Opinions on the Nortrac Dozer

ALHILLDIRT · May 28, 2007

Have been looking at the Nortrac Dozer

FREE SHIPPING — NorTrac Bulldozer — 30 HP | Bulldozers | Northern Tool + Equipment

30hp with 6 way blade, and 3 point hitch.

My concerns are:
How reliable are they, and what about service issues
Is it really big enough for light maintenance or is this just a big toy. With tracks only 10-1/4" wide, I'm concerned about it's ability to really do any work.

I have about 35 acres of woods that has a lot of underbrush that needs to be cleaned out. Nothing really big, maybe 3" maximum.

Anyone have any experience with these dozers.

familyman · May 28, 2007

Find a used small Deere or Cat. Do the work, then resell.

BTI · May 28, 2007

What familyman said.

Local place was doing a job for the forestry dept thought they'd get off easy by buying the Nortrac, many $$'s in repair later they bought a used Cat and finished the job.

BTI

patrick_g · May 28, 2007

familyman said:
Find a used small Deere or Cat. Do the work, then resell.

This works great lots of times but you have to realize you are playing musical chairs. Everyone wants to buy a dozer fairly cheap, use it for a few specific projects and resell for about what they paid and it often works nicely. However, if something expensive just happens to go out while you are the lucky owner (the music stops) it could cost as much or more to fix it than you paid or can sell it for after it is fixed. Do you feel lucky, dude, well do ya?!

I had passing thoughts about getting a dozer, a used one or one of the little new ones like the Struct Crawler. I don't NEED a dozer a lot and wasn't sure that when I did the the little dozer was the answer. I have since seen a Crawler and it isn't a bad little machine. Sure it is more limited but for its size it sure seemed more capable than my preconceived notions.

Now as regards clearing brush up to 3 inches... I have a Cimmaron brand 6 ft brush hog rated for up to 80 HP which I use on my 40 HP Kubota L4610HSTC. The cutter has a clutch rather than shear pins or bolts so I have not broken anything in 6 years of use. I have used it on lots of trees and brush larger than 3 inches in diameter. After it gets through with a tree the stump looks like a handful of long toothpicks coming out of the ground and is not a tire hazard.

I often have taken down brush and trees up to 4-5 inches in diameter (some larger.) I don''t drive over the bigger stuff but instead back up to it. I have TNT so I raise the mower way up and back into the tree and slowly lower the mower down on the tree chewing it up and spitting it out. Sometimes I kill the engine and have to disengage the PTO and restart. I then raise the mower some before engaging the PTO, rev up to PTO speed (540 out the PTO) and slowly lower the mower again. Sometimes it shakes the tractor like a dog with a rat in its mouth but in 6 years it has not caused a problem.

Unless you just want a dozer you have cheaper options. A larger more powerful tractor and a big brush hog would be way cheaper and less risky used (not as expensive by far as repairing a dozer that goes down.

The above assume you don't have enough tractor right now which you might. My take on the work is that I wouldn't want to go down in tractor size below about 30HP and 50 or more HP would be way better. By sizing the brush hog well above the tractors HP you don't break things much. Also my Cimmaron brush hog is pretty HD.

A quick guide to judging brush hogs at a glance is the thickness of the metal in general and the reinforcement on the deck. IF the reinforcement is boxed steel (sq tubing or equiv) it is HD. If it has bar stock or angle don't go there. Yo want something rated to take considerable HP more than you intend to use so you have a decent margin for error.

Pat

N80 · May 28, 2007

I cleared 3 acres of 2"-8" pine trees using nothing but my little L4400. It was hard work and it was hard on the tractor but it was doable. If I'd had teeth on my FEL bucket it would have been even easier. With the bigger trees (6-8") the ground needed to be fairly wet. I'd put it in 2nd gear low and raise the bucket to about 4 feet and push the tree over. If the ground was moist enough the root would pop up in a hump. I'd back up and hook the bucket under the hump and go. The whole thing would come out of the ground. I must have done this hundreds of times. This way, no stumps are left. I can now plow this area.

But, I'm guessing if I had to clear 35 acres that way it would take a year and probably kill at least one tractor the size of mine.

But, I agree with Patrick. If your stuff is 3" and less, get a nice beefy utitlity tractor with 4wd and an FEL with teeth on the bucket. Put a good HD rotary cutter on it and go to town. Brown makes HD cutters specificaly made for cutting trees. Something like a Kubota 7040 with a Brown cutter will provide you with much more utility than a used dozer and if you wanted to sell the 7040 you'd get most of your money back easy.

But, the truth of the matter is that you might do best just hiring it out.

BTDT · May 28, 2007

This thread might get more response if it was in the construction equipment forum, But I guess being an off brand unit it might not qualify.

I sure wish I knew someone who actually owned one. I, too, have looked, searched, wished I had one. If they would hold up, looks like a no brainer. You could use for mowing slopes, pushing brush, digging, etc. I just can't pull the trigger to get one. Not with out a lot more info. I thought it interesting that it had teeth on the idler sprocket on the front, most are just smooth with a raised area in the center. I looked at one (has Mitsubishi emblem on side) at dealer in Dallas, but didn't ask price, and from what I've been told, he's not a very reputable guy. Also, doesn't look like a lot of bolts holding track pads/grousers on (on the Nortrac unit). On the one in my pic, it had tag on side that give part # for filters from Komatsu, don't know what other parts would interchange.

Egon · May 28, 2007

I'd go for a larger used tractor approaching 75/100 HP with a loader and go to work. It'll bury the 30HP dozer.

You can do the clearing and then cultivate it properly with larger implements.

Dozers are slow and high maintenance items but they do have their place.

crbr · May 28, 2007

BTDT said:
This thread might get more response if it was in the construction equipment forum, But I guess being an off brand unit it might not qualify.

I sure wish I knew someone who actually owned one. I, too, have looked, searched, wished I had one. If they would hold up, looks like a no brainer. You could use for mowing slopes, pushing brush, digging, etc. I just can't pull the trigger to get one. Not with out a lot more info. I thought it interesting that it had teeth on the idler sprocket on the front, most are just smooth with a raised area in the center. I looked at one (has Mitsubishi emblem on side) at dealer in Dallas, but didn't ask price, and from what I've been told, he's not a very reputable guy. Also, doesn't look like a lot of bolts holding track pads/grousers on (on the Nortrac unit). On the one in my pic, it had tag on side that give part # for filters from Komatsu, don't know what other parts would interchange.

Thanks for the pics.

ALHILLDIRT · May 28, 2007

patrick_g said:
This works great lots of times but you have to realize you are playing musical chairs. Everyone wants to buy a dozer fairly cheap, use it for a few specific projects and resell for about what they paid and it often works nicely. However, if something expensive just happens to go out while you are the lucky owner (the music stops) it could cost as much or more to fix it than you paid or can sell it for after it is fixed. Do you feel lucky, dude, well do ya?!

I had passing thoughts about getting a dozer, a used one or one of the little new ones like the Struct Crawler. I don't NEED a dozer a lot and wasn't sure that when I did the the little dozer was the answer. I have since seen a Crawler and it isn't a bad little machine. Sure it is more limited but for its size it sure seemed more capable than my preconceived notions.

Now as regards clearing brush up to 3 inches... I have a Cimmaron brand 6 ft brush hog rated for up to 80 HP which I use on my 40 HP Kubota L4610HSTC. The cutter has a clutch rather than shear pins or bolts so I have not broken anything in 6 years of use. I have used it on lots of trees and brush larger than 3 inches in diameter. After it gets through with a tree the stump looks like a handful of long toothpicks coming out of the ground and is not a tire hazard.

I often have taken down brush and trees up to 4-5 inches in diameter (some larger.) I don''t drive over the bigger stuff but instead back up to it. I have TNT so I raise the mower way up and back into the tree and slowly lower the mower down on the tree chewing it up and spitting it out. Sometimes I kill the engine and have to disengage the PTO and restart. I then raise the mower some before engaging the PTO, rev up to PTO speed (540 out the PTO) and slowly lower the mower again. Sometimes it shakes the tractor like a dog with a rat in its mouth but in 6 years it has not caused a problem.

Unless you just want a dozer you have cheaper options. A larger more powerful tractor and a big brush hog would be way cheaper and less risky used (not as expensive by far as repairing a dozer that goes down.

The above assume you don't have enough tractor right now which you might. My take on the work is that I wouldn't want to go down in tractor size below about 30HP and 50 or more HP would be way better. By sizing the brush hog well above the tractors HP you don't break things much. Also my Cimmaron brush hog is pretty HD.

A quick guide to judging brush hogs at a glance is the thickness of the metal in general and the reinforcement on the deck. IF the reinforcement is boxed steel (sq tubing or equiv) it is HD. If it has bar stock or angle don't go there. Yo want something rated to take considerable HP more than you intend to use so you have a decent margin for error.

Pat

I probably should have put more information in my first post. I have a Yanmar 2010 tractor with a 5' bush hog. Tough little tractor that will chew up anything you can drive over. My problem is that most of the land in question has some pretty steep slopes. We cut the pine out about 3 years ago and left the hardwood. I rented a New Holland dozer to cut in my fire lanes and it really handled the slopes well, but it was really to big to weave in and around the hardwoods. I also rented a smaller finish dozer that was in the 40hp range which worked great at the time, but the company I was renting from got out of the business. It's more economical to rent the dozers when you need them and let someone else worry about the upkeep, however, it's also a lot more handy to have your own machine that you can use at your convience.

hosejockey2002 · May 28, 2007

I've seen a few Komatsu or Mitsubishi dozers in the 10K lb. range for about what the Nortrac sells for. I can't speak on the reliability of the Nortrac, but I would think it would be OK for use on your own farm as opposed to commercial use. An advantage to the Nortrac is it's equipped with a 3ph and PTO so you could put your brush hog on it and go to town on those steep slopes.