Hey all, thanks for putting together a great site.
Have been lurking for a while and found lots of great information as I'm contemplating shooting myself in the foot once again :) I found myself the owner of 40 acres of mixed hardwoods, pines, hills, valleys, and a nice little creek in South Carolina. My new best friend is a DR All Terrain brush hog (thanks Dad!) that we have been beating back the underbrush with. With the DR and a chainsaw, I've been clearing paths and opening things up a bit as there are scrub pines, sweet gums, and vines galore. But now I've got about 30 brush piles to deal with and its time to cut in some roads and clear out a spot for a shop and cabin. My first call was to have someone come in, put in a road and clear out an area of about 2 acres. I can do the rest after I get settled and I was given some fair prices to get this done, but it also got me thinking that for the same money I can get a dozer (whether it may be working or not is another story, hence, lurking on Heavy Equipment....)
In the mean time, the guy with the dozer kept getting delayed so I started looking harder at equipment. Looking at equipment led to the typical questions, what type, size, model, cost, condition, etc, etc, My first thought was a backhoe like a Case 580 thinking it would be a good General Purpose machine. I could dig stumps, scrape the ground, and move piles of stuff. One thing that really concerns me is that this red clay is like iron when its dry and if its one thing that I have learned is that too small a machine is nothing more than an expensive paper weight. I've got a Ford 8N that can barely plow a hard snow and won't pull a small stump out of sandy ground. It will skid logs if I cut them short enough, but that kinda defeats the purpose :( The two things that this site has reinforced for me, and hopefully all that lurk about is 1: Speed costs money, how fast to you want to go? and 2; Its going to break and its going to cost!
So after another delay, I still think that I want a small dozer and start looking. Again, one thing that reinforced this line of thinking is reading through this forum. "Digging dirt is easy, moving dirt is expensive" "A tractor is not a loader, and a loader is not a dozer, know the difference." Kind of like Dad when I bought a Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt. "That's no 44 magnum so don't treat it like one. If you want a 44, go buy a dang 44!" Knowing nothing about them except for what I've been reading, it seems that the purchase price is the least expense incurred in the life of a dozer owner. Like the foundry industry, heavy equipment operates in a constant state of self destruct and it is the nature of the beast to wear out. So, looking at my situation, I start to think a dozer is what I need the most to grade in a road and a pad for construction. I can cut trees, skid logs, and the small stumps should be putty in a dozer's blade. We might have to work at some big ones but with a blade and a chain, something will eventually give. Hopefully it will be the stump.
So I've actively started my search and am still learning as I go. I actually took my first test ride this weekend on a Komatsu D20, looked at a worn out Ford 655 backhoe, and talked with a lot of nice people.
In the mean time, I've rented a mini excavator for a week to get rid of some stumps and get a feel for what machines will do. Its about a 8K lb machine with a thumb and 6 hours in I bust a main bucket pin and bend the ear on the bucket quick attach. What was Rule #1? Its going to break and its going to cost. They replaced it with another machine and 4 hrs into it, I bust the lower fitting on the thumb hydraulic lines sending fluid all over........ What was Rule #1 again?
As I'm adding up the repair costs for these items I can't help but think, "I'm not paying for the use of the machine, I'm paying for it to go away!" Yet, I still sit here and think I need a dozer......:Banghead Hopefully the Heavy Equipment Disease hasn't fully taken hold and I can still be saved......;)
Uh Oh... just got a text from a guy with a D31 and D38 for sale...... and the BD2G guy dropped his price..... AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRG :Pointhead
Thanks everyone!
H
Have been lurking for a while and found lots of great information as I'm contemplating shooting myself in the foot once again :) I found myself the owner of 40 acres of mixed hardwoods, pines, hills, valleys, and a nice little creek in South Carolina. My new best friend is a DR All Terrain brush hog (thanks Dad!) that we have been beating back the underbrush with. With the DR and a chainsaw, I've been clearing paths and opening things up a bit as there are scrub pines, sweet gums, and vines galore. But now I've got about 30 brush piles to deal with and its time to cut in some roads and clear out a spot for a shop and cabin. My first call was to have someone come in, put in a road and clear out an area of about 2 acres. I can do the rest after I get settled and I was given some fair prices to get this done, but it also got me thinking that for the same money I can get a dozer (whether it may be working or not is another story, hence, lurking on Heavy Equipment....)
In the mean time, the guy with the dozer kept getting delayed so I started looking harder at equipment. Looking at equipment led to the typical questions, what type, size, model, cost, condition, etc, etc, My first thought was a backhoe like a Case 580 thinking it would be a good General Purpose machine. I could dig stumps, scrape the ground, and move piles of stuff. One thing that really concerns me is that this red clay is like iron when its dry and if its one thing that I have learned is that too small a machine is nothing more than an expensive paper weight. I've got a Ford 8N that can barely plow a hard snow and won't pull a small stump out of sandy ground. It will skid logs if I cut them short enough, but that kinda defeats the purpose :( The two things that this site has reinforced for me, and hopefully all that lurk about is 1: Speed costs money, how fast to you want to go? and 2; Its going to break and its going to cost!
So after another delay, I still think that I want a small dozer and start looking. Again, one thing that reinforced this line of thinking is reading through this forum. "Digging dirt is easy, moving dirt is expensive" "A tractor is not a loader, and a loader is not a dozer, know the difference." Kind of like Dad when I bought a Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt. "That's no 44 magnum so don't treat it like one. If you want a 44, go buy a dang 44!" Knowing nothing about them except for what I've been reading, it seems that the purchase price is the least expense incurred in the life of a dozer owner. Like the foundry industry, heavy equipment operates in a constant state of self destruct and it is the nature of the beast to wear out. So, looking at my situation, I start to think a dozer is what I need the most to grade in a road and a pad for construction. I can cut trees, skid logs, and the small stumps should be putty in a dozer's blade. We might have to work at some big ones but with a blade and a chain, something will eventually give. Hopefully it will be the stump.
So I've actively started my search and am still learning as I go. I actually took my first test ride this weekend on a Komatsu D20, looked at a worn out Ford 655 backhoe, and talked with a lot of nice people.
In the mean time, I've rented a mini excavator for a week to get rid of some stumps and get a feel for what machines will do. Its about a 8K lb machine with a thumb and 6 hours in I bust a main bucket pin and bend the ear on the bucket quick attach. What was Rule #1? Its going to break and its going to cost. They replaced it with another machine and 4 hrs into it, I bust the lower fitting on the thumb hydraulic lines sending fluid all over........ What was Rule #1 again?
As I'm adding up the repair costs for these items I can't help but think, "I'm not paying for the use of the machine, I'm paying for it to go away!" Yet, I still sit here and think I need a dozer......:Banghead Hopefully the Heavy Equipment Disease hasn't fully taken hold and I can still be saved......;)
Uh Oh... just got a text from a guy with a D31 and D38 for sale...... and the BD2G guy dropped his price..... AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRG :Pointhead
Thanks everyone!
H
