Hello all, just sittin around on a slightly glum day thinking about the good old days and got to thinking what operators that arent loggers prefer for the blade on their cat,Yes i am a logger so grade stakes and gps make me laugh but ill say in my line of work a double tilt angle blade is my favorite, not to mention we get to fight fire at times and that angle is a blessing. I have run straight, semi u, and full u the good old 7a still kicks butt pioneering and breaking out stumps or hooking rocks. so what do you think.
Explain what a double tilt angle blade is to me. I guessing simply put its a blade "permanently" set at an angle? I have never ran one myself and done a bit of clearing but I'm no logger. I don't have a favorite but I don't really care for straight blades and like all the material; you move with a U blade.
I think he means the blades that can tilt back and forth like a loader bucket in addition to sideways tilt and vertical movement. Tilting the blade ahead gives more 'bite' into the ground, and tilting it back lets you 'float' the dirt over the ground with less effort.
All depends on the application, we had semi U's for years and they are probably the best all around choice but had a 6 way on a D6 rented this spring, really nice for trimming slopes etc.
fixed angle with dual tilt?? kind of like a pipeline dozer with dual tilt cylinders??
I like a "U" dozer myself, but they have a hard time penetrating in hard ground. That has been fixed by the twin tilt models. Pitch it all the way forward, and the corner bits work almost like rippers and just pull the blade into the ground. For small and medium sized dozers, they are mostly for finishing, and a 6 way with a slope board is my style. Never had the chance to mess with a dual tilt angle, but in your application, I could really see it working out. I seen a dual tilt with hydraulic angle fitted on a D-9L once. That would be a dream to run. I think it was 18" wide when straight, and just under 16 angled. Being able to change angle on the fly would be nice. Most bigger cats here are found with the "SU", and it is an alright compromise. It is not the best at anything, but it is OK at most work.
Yair...interesting thread. I go back aways, started on cable and manual angle/tilt...still never used anything with power angle. Never did like bull-blades. They're better now but those early ones were loose sloppy arrangements...unless it had a propper "C" frame I'd rather not run it thank you. As far as production goes (given equal tractors) a good bloke on an angle blade will push more than than an average Joe on a semi-u every single time. I like the extra width when pushing in a slot...you don't have that loose soil falling and packing in the tracks. Not many blokes I've watched lately would have cut it on my jobs. The art of slot dozing has been lost. As I have said on this board before when you are working slots (production dozing) you need to get down to the full depth of the rip and take it out in one pass...none of this B/S backing up and all. Given reasonable material you should be able to bust out a blade full in under a tractor length. The idea is to be pushing on the firm interface between the loose rip and the floor. Once the blade is loaded idealy the material shouldn't boil.
D11 with a 26 foot reclamation blade
I think this is what he is referring to. The angle of the blade is adjustable, usually to 3 predetermined settings, and it has tilt cylinders on both sides as opposed to having a stiff link on one side, which would be a single tilt.
I like them all! Just depends on what the application is. When I was in the woods building road, I loved the angle blade on the TD-15C. We also had a TD-15E with a SU for the longer pushes. On a big fill with lots of trucks I prefer a U blade, or when pushing any amount of dirt over 50 feet without the abbility to carve a trough. In a shot rock pit I'd take a SU anyday. Get a good slot going and you can really move the muck. They also work great for production feeding a loader. Nothing will beat a 6 way for finishing. Pushing scrapers-bring on a pushin' cushin'. What ever you do, stay away from Komatsu's new Sigma dozer. The stupid thing is 'W' shaped, with the corner bits sticking out further than the center of the blade. About the only thing that dozer blade is good for is a boat anchor!
I would think alot of what you say depends on the soil rather than the operator.. this thread should realy be titled whats your favorite application and what type of dozer do you like to use for it?.. I prefer runing a 30k lb PAT dozer and finishing anyday to running an 11. I was at a gyp quarry the other day and they had two 10s and a 11 removing 60' of overburden off of a 2k' by 300' pit and I think I would have shot myself if I had to do what they do all freaking day long!!
I wish I had pictures of a blade a logger from back home built for his D8H. I know he's been out of business for a few years now, so I have no idea what may have happened to the machine. He had custom built a blade from an angle blade and a semi u blade. In effect, he replaced the blade on the angle dozer with the semi u, and it worked pretty good actually. Of course, it was a bit more in depth than simply swapping blades, but I think you get the idea. What he ended up with, was a blade that would carry more than the angle blade, and could be angled to side cast material. Although, being a semi u, it didn't excel at the casting, but it still did it to a certain degree. He also had a big hydraulic winch and fairlead mounted on his multi shank, 4 barrel ripper.
blades Angle blades definetly have a place, they excell in pioneering, clearing watertables and sweeping roads clear of debris. That extra metre of reach cutting batters, pioneering in steep country is unbeatable; although a digger has them beaten. Prefer a bull blade for carrying dirt and digging stumps howerver. I,m abit lucky have 1 of each blades for my D6D and swap them to suit the job. Merv
This is my favorite blade & machine for forestry work skidder tracking to road biulding
willd8r, Thats a good looking dozer set up just the way i like them, best all round blade and rippers for my type of work. How many hrs has it done, looks nice and clean.:drinkup Leroy
What kind of wax you use on that blade, sure has a nice shine.
Those look like H&L corner bits. Those are awsome, love'em on my Buddies 8H. Oh, I see you,re on the other side of the world but those bits look very simillar to the ones we have over here
The corner tips were hand made,really good in rock and tearing stumps apart,we used essco loader tips I never never liked them,there retaining pin set up with the rubber, the odd one would get lost. We never had any blade issues with them on.I thought a Cat 980 tip would be better with there pin setup. That D8 had about 14,000 hrs then and travelled about 40 km's 22 frontwards,18 backwards which is very much the same as the D11 has done I am operating at the moment Cheers
On a 6 and under i prefer a VPAT On a 7 it depends, if its lgp straight blade, if its not S/U. 8, and 9 S/U Anything bigger needs a U blade! just my opinion
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but can you or someone explain this tilt a little more.
If you are familliar with a grader blade, it is like tipping the blade forward or backward. If you tip the blade forward, you get a more aggressive cutting action, for easier penetration into the material being worked. To get this, you give up some pushing capacity. On the other hand, if you tip it back, you can't cut as hard, but you can carry more dirt in front of the blade, and especially with the dozer, the blade is easier to control, less "jumpy". This is because the angle of the cutting edge lets it slide over the ground easier. On the V-PAT blades, the tilt is controlled by an adjustable link at the top of the blade, instead of a fixed link like the standard PAT blades use. The adjustment is a turnbuckle set up, giving a few degrees of tip forward or back. Most operators never change it, but it is usefull to change when operating conditions change, like hard or soft material, rough cutting or finish grading, etc.
Thank for the response. I guess the reason that I asked is I’m a little confused by the 2 attached images. One is a grader blade showing that tipping the top of the blade back is for making aggressive cuts and tipping the top forward is more for carrying material and spreading. The other image is from Caterpillar showing just the opposite when using a dozer blade. As you probably figured out I am no operator, I just own a small Cat to do some work on my place in the north woods. Anything I can learn from these boards or by talking with experienced people is a very big help. The machine has a V-PAT blade with the turnbuckle adjustment. As of now the blade is tipped as far forward as it will go. I think I’ll adjust it back and give it a try and see if it makes things better for me when trying to grade my road. Thanks Jerry
I guess im one of the few who use top link and really wish they would put a worm gear or hyd. cylinder on the blade. That would be nice to change pitch on the go ::cool2