Farm cat

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frenchie

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Jun 24, 2004
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nw manitoba
I,m looking to buy a bulldozer for the ranch...anybody here
have any opinons on what brand to buy or not to buy Cat , Allis or International. or what size makes a good farm cat. I have been offered the following a TD18A. a D-6, TD-9. I want to stay under 20,000.00 Canuk bucks.I want to clear some serious acres on my lease.


Anyone know of a construction discussion board.
 
Leased Land? I wouldn't buy a special piece of expensive equipment to use on "leased" land. I'd rent one from an equipment rental place.

Since it is leased land, will the owner allow you to do it? What are the legal terms of your lease?
 
Crown lease frenchie? Why not arial spray?
As far as little dozers, some of those small JD (450's I think) look easy to work on and parts seem to be available.
 
ollie'":3efz1t8w said:
Crown lease frenchie? Why not arial spray?
As far as little dozers, some of those small JD (450's I think) look easy to work on and parts seem to be available.
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Ollie and R.A.B it is Crown land . Its a 24 yr term. And they want me to improve the lease .I will likely arial spray some of it later

I need to clear a 9 mile strip 100ft wide for fence and cross fence.

When I ,m done with the lease, I get paid the depreciated value of the improvements.

The reason I was thinking of buying a cat is the amount of work, I have for it around the ranch.There is things here and there I would like to straighten up.
 
If it isn't more than 9 miles X 100ft then I'd use an axe! But you Canadians are a little soft.
If I had that size work I'd get an old D8 dozer , trouble is if it goes down the law of inverse income takes effect. The line of credit at the bank goes down proportionately to the size of the dozer. Money owed goes up. ;-) My house cost less than some repairs on those crawlers.
 
ollie'":kqa5z1f2 said:
If it isn't more than 9 miles X 100ft then I'd use an axe! But you Canadians are a little soft. .
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Help well thank you Ollie please P.m me where to send the plane tickets

ollie'":kqa5z1f2 said:
. My house cost less than some repairs on those crawlers.
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Mine too :lol:
 
I would buy a track hoe, 9 miles is a awful long strip for a D6. With a hoe you can clear it, pile it with less dirt and get your stumps out easier. Put the bucket high in the tree and walk into it and you can uproot one that would make Paul Bunyon proud. When you get done sell it and by the little crawler with a 6 way blade to put a finish on it all.
 
ranchmgr":ilta52k6 said:
I would buy a track hoe, 9 miles is a awful long strip for a D6. With a hoe you can clear it, pile it with less dirt and get your stumps out easier. Put the bucket high in the tree and walk into it and you can uproot one that would make Paul Bunyon proud. When you get done sell it and by the little crawler with a 6 way blade to put a finish on it all.
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What would a decent size one be?
 
Depending on tree size, and what kind of trees, a 30,000 to 40,000 pound machine. Cat 312 is 28000lbs. so a 320 cat, 9020 or 9030 case, 490 to 690 john deere. A 215 cat is older but a good machine that would do it for you. Trees over 20 inch diameter or deep rooted trees stay to the big end, get a bucket with teeth, not a smooth bucket.
 
Frenchie; We hired a custom operater with a D8 to clear fencelines several years ago; mostly heavy poplar with some willow.....cost 1000-1500$ a mile. Operater did an excellent job,clean cut and as smooth as could be except in severe rock! I wouldn't even think of owning a big cat unless you need hundreds of hours of work.....we have an older small loader cat and it costs a lot to keep running!
 
Hard question to answer.

I have a old Allis Chalmers Hd-15 with an 11 ft blade and it does most of what I want. Its rated at 82 Drawbar HP(110belt hp) and weighs 28,000lbs(519ci detroit 2stroke diesel engine with a blower).

The type of tree, how close together they are, how long they been in the ground, and their size has a HUGE impact on the size of machine needed to remove them.

I can't push a big old maple tree out of the ground with my machine.....just don't have enough traction/weight.
Big poplars are a pushover though...they tend to grow in wet ground and have shallow root systems (soft wood easy to break too).

Of the three models you listed in your first post....the D-6 is the only one I would even consider doing that much work with. The td9 and td18 are both smaller than the D-6. The d-6 weighs about 33k lbs and was rated for 75'ish drawbar hp.
 
cowsense":20epmz1p said:
Frenchie; We hired a custom operater with a D8 to clear fencelines several years ago; mostly heavy poplar with some willow.....cost 1000-1500$ a mile. Operater did an excellent job,clean cut and as smooth as could be except in severe rock! I wouldn't even think of owning a big cat unless you need hundreds of hours of work.....we have an older small loader cat and it costs a lot to keep running!
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cowsense...I agree it is costly..I am waiting on a couple estimates as well...but they don,t know when they can get the job done as they are swamped with work..If I don,t get the work finished this winter ..It will have to wait till next winter..I will have lost a yr .
 
Saltydawg":17gsmcjs said:
Of the three models you listed in your first post....the D-6 is the only one I would even consider doing that much work with. The td9 and td18 are both smaller than the D-6. The d-6 weighs about 33k lbs and was rated for 75'ish drawbar hp.
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Thanks Saltydawg

It is mostly poplar , spruce , and pine.
 
Make sure your tracks are in good shape on whatever machine you end up getting.

Its no fun being out in the boonies, twisting a track on a big rock and having it roll off. Been there, Done that :oops: .

I had to use a come-a-long and a couple bottle jacks to put the track back on....3 days and tons of fun lol.

Also make sure your skid plates are in place if you plan on pushing trees over.......them roots love to pop up out of the ground and take out oil/hydraulic lines.

A bulldozer with bad tracks is nuttin but a boat anchor. Check the adjuster mechanism to see how much you have left.
If they are already at the end of their travel you can plan on replacing the tracks...$$$$.
Also check the drive sprockets....if they are badly worn and have really pointy teeth you can plan on replacing those before you finish with a 100ft swath 9 miles long.

Pretty much everything else on a dozer is fairly easy to repair...just make sure its got good sneakers under it.
 
Amen to that, Salty!

Honey uses his Dad's old D8, and about two years ago he was building a dugout and making an irrigation ditch to reroute the run off from the hill into the corrals (whattamess that used to make).

Anyway, long story short, the Cat is pretty long in the tooth, the tracks are worn and loose, and sure as God makes little green apples, when Honey was working on a sidehill the blankety-blank left track came off. Learned more about Cats and tracks that day than I'd ever wanted to.

Two broken come-alongs, a twisted six-foot pry bar, a huge blue cloud looming over the ranch (from all our cussing) were the casualties. That and the fact that it took about four hours to get it back in place...using the old Case IH tractor to help, too.

Take care.
 
Yep......ain't nothing that will ruin your day faster than popping a track........don't matter what you try it's a heavy awkward job !!
 

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