Anyone here have bulldozer experience?

[edgarrian]

Ok so he should see the grade change or at least know what's coming. Im basically giving him the advice of how to move dirt from point A to B without jacking up his back. I have seen noobies on a dozer and while its funny it sure isn't how you should tell a guy how to run one without mentioning manipulating the blade as im suggesting. Clearly you just don't jerk the blade around thats certainly not what I said but clearly how you took it. Its why I said watch a video of a guy running a dozer. His right hand is moving all the time as does mine. Lets not make this harder than it really is

Sorry, but the smoothest contours that you make will be done by not manipulating the blade. The the rapid use of the blade controls by an operator is the result of the operator feeling a grade change and compensating, not just blindly jerking them up and down.

Slow speed is excellent advice. Even if you have to throttle down a bit just to learn how to adjust the blade to maintain a flat surface.

This may be intuitive or may not be. Before getting on the machine, have a plan of where you want to harvest the soil and where to deposit it, how you want to transition that to existing surfaces and how you want the new surfaces to look.

 

[ultrarunner]

Anyone that runs any equipment I have owned or been in charge of would only run "like he stole it" one time,
he would be off it and walking.
If it's your own equipment and not on my property hopefully your own go for it, tear it up all you want.

Sadly I see this often with rental equipment

 

[ovrszd]

your right hand running the blade most be moving at all times. Watch a youtube video of guy operating a dozer and you will see his hand always moving making minor corrections. The most important corrections will be height of the blade. Forward makes the blade go down and backwards it comes up. As soon as you you make contact with the ground you need to start going back and fourth on that handle. Quickly. Its not hard to catch on. As was already mentioned you may want find a guy to do it for you. IF you cant there is no reason you cant try. As was noted don't be afraid to take a break for 5 minutes if you get frustrated.

I should also note that track speed for a beginner should be slow. have the RPMS on machine all the way up. Put the machine in forward motion, put the blade slightly on the ground then this will be when you work that lever. Basically as soon as you feel the lever catch hydraulic pressure you just go in the opposite direction. Forwards and backwards quickly. You can worry about angle once you get this covered.

This is what you said. I'll let you pick and choose what you want to defend.

 

[Billrog]

Richard and some others have given sound advice. If I had to move some sandy dirt around ( no ripper required) I'd be using a big wheel loader if it were more than a few acres. Then drag a good size float around which I'd do even if done with a cat. Track machines are easier to grade with but slow and you still have to know what your doing .

 

[Big Barn]

I had to go back and read the OP’s original post as I had totally forgotten his exact field conditions.

After rereading, personally I would use a big land leveller with laser.

I think someone else mentioned this earlier also.

 

[Citydude]

I have 20 years experience of operating and training people on D9H and D10N dozers. The only thing I can add is wear your seatbelt and good luck.

 

[ovrszd]

I have 20 years experience of operating and training people on D9H and D10N dozers. The only thing I can add is wear your seatbelt and good luck.

You might have an appreciation for this. Crappy pictures, but hopefully you can get the idea. Took these pics at Tikrit Iraq in 2006. Engineers were having troubles with Snipers. You better have a good "natural feel" for blade position cause the view of it sucks.

 

[Big Barn]

You might have an appreciation for this. Crappy pictures, but hopefully you can get the idea. Took these pics at Tikrit Iraq in 2006. Engineers were having troubles with Snipers. You better have a good "natural feel" for blade position cause the view of it sucks.



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But then don’t you ALWAYS use the Braille method for grading, Richard??

I can’t tell on my phone. In the first pic is that something on the gooseneck or something in the background?

 

[Citydude]

You might have an appreciation for this. Crappy pictures, but hopefully you can get the idea. Took these pics at Tikrit Iraq in 2006. Engineers were having troubles with Snipers. You better have a good "natural feel" for blade position cause the view of it sucks.



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Thanks for posting Richard. Brings a whole new meaning into grading by feel. God bless our troops.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Good thing I’ve ran a dozer before reading this thread or I’d have been scared off.

Really, it’s not that hard. Ours only had up and down, manual angle, no tilt. I loved running it as a kid.