. I have wondered for a while why do many people take there blade off of there dozer when using it to pull Scraper Pans. I would think the extra weight on the front would help with traction under the front idler, which would provide more weight for traction from front to rear of tracks. Or am I missing something in this way of thinking ? .
Easier on undercarriage
Having spent a good many years on dozer and scoop mainly TD 15, D6D & TD 25B, carrying a blade does give more weight therefore more drawbar pull it makes it harder to turn, stirs up a lot more dust, more so with a blower fan than a sucker fan, gives a lot less visibility forward and because of the width of a blade you cant cut close to a batter without the corners digging in as well as working around grade stakes was easier. Usually the bowl of the scraper was about the same width as the tracks so you could cut a verticle bank if you had to. We used to allways drop our blades off, once you got used to it you could change from a blade to a scraper or vice/versa in about 20 mins. Cheers RDG.
All of the above reasons by RDG plus it seems a waste to drag all of that extra weight around when not using it. I run D7's and D8's pulling pans. The blades always come off except on a rare small job where it is only a few hundred yards to move and a very short haul. Can't say that I saw that much difference in loading with the extra weight either.
I would imagine that if a guy had a machine that was too big the blade would have already been off for transport? Pj
Around here I can haul D8 with blade on with my annual permit. I have also seen D9H's moved blade on.
We can haul 10's with the blades on depending on where we are going and what obstacles are along the way. I have never hauled a 9 or smaller without the blade. I have only ran a cat and pan once and it was without the blade, I can see how it would be far more hassle than it's worth.
That would be great if we were all lucky enough to work within 10 miles of the shop. State laws are going to be totally different too. Pj
We can haul them like that across the state, strangely enough california is one of the better ones as far as heavy haul goes.
. Someone did not read the first post in this thread. It has nothing to do with state laws, or hauling a dozer with a blade on. :beatsme It has to do with pulling scrapers pans. .
Correct but someone did mention that the reason may be because the blades were removed for transport and just not put back on, now it is clear that this is not the reason.
In the UK we dont get any problems hauling big Tractors about with all the bits and pieces hanging from the sides, front or back in general, but the reason we like to run our Tractor + Scraper Units without Blades and the Rams hooked up to the Nose Group Sides, is to see where we are going, to run the Tractors faster and smoother, finaly why carry something heavy that you have no reason to, just wearing the running gear out faster due to all the extra weight of the blade and frame work, even on a small job with a Tractor + Scraper the unwanted Ballast ( Blade ) is un-screwed and parked in a handy spot out of harms way. tctractors