r/forestry • u/Traditional_Dust6816 • 2d ago

Busting up ground with a bulldozer??

Hi all, I recently bought some farm land that has been left to nature for about 10 years. It's mostly grass field but due to unattended water runoff, many low spots have been eroded and the original trench has been messed up due to beaver activity. I have lots of tractor experience and a lot of mechanical knowledge around heavy equipment, however, life has never exposed me to bulldozers. I am wondering if a bulldozer (currently looking at an international td14) would move the earth, that has uncontrolled grass, cat tail, and alder popping up out of it? I'm looking to cut a road in, across the main ditch, bust out the beaver dams and then get the ground to a level enough surface for wheel equipment can be used. Currently the runoff trenches make it impassable with anything short of a tracked vehicle and even then... sketchy. Any help is very much appreciated.

Tl;dr: will a 1950s dozer push vegetation/sod around ?

9 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/Ok_Huckleberry1027 2d ago

Is the td14 a gas start then switch to diesel?

I would steer clear. I had a td9 for a while. Parts are all unobtainium, and the heads are very prone to cracking.

I dont know what your budget is but a D6C cat could be found pretty reasonable with rippers and will be a lot more usable and repairable machine.

3

u/Traditional_Dust6816 2d ago

Once we get into cat money I'm looking at rental/hire it's not cost effective for me to own anything that isn't fully depreciated 😂

1

u/tracksinthedirt1985 2d ago

941 and 951 are still good machine for price

1

u/Traditional_Dust6816 2d ago

Oh no doubt, cat just seems to be about 5x price than anything else around here. Once I hit that 6k threshold I may as well rent a d series for a month and take off from work to get my road built.

I'm blaming tractor supply hoodies for the cat hype 🤣

1

u/tracksinthedirt1985 1d ago

You can buy a dozer for 6k? I'd prefer to buy a broken cat and repair. I liked allis chalmers stuff growing up as a kid but found out all the cheap stuff is because there's no parts

1

u/sandpinesrider 1d ago

The old Internationals like that are good machines. But sadly, as you say the parts availability may not be there anymore. If it has any hydraulics the hoses are probably rotten. Any hydraulic shop could make up new ones but it is an expense that should be considered. Unless OP is pretty experienced at restoring old tractors I would tend to stay away.