shows the trail that the D6 rolled down looking up. Notice the dead log lying on the ground. That will give you an idea of the degree of slope that this took place on. Pic 4 and 5 show the D6 at its final resting place. The aftermath? He was unhurt though sore as he was in his seat belt. It is a wonder that a limb or rock didn't join him in the house and beat him to death. Though badly damaged/destroyed, the canopy held. Track frames, tracks are OK. One top roller was broken off. It took about 8 hours to pioneer a road in and build a pad to roll the 6 on to. After letting it sit for a couple of days to let the oil drain back they started it and drove it out. Had he rolled twice more, he would have gone of a 50 ft cliff. 2 Days later he was back on his D6H working the seep stuff. All this took place on the property adjacent to my house and about 1/4 mile away. Casey
When Mother nature fights back. Does he cross his cattle with mountain goats or something? Perhaps they are trained mountaineers? Cow tipping anyone? Seriously though, why didn't he drop his rippers when he started to feel it slide? If I was mad enough to back up such a slope I would have the rippers half a foot off the ground and my hand resting on the ripper control.
Some people keep cool under pressure and some panic. Often you dont know which you'll be until an emergency happens.