Grading Help with a bulldozer

[EddieWalker]

Thanks guys. I just thought i could use the excavator to help with putting the trees down to make my road on. How do i put a pic on my profile.

Seeing the pics, I have a different oppinion on this. I still feel the dozer is the wrong maching for your job, but now feel that an excavator with a blade on the front of it would be perfect. Probably someting in the 5 to 7 metric tonne range.

I'm undecided about the trees, but think it would be best to get rid of them. Take them out and haul them out of the way. My reasoning is that while I agree that they can be useful for building a floating platform for a road, I don't see the need for them in your pics, and I feel that they will get in the way of creating a crown on the road that you want to compact over time.

It looks like you are able to get through the road currently, but that it's a low area that holds water. This tells me that you have a solid enough base and you really just need to get above the water.

With the excavator, you can take out the trees out as far as you can reach from the road. Then after cleaning them up, you can come back and dig a ditch on either side of the road and use that dirt to build up the road. The blade on the front of the excavator will spread it out to creat a road with a crown.

The higher you build it, the dryer it will be. The more you drive over it, the more compacted it will become. The more compact it is, the more it will shed water and stay dry.

Depending on what the water does, you may also be creating a dam with the road and getting rid of the water from one side to another is going to have to be done with a culvert or a bridge. Culverts are always going to be cheaper and easier, but they will never allow as much water to flow as a bridge can. How big of a culvert you need is going to depend on what you are dealing with. Bigger is better, but also more money.

Go for it, from what I see in your pics, it's not nearly as bad as it sounded in your description.

Eddie

 

[lilranch2001]

I dunno, its hard to tell from just two pictures, is what he has in his pics a true representation of the full length of it or is it just a small area he was able to take some quick pics of?

 

[radioman]

Seeing the pics, I have a different oppinion on this. I still feel the dozer is the wrong maching for your job, but now feel that an excavator with a blade on the front of it would be perfect. Probably someting in the 5 to 7 metric tonne range.

I'm undecided about the trees, but think it would be best to get rid of them. Take them out and haul them out of the way. My reasoning is that while I agree that they can be useful for building a floating platform for a road, I don't see the need for them in your pics, and I feel that they will get in the way of creating a crown on the road that you want to compact over time.

It looks like you are able to get through the road currently, but that it's a low area that holds water. This tells me that you have a solid enough base and you really just need to get above the water.

With the excavator, you can take out the trees out as far as you can reach from the road. Then after cleaning them up, you can come back and dig a ditch on either side of the road and use that dirt to build up the road. The blade on the front of the excavator will spread it out to creat a road with a crown.

The higher you build it, the dryer it will be. The more you drive over it, the more compacted it will become. The more compact it is, the more it will shed water and stay dry.

Depending on what the water does, you may also be creating a dam with the road and getting rid of the water from one side to another is going to have to be done with a culvert or a bridge. Culverts are always going to be cheaper and easier, but they will never allow as much water to flow as a bridge can. How big of a culvert you need is going to depend on what you are dealing with. Bigger is better, but also more money.

Go for it, from what I see in your pics, it's not nearly as bad as it sounded in your description.

Eddie

I agree with eddie with many things in this post- but on the other hand, speaking from experience from upstate new york soils---- tsk tsk... it will be very hard to get it high enough to dry out. soils here in NYS tends to hold moisture , esp with trees around and the tree roots may actually be the only thing holding you up from sinking. Only way to tell is to a walk around and plan on the road based how your land is setup.

 

[crazyal]

Just an FYI. Tracks and mud don't like eaach other. Be prepaired to wear out your undercarraige at pretty fast rate.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm basing my opinion on what he as said and the pictures that I've seen. Anything else would put me in the realm of fantasy. If it's worse in areas, or there are things he's not saying, then he should have said so. If he doesn't say so, then I'm not going to think up things that I don't have any reason to believe are there.

The pics show a wet area. It's not what I consider a swamp, and it's not even all that bad looking. I think it's an easy job, and one that he should be able to handle on his own if he takes his time, goes slowly, pays attention to his tracks and doesn't let himself get into a bottomless hole. The danger is there, like in any other project where heavy equipment and power tools are used, but in this case, it seems minimal.

Eddie

 

[MHarryE]

My neighbor bought 80 acres adjoining my place. He had 1/4 mile of swamp to cross before getting to highland on which he wanted to build his house. He is a carpenter who had no experience with heavy machinery, so he went to the Internet and ended up bying a Cat D3G LGP. If I recall, he did most of his clearing in the winter and had no problem knocking down all of the trees and brush for his roadway and also his building site. Once he finished that he sold the Cat and got himself a smaller, less expensive, John Deere dozer for clean up and odd jobs. He had first planned on dumping the D3 for a skid steer but after trying one discovered the limitations vs a dozer getting into real grunt work.

 

[Pete Judd]

Maybe you need a GILLIGAHIKE (not a misspelling). Very old school.

 

[JohninCT]

Maybe you need a GILLIGAHIKE (not a misspelling). Very old school.

OK I'll bite. What is it? The pic didn't seem to help me.

 

[lilranch2001]

OK I'll bite. What is it? The pic didn't seem to help me.

ya I didnt get it either, I just thought I was old and out of touch

 

[Pete Judd]

Opps, uploaded the wrong file, lets try it again.


Just another way of moving things across soft land. Very old school.

 

[mroldstyle]

I just dont know how else to do it. I own the land and want to make it perfect for hunting.

Deer HATE perfect

 

[IndyIan]

Going by the description of the clay soil base, I think a good size tracked excavator could do the job pretty fast. We had a pond dug in similar conditions by 100ish hp one and he moved alot of wet clay fill with no problems, but he's a pro of course.
A rough estimate is it costs $0.80-1.00 per cubic yard of dirt moved, and I'll guess it will take 6-8 cubic yards per yard of road length to make something an ATV can drive on, so a 1/4 mile isn't all that expensive.
Do a few holes by hand along the route just to confirm the clay base is always there and get a few quotes. Someone might have a dead spot in their bookings and be glad to have a week long job.
Sometimes $5k and done with it, is a good option! Our pond was quite a bit more than that but I'd never dream of getting a suitable machine for a year to do it myself.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

The only thing I have to add is to make sure you don't need permits. Where I am, the fine is up $1,000 per day for un-permitted work in wetlands.