Cutting a Road with my Dozer

[GuglioLS]

All the maintenance is done on my dozer and I have some practice using all the blade controls and steering levers on flat land. Today I finally started to use the dozer for what I purchased it for - cutting a road up my hill to access the rest of my land.

First I had to let myself through the gate that keeps my dogs in the yard:



Then across & up the arroyo to "the hill"



That hill looks wimpy from the photos, believe me it's steep!

Larry

[GuglioLS]

There are LOTS of rocks & boulders mixed in the lose soil and it's very bumpy. Once I got to the top I bulldozed my way down using gravity & the weight the dozer to be more effective at moving rocks, boulders & dirt.

There were lots of hidden bed rock that would not budge so I just pushed dirt over it to smooth it out.









It will plow down the juniper & pinion trees no problem. The woods is very thick and overgrown and needs to be thinned out. this will reduce fire danger and over time, improve the overall health of the remaining trees.



Larry

[GuglioLS]

The biggest challenge was finding a clear place to get dirt to push over the outcroppings of rocks. So I just pushed over a few trees to get a clear area. I MUST be very careful when backing up so as not to get skewered by a branch. I have seen Dozer's with expanded metal on the rear to protect the operator from backing into branches.



This is the scary part - going down hill, I think because it's so open and you can see WAY down makes it seem even worse. We used to go straight down this hill several hundred feet to the bottom in the ATV & the Jinma with loads of firewood and chips. No more! I am cutting a switch back into the side of the hill.




Larry

[GuglioLS]

This is where I am starting to cross cut diagonally into the side of the hill. The Dozer is surprisingly stable sideways to the hill, Something I would not even think of doing on a tractor, as it would tip over in a second:



I kept uprooting massive rocks, so back & forth I went to get them lifted out and pushed to the side.




Larry

[GuglioLS]

I got a diagonal cross cut into the side of the hill in an area that was pretty darn steep, so now it's not so bad to climb up the hill in any of our other hill climbing vehicles (ATV & Jinma) It was pretty dusty doing all this. I worked up there for about 5 hours. My teeth about rattled out. I think next time I go up there, I'll chew gum to cushion my teeth. There is NO rubber wheels, NO suspension and NO spring seat on a Bulldozer. It can beat you up and jar you around pretty bad, especially working under severe conditions like this.




Time to take a break and have a cold one:




Larry

[baknblack]

That's damn interesting Larry. I sometimes wish I had a 9 over at my place for about a week. I could make some roads and dig a lake, lol.
The plant where I work has a D9 and I've been on it it once. Didn't take me long to realize I had no idea how to operate it. You can dig yourself to China in a heartbeat.