[hihi962]

So now I am looking for a CAT, thinking about a D7H as a first choice option and either going up to an R or down to a G, depending on price and quality.
Are the G's that much harder to drive, then the ones with them joystick controls and diff steering?

Will an angle blade push trees as good as an S blade? Or is it weaker or less efficient? Can a SU blade push trees?

Are there any must haves when looking at a cat for clearing trees?
Thanks!

 

[peacecountry]

So now I am looking for a CAT, thinking about a D7H as a first choice option and either going up to an R or down to a G, depending on price and quality.
Are the G's that much harder to drive, then the ones with them joystick controls and diff steering?

Will an angle blade push trees as good as an S blade? Or is it weaker or less efficient? Can a SU blade push trees?

Are there any must haves when looking at a cat for clearing trees?
Thanks!

I think an angle blade would be much better for cutting trees. With and SU blade you would most likely have a lot of problems keeping it out of the dirt, especially with no frost. How many acres and what size of trees are you doing? If you could find a KG blade that would work a lot better for you, they have a cutting edge that you sharpen and an overhang on the top that pushes the trees away from your dozer. Or a v-cutter, that is what we use and find works the best. That is in anything from small willows to large spruce and poplar. If you use a dozer blade to walk down large trees you may find that when they fall down the roots pull up and bring a lot of dirt up with them that is hard to break free, leaving you with large holes in your field that are a little tricky to get levelled out. Plus your piles wont burn near as nice. Not saying that a dozer doesn't work, but if you could even rent something else it would be much better to cut with. Piling with a dozer blade works ok though. I would recommend a dozer with diff steer, they are a joy to run compared to the older ones. Sorry for the long winded post hope this helps a bit

 

[peterbilt]

We run an H and 2 R's all with diff steer and angle blades, had one R with an SU blade and found we got more damage on the front of the cat because it's closer without the C frame and not as wide so more trees trying to climb into the engine. Had one burn in December so gonna switch the SU blade out for the angle blade. Diff steer is by far nicer to operate, nice to have one hand on the blade one in the shifting and steering. An H is nice, a bit noisier in the cab than an R but otherwise not a lot of difference. And depending on the R you can get an early one with a mechanical engine yet. On the H we added about a foot to the top of the blade of just plate steel, seems to keep it a bit cleaner yet. We've fixed most anything on them ourselves so any questions or want pictures of any extra guards to build or anything just pm me. And as was stated you do a much nicer job in the winter. We just do windrow cleanup in summer to keep the dirt in the field and out of the piles.

 

[hihi962]

Everywhere I read it says the A blade is weaker then S? But it seems it would be more versatile of a cat. I always thought it was worse to leave the roots in the ground? We've never done our own breaking always hired out for it, but we always did the cleanup and discing, and I tell ya, trying to disc over or knock out the roots or stumps left is near impossible with farm equipment.
So as opposed to paying guys to push bush for us, we want to do it ourselves. Mostly large poplars 10-30ft tall and various brush.
Thanks Peterbilt , i'll probably take you up on that when i buy the right unit for me.

 

[Northern Farmer]

I haven't had the joy of running a cat with diff steer as it can be very frustrating with the older style clutch type drive system in those situations where there is an uneven force on the blade and wants to kick the front of the cat off to the side. As soon as one disconnects the power to one track, the other track trying to do all the work in swinging the cat back in line just sits and spins if the pads are worn down as the traction just isn't there and zero help from the other track at that point. Obviously the older style drive system has done lots of work over many years but a diff steer would be very very nice.

By no means am I any expert when it comes to land clearing, we had bought a cat long ago to clear out some strips and small patches of bush in fields and rather then cut the trees off with a brush cutter that we didn't own anyway, we just went with the blade straight and pushed over all the poplar trees and the roots/stumps stayed attached on any trees of size so they pried out of the ground and just walked over the trees as we went, did however many passes was required to mow it all down. Then we put on a beals brush rake and went sideways to our pushed over strip and tried to do the best we could in not scooping up too much dirt while pushing the trees together. Of course there was dirt on the root crowns and that was not great for burning. In the end though once we let it lay and cure, then burn, then try and repile and burn again, we didn't have all the crowns in the ground to deal with and could go over it with either the cat or if we dared with the four wheel drive to pull a Kello breaking disk a few times and that really worked it up nice and helped smooth out the holes that the cat made in prying out the crowns of the trees.

We never had a hoe to work with but with those strips we made a mess of with too much dirt because of the size and type of trees ( a bunch of willow and small poplar ), it would have really helped to have gone along and grabbed the trees with a rake and shaken out a lot of the dirt after it sat for a while and repile the trees into a much cleaner dirt free pile that was a bigger more concentrated pile. The problem we found was that if the windrow was too small, way too many root crowns for the amount of heat the windrow would create while burning and have a tough time burning those big tough buggers. A huge round clean pile that is dried out good would burn very hot and consume a lot more of that tough burning wood and could go around with a hoe throwing in the pieces around the edge of the fire without being into it like a cat ( a great way of burning up a cat ).

Like I said, not what is done on a big scale but if only doing strips and such, with having that hoe and so on it would be feasible and not have to deal with all the mess underground as that would not be fun and a breaking plow, if that was used and go in too deep, can totally ruin the soil forever if its not that deep and roll over a bunch of clay.

 

[RCCFarmsMN]

So, probably a dumb question but what do the letters at the end of caterpillar model numbers mean? I don't know anything about construction equipment and have never understood what the letters mean but there are a ton of different ones like D8G, D8H, D8whatever. anybody able to explain the letters? More than likely they mean different things for different types of equipment?


Sorry to get off topic on this thread but seemed like a good place to ask cause I've always wanted to know what the letters mean.

 

[makar]

I have a d6hlgp with diff steer and a brush rake, am done my project and will sell soon, has a 17ft blade and will outdo any d7g, way more modern machine for the same money. As said above walking down bush is a filthy job, took me two months to burn 60 acres, but yes almost no stumps. No cab.

 

[makar]

d7e, f, g low drive, d8h, k low drive, h started high drive in 6&7, then r and t, high drive d8 started with l then r and t.

 

[makar]

d6 is like 150 hp, 7 like 200, 8 is 300, sort of.

 

[peterbilt]

It's close but not quite that a newer D6 is as heavy as an old D7 also. We just ordered a rake for one of the cats, we got one for a hoe last year and ordered more. All we do is tramp, pile, then wait a year burn the windrow then the hoes pile what's left and bury, no reburn. The longer you leave it to cure the less cleanup there is. If a guy could be patient 3 years you burn and have almost nothing. We aren't patient enough. So we tramp, pile, burn, pile and bury, disc twice with kello breaking disc's then float on a RR canola. Gives one more kick at returning grasses and we straight cut so can cut fairly high because it will be uneven but after one crop it tames down quite a bit. Takes us 2 years to crop. So this winters dozing will get seeded in 2017. Unless we make better time on cleanup but one dozer working 24 hours a day all winter can make work for a season for 3 hoes so we are dozed well ahead of our cleanup.

 

[Homan1066]

Ive owned a D6H , The diff steer will run circles around an older clutch and brake steer machine. Hp and weight wise It was almost an equal machine to a older D7E. The E model was better balanced as was the D6H is very nose heavy. If you are serious about removing trees and moving dirt, then you really should lean towards the SEMI-U blade. 6-way blades are really tough on a CAT but have their limits, Ive seen busted bushings in cylinder eyes on a smaller D5G due to concrete removal. Also something most people never realize until you have significant time on a dozer is that with a 6-way blade when pushing off the corner of the blade along side of a pile of dirt, stone, or concrete chunks. Once the blade passes the pile , then large rocks or dirt falls off the pile behind the blade and right in front of your track, or worse right into the side of the track and rollers! With the semi-u blade you have arms that run back and protect your track to a certain degree. Rocks and concrete make this most noticeable, after a few times of bouncing across it you wish those arms were there. Oh yeah the D6M is lighter and is less HP than the 6H. Same with the N and R models.

 

[Duchek]

Save your money and hire it out. Will be cheaper in the long run. Take the money and buy a track hoe. You will get a lot more use out of one and cheaper to fix.

 

[Wyndview]

Peterbilt, you mention that winter clearing works well, but does leaving the crown roots in the ground not cause grief when trying to work it? We just bought a dozer to clear some bush, tried a few trees, maples and caraganas, but we quit because we were leaving the crowns behind. Does a breaking disc get down deep enough to destroy those roots that it doesn't bother the air drill? I like the idea of not having dirt in the windrows, would a regular disc with notched blades work?

 

[peterbilt]

It will still take the stumps out on the big trees And what sheers off will rot out. Still a good idea to float and harrow on your first crop by the next crop go in with the drill no problem. The Kello's we use aren't heavy heavy, pull 32ft with 400HP, I'd think anything with notched blades would work just might do a few more passes, or add some weight, or if it won't cut and has wings run with wings up first pass. The cats are the efficient part of clearing the hoes take a lot of time. I wouldn't say they are cheaper to run, cheaper on fuel and purchase price is about it, a final drive or hydraulic pump etc is still all expensive. We run new hoes and 10-15 year old cats and neither one leaves us sitting much. You can push and pile an acre in heavy bush in 2 hours with a D7. fuel cost is probably 50 an acre, maintenance long term 10-15 an acre, operator 40 an acre, purchase price varies. If I buy a 1997 D7R right now for 125-175000 I'd expect to run it 5 years minimum and within those costs, and clean 3000 acres with that machine in that time. So total cost would be 155 an acre. Hiring it at 150 an hour would cost 300+. So you can make your own numbers based on how hard you run it, purchase price etc.... A cat and a hoe go hand in hand, choosing one or the other id get the hoe first, if your serious about knocking down bush buy both, no better investment than making farmland. Said and done we can crop it for 350 bucks give or take.
If you don't fix yourself maintenance will be higher. I just did a torque in one for 2000, a reman was 8000 from cat just parts, it pays to look around.

 

[Duchek]

Yeah I guess everybody's numbers are different. Not to many farmers have a 10 year old cat. If you are buying a 7G your repair bill is going to be high. Payments and interest on a $150,000 cat will clean up a lot of bush. If you are only planning on doing a few hundred acres it doesn't pencil out spending big money on a decent cat and a cheap one will break you also. 3000 acres is almost 19 quarters of solid bush. Don't think you will find many guys tackling that in a 5 year time frame.

 

[peterbilt]

A nice D7H just sold at Richie Bros for 75000. Like any equipment the size and price you spend is dictated by the job. There are other guys in the area doing less acres and using older stuff. It's all simple math. 320 acres is 96000 +/-, 33000 is fuel, maintenance, operator. 60000 is paying for someone's machine. Use the 75000 cat, if your land value goes up 1000 an acre that's 320000 in 5 years costing you 150000 for equipment between a cat and a hoe and say 60000 fuel and maintenance on those acres. 22000 per winter profit for spending about 150 hours a year doing it, and having equipment to show for it in the end. 150000 is the easy part some guys spend that on a small front wheel assist. The fuel bill makes you want to cry. On top of that your farming another half section in 5 years so assuming a 50 an acre profit that's another 16000 a year, If your 45 and quit when your 65 odds are you added half a million to your retirement for an initial 5 year investment of 210000+ land value (which you made anyways) Not trying to start an arguement, just throwing out some real numbers instead of telling a guy he will go broke owning a cat. My dad just hired a guy with an open station G to clear some fence lines. So like Duchek said everyone runs their own numbers based on what they are doing. You could spend the same 50000 a year on custom clearing and get the same amount done and not have the equipment or risk in the end i guess is about the only difference. So do you have 100 acres of bush or 1000 all changes your perspective. Lol that's the end of my opinions, not trying to start any arguments. Just my 2 cents. Any other questions you know how to find me.

 

[jmac1299]

In our area there isn't very much bush land left that's worth clearing. Mostly swamp and wet slough type stuff that's left around here. Old yard sites and fence lines on some land yet. In our experience a hoe has a hard time keeping up to a cat with bush cleanup. Takes years to get it how it needs to be. It is nice to farm land that a person has worked on improving though. Sorta a sense of satisfaction I guess.

 

[hihi962]

I currently have a few hundred acres left to clear on our own lands, we've been hiring out the last two decades, we could have easily paid for a nice used cat at least twice over already (including fuel and repairs). Not to mention any other custom work for neighbours or any new lands we pick up (both of which tends to happen). I am not afraid to fix equipment, i already operated on the hoe before using it, as I like everything working as it should and with no leaks or codes.

So even if it sits a year without using it, i don't think i am losing much of its value. Like the hoe, i want to buy something decent and keep it for 20 years. I don't do a ton of work in one year, but it will get used a bit each year over a long period. So buying something 15-20 yrs old will have most of its age depreciation taken care of already.

But buying at richies or similar auctions isn't panning out too well, as we have the low dollar, the americans are scooping up everything that seems to get into reasonable price territory, as its a bargain for them.

 

[phantom970]

No offence but i cant see how you can justify these toys. A lavish digger + trailer and now a dozer. And your just a dryland farm?? I know of many big full on irrigation farms that barely spend much more than $30-40k AUS on a clapped out old digger, and they usually work the ass off them. Guess its just that old chestnut of "AG differences around the globe"

I personally love the D7H series 2. Nice machine. Strong, Nimble, Efficient. Maybe iam a Bit old school but i like the levers. Doesnt make the machine any slower. Diff steers prob just make for lazy drivers. Plenty of time on a 6 swampy with diff steer.
Be careful when learning a diff steer around trees. You could easily end up in the wrong spot or have a limb going somewhere it shouldnt.

 

[farmshop]

it alldepends on what you chose to spend money on. Neighbors question us for buying another 40000 skidsteer but then they buy a 50000 diesel pick up to drive to town for parts. We spend money on things that make us money.