I dare a dozer operator to show me a better floor grade

[CM1995]

It's been at least 2 years since the bucket has been on this. View attachment 362771

That is really interesting application for a track loader. Love it!

 

[AMBMike]

They are used around here to build terraces. We get most of the dirt for the terraces from the bottom side so we are pushing up a 2:1 slope. A loader set up like this is more efficient than a regular dozer because a person is able to leave all of the dirt on top whereas a regular dozer its nearly impossible to do so. There is a way to leave most of the dirt on top with a regular dozer some of the time but it involves backing up a little at the base of the terrace to loosen the dirt on the blade then shift back to forward to go up. So this involves hundreds of extra F to R shifts everyday that a loader doesn't have to do. The biggest negative I know of is it can be a little hard on final drives. Not so much on this particular machine (14X) but the older 11K 977's I believe had different final drives. There is a guy on FB that has a 963K set up with a quick tach blade with GPS that I would love to see in action.

How deep is the topsoil there?
I drive through Iowa and see those terraces and it looks like most of them were built without ever getting through the topsoil on the bottom side.

 

[CMACDozer]

Hey Bam
Can you snap a pic with the blade up as high as shell go please.....looks like a great idea for a farm tractor clearing old rotten gum trees here in oz
Cheers
C

 

[skyking1]

I started out on a JD350 crawler loader. We logged firewood with it. Skidded it out, brought the rounds to the landing as we bucked them up. No winch hard way Jones. We wrung a lot out of that 12000 pound machine. It was soft enough we swapped out every other street pad for a grouser. Buck like hell on hard ground, so we kept it off hard ground
I had to learn how to make a flat start to make flat things. Later a 6 way just spoiled me.
Then I raked roots and branches and stobs out of the soil for a golf course with a 977K? I think, with a brush rake.
I rolled it forward and that set the tines to lift it out as I backed up. That was much faster that push and poke and lift going forward, the stuff was so small. The bigger stuff was already gone and I was left scratching like the chickens. Then they ran those skid steer pickers over the last of it.

 

[AMBMike]

I started out on a JD350 crawler loader. We logged firewood with it. Skidded it out, brought the rounds to the landing as we bucked them up. No winch hard way Jones. We wrung a lot out of that 12000 pound machine. It was soft enough we swapped out every other street pad for a grouser. Buck like hell on hard ground, so we kept it off hard ground

Those little JDs were handy machines. I liked them.

 

[bam1968]

The dozer style grousers had to of made a huge difference in the capability's of that loader.
It would be awesome to push sticky topsoil up steep slopes.
It was quite frustrating for me to push a full blade of topsoil to the top a 2/1 slope with a dozer, only to have most of it stick to the blade all the way back down to the bottom.

It can be pretty frustrating. Especially the first few days in the spring until the blade gets scoured.

 

[bam1968]

How deep is the topsoil there?
I drive through Iowa and see those terraces and it looks like most of them were built without ever getting through the topsoil on the bottom side.

It varies from farm to farm. In my local area I would say the topsoil is 6-10 inches deep. Most of the time we push the topsoil sideways in 100ft intervals. Sometimes we push the topsoil down the hill and windrow it if the terrace calls for a bunch of channel work. It's alot more efficient to push it sideways though. Some fields you don't even get down to any lighter dirt.

 

[Truck Shop]

Topsoil around Walla Walla can range from 4' to 50' deep depending on area.
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https://huckleberrypress.com/soil-depth-limits-crop-yield-in-the-palouse/

*
Here at my house it's well over 16' deep, and hardly a rock to be found.

 

[bam1968]

Hey Bam
Can you snap a pic with the blade up as high as shell go please.....looks like a great idea for a farm tractor clearing old rotten gum trees here in oz
Cheers
C

At the moment it is in the shop. We are resealing the lift cylinders. I do most of the clearing with the excavator but it works just fine pushing over large trees. With the way the mounts are on the blade with the loader in the full raise position and the blade sucked all the way back the blade face basically points sraight up in the air. With it in the dump position the blade face is at about a 45 degree angle down. Clear as mud. LOL

 

[aussiechunda]

Niche
Noun
a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.

You did an excellent job grading a smooth floor with your wheel loader.
I can almost guarantee that you either started on a cleared, hard, stable surface or you placed 4-6 feet of that material in one lift to support your machine.

The difference between a wheel and a track loader is the track loader can go into a swampy or wooded or stumpy area, drain it, clear it, push the slop off, and then place the fill and grade a smooth floor. It would be a nasty muddy mess but it can be done, and quite efficiently.

You say your demo is done with an excavator and a skid steer? We do that here also because we don't have track loaders.
A track loader can be moved onto a demo job, bring down buildings up to 2-3 stories, separate the recyclables from the demo, pile or load it on trucks or dumpsters, remove the foundations and paving, fill in the basements, and spread and grade topsoil over the site.

Clearing and stumping a rocky 2 to 1 slope? I don't think I'd want to try that with a wheel loader. In fact I'd prefer an excavator but a track loader works just fine too.

I'm not the only one who has done this. There are guys doing these things and more every day.

I don't think that meets the definition of "niche".

I've spent very little time on a wheel loader but I'll be the first to admit that on a hard stable surface loading from a loose pile they're hard to beat in loading and carrying. Get them onto something soft, or try to do anything that puts the tires at risk and they become very expensive.

My point is, everything you can do with a wheel loader can be done with a track loader, although it may be slower. Everything you can do with a dozer can be done with a track loader although it may be slower. Fifty percent or more of the things done with an excavator can be done with a track loader, some of them slower, many of them faster.

I'm not claiming a track loader is the answer to everything but with a track loader you can do many things that otherwise requires 2 machines or extra time. For a small company faced with an ever changing variety of projects it's like an answer to prayer, if you have a competent operator.

Lack of a competent operator can be the main drawback to these machines. They take much longer than an excavator, dozer, or skid steer to become proficient with. Learning the machine itself is less than half the education. Learning what it can do and how to do it efficiently takes even longer.

Not trying to step on anybody's toes here. I love a good debate so keep it going!

I never said I wouldnt want a track loader probably be a cool bit of kit if they came in larger sizes even where I work mainly for tip head which in reality we only do with loaders because our work wants that 2nd spare loader available for sales or loading the crushing plant if we are down 2 loaders, sadly 120 people work in our head office to oversee about 80 people across 3 sites and they all need brand new Ford rangers to drive around in.

 

[Tones]

In my life time I've seen plenty of top heavy outfits and with all the cleaver dicks running the shows not 1 of them survived the financial disaster they helped create.
Reckon it would be a good time to go looking for other employment.

 

[AMBMike]

I never said I wouldnt want a track loader probably be a cool bit of kit if they came in larger sizes even where I work mainly for tip head which in reality we only do with loaders because our work wants that 2nd spare loader available for sales or loading the crushing plant if we are down 2 loaders, sadly 120 people work in our head office to oversee about 80 people across 3 sites and they all need brand new Ford rangers to drive around in.

A track loader would be an expensive toy in your operation.
You're operating in a niche environment where there's little change. In other words, you're doing basically the same things in the same setting on the same footing day after day. You need a large wheel loader for what you do and this is the niche they were created to fill.

As for the 1.5:1 chief to Indian ratio, I can only wish you luck. You may want to consider @Tones advice posted above...

 

[aussiechunda]

A track loader would be an expensive toy in your operation.
You're operating in a niche environment where there's little change. In other words, you're doing basically the same things in the same setting on the same footing day after day. You need a large wheel loader for what you do and this is the niche they were created to fill.

As for the 1.5:1 chief to Indian ratio, I can only wish you luck. You may want to consider @Tones advice posted above...

I will be honest every time I read these threds my beer meter is full and half of what he said doesnt apply to my work so idk

 

[aussiechunda]

In my life time I've seen plenty of top heavy outfits and with all the cleaver dicks running the shows not 1 of them survived the financial disaster they helped create.
Reckon it would be a good time to go looking for other employment.

Ehh i get paid better than i would at other sites where I am but you are right its getting worse. Heidelberg materials is all bloat and confidence in ai and its ability to kill the jobs i do. I often wonder if I would be better off taking a pay cut and working at a small mine.