One nice thing is the width and maneuverability, you can sneak through some pretty tight spots. It's great in the winter when there is enough snow to cover the rocks and fill in the low spots, I think it would have trouble in 3-4 feet of snow, but a small skidder probably has to work pretty hard in those conditions too. I've got a 450c JD with a winch and arch on it and it will move a good hitch of wood, but as has been mentioned, it's not very pleasant to drive over rocks. If youre gonna do a lot of hardwood stumping go with outside arms and a semi U blade with sharp corners for severing fiber and roots. Remember a 6 way blade, while indeed awesome, is not for brute force. Especially in slippery conditions when youve got to turn up a hill while heavy. I recommend case machines because they have power to both tracks in a turn. a root rake is very helpful for land clearing and drainage. If youll take any stumping jobs consider the biggest dozer you can transport. Skidder could just walk over, and definitely pull wood out faster. It torques the rails and pads pretty hard. Where they do suffer is in big rocks and high stumps.
Ive done my ponds, culverts, drainage trenching, road, slab sites and logging with one machine. No one ever said hey how much to build me a pond or stump this pasture to the guy with just a skidder. If logging is slow and you must earn, a dozer can do other jobs.
I would absolutely consider a dozer for a small timer without a bunch of money in the bank. I also use it to forward my limbs out for firewood, thats been handy. It is slow however i can cross a swamp and sink less than a person, nevermind a skidder. I hook chains to the blade and back out, itll do a pair of 30ft long 18" dbh oaks at a time, ive done 55ft whole tree with some struggle. I get that guys like little dozers and that's fine, but the only thing that would make me reconsider would be a 963 cat, and then it's so expensive to operate I'd probably have it parked in the shed more than not afraid I may cost myself 10k.Im logging my property with a wide-pad komatsu d31p-18 and no winch. I can do 20 times the work if you consider all the extra things you will do on the farm with the quick attach impliments available for purchase or rent. I wouldnt even consider a dozer over a ctl. I did the right thing and sold it to the first guy for my asking price no less. So thinking I could have sold it for 14k easy. I had 25 messages in about 4hrs on marketplace. It was the nicest one you've ever been in for a 2001 model. I wound up selling my bobcat with tracks and 2 buckets for 13k with 1200hrs. I feel i got a great deal on my ctl however I took a huge risk on auctiontime. I couldnt get by on my farm without either one. I went from a 763 bobcat wheel SS (50hp) which I had for years to this beast. Will often times remove the downhill track!Īlso, with the skid loader coupler on the front, most attachments can be rented rather than purchased.Īs you can see I bought a nice used ctl last year. Do not travel forward down a steep slope and then turn. When the CTL’s first came out undercarriage life was poor until operators learned such things as proper turning. If you go with a CTL, it would be good to get some operator training. But you pay to play, the upfront outlay on that CTL is hefty. You will also have a machine with near infinite other usages. But that UC is also far more expensive to replace and repair than rubber tracks.Īs above, you can go more places and cause less surface damage with the CTL.
So in land clearing where trees, rocks, stumps are in play the dozer may be preferable. The steel undercarriage of a dozer is going to hold up to more abuse than the rubber tracks on a CTL (compact track loader].
But the speed and nimbleness of the 299 with the added hp, will move more material in a given time. Now the D3K is low 20k lbs vs the 299 11k, and in shear pushing power the D3 will easily win. Compare the specs of a new Cat 299D vs a new Cat D3K dozer. The answer is yes, especially when considering the size of dozer you are talking.
0 kommentar(er)
