Tag Archives: Dozer

How to drive a bulldozer

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Driving heavy equipment is simple for operators who have loads of experience operating it but as far as the newbie are concerned who are in the process of gaining some bit of experience in it may find it difficult to maneuver the machine. Other than that, every other model of heavy equipment has different operating functions which one need to know and have their hands-on it. So you can master to drive heavy equipment only when you do it quite often and in this process you also tend to learn new things which in turn make you more comfortable. Many operators during their initial stage find extremely difficult to operator a bulldozer. They simply could not control the machine well and often end up in an accident. Even the experienced ones at times lose their control from the machine and when such things happen it can turn to be quite fatal. It is therefore very crucial for the operator to follow few steps that will help him have better control over the machine and turn him as a more competent operator.

Try to make yourself comfortable:-

Being comfortable while you are about to drive a bulldozer is quite crucial. You just can’t start operating it the moment you step inside the cab. You got to check few things first and once you are sure that all the important functions are good to go, you can give it a start. Also you need to be calm and steady mentally and physically. It is more of a mental situation and less physical. You may be tensed because of a previous day’s blunder that could have cost the company a lot of money or may be worried of something that is simply not related to your work. You got to explain yourself that if you remain worried then it will simply add up to your problem and will reflect on your work. You have to soothe your mind first and automatically your body will calm down. Once you are sure that you are absolutely comfortable you should get going.

Try to move the bulldozer a bit:-

Before you start your day’s work, you need to warm up your machine a bit. Now all that you need to do is start the engine and keep it on for some time. Once the engine has warmed up you should try moving the machine to and fro and check if it is moving without any issue. You can in this way also check if the brakes of the machine are functioning properly.

Make use of joystick:-

Today’s heavy equipment are far advanced than what it used to be a decade ago. However, you need to learn to use the technology given to you in a proper manner. In order to steer the machine the way you want to, you should make use of the joystick. You should be ultra-careful while handling the joystick as it is smooth and being harsh with it can take the machine to any direction thus losing the control on it.

Bulldozer Maintenance

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Proper maintenance of heavy equipment is considered to be highly important when it comes to increasing its overall lifespan. Big construction companies at times find it difficult to keep a check on the last time the machine was serviced. They depend more on the operators for this work. They feel that since the operator manages the machine for most of the time during the day, he is well known of the machine’s needs and therefore accordingly that can be met as and when it is requested.

This means that the entire onus of maintaining the heavy equipment falls on the shoulder of the poor chap who operates the machine all throughout the day and is also expected to know the date the machine was last serviced. The operator usually tends to forget the date is pretty obvious for so many reasons and carries on working with it till he realizes that it has been too long that the machine has been sent for maintenance. By that time there are chances that the equipment must have developed minor complications and if not addressed then can turn into a severe issue?

A good mechanic is the crux:-

You will find many mechanics who claim to be a champion when it comes to repairs and maintenance of heavy equipment. But that is certainly not the real picture. Many such mechanics take preliminary training in some heavy equipment school and then work as an apprentice for a year or so post which they start up their own workshop. They sincerely do not know much about machine and are learning while they are working. You got to give your machine to someone who knows the in and out of it and knows what to do under a given problem. A bulldozer is a strong machine but it still requires maintenance. It goes through a lot of dirt all throughout the day and most of the time has to work on extreme weather. This severely impacts the longevity of the bulldozer. It is therefore crucial that the machine is given to an experienced mechanic who has been repairing bulldozers since many years.

Maintenance of bulldozer should be monthly:-

Since people tend to lose the count of days when the last time they serviced their bulldozer, it is advised that they give their machine to be serviced on the first day of the month. Many workshops are open on Sundays as well so all you have to do is take the equipment to them and ask them to service it on the same day. Washing the machine, oiling, greasing changing the engine oil are stuffs that should be done. Other than that, if the operator experience some problem with the bulldozer that should be informed to the mechanic so that he can take a test drive and after understanding the issue work to fix it.

One must always remember that when they are dealing with a bulldozer, they are actually dealing with an expensive heavy equipment and no way should they take anything for granted especially not the maintenance part.

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Kind of heavy equipment to build a housing lot

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Building houses has always been a thriving business and construction companies have made enough wealth being in this business for years. Even the newcomers are getting enough work and thereby not have to go through a lot of hardships. All that they need is some good heavy equipment and a bunch of able and competent workers who knows to build houses. When you are building a housing lot you need to deploy different types of heavy equipment for digging foundation, for breaking existing structures and to clear land. You can’t make use of 1 heavy equipment for all kinds of work and at the same time you need more machines if the construction area is huge. To build houses in massive lot, you need earth moving heavy machineries like excavators, loaders, bulldozers, backhoe crawler loader, trenchers etc. The utility of these machines is basically to move huge pile of soil that has been dug and load it in a truck. The truck will then ferry the soil in a dump yard.

The utility of an excavator is immensely felt in constructing a housing lot. It is multi-purpose heavy equipment which can be used for array of construction activities such as digging trenches and holes for laying foundation, demolition of existing structure, forestry work, general landscaping etc. It is one of the most common types of heavy equipment that you will find in a jobsite. This is followed by a loader which is primarily used to load materials like construction debris, asphalt, raw materials, logs, dirt etc.

Then we move to the construction vehicles which involve Dumpers, Tankers, Trailers, etc. These heavy equipment are used for various types of work. Right from ferrying the soil from the jobsite to the dump yard to spraying water on the jobsite using a truck, these heavy equipment are used for many such purposes. They have not have a direct relation in house building but still plays an active role. Without these heavy equipment it will be really difficult for the construction laborers to perform their duties. When we are talking about a huge housing plot, one can just imagine the amount of dirt that gets accumulated on the jobsite and to get that cleared off you need the help of a dumper, or a truck.

Then comes the material handling equipment which mostly consists machines like Cranes, Conveyors, and Forklifts. The cranes are used to move heavy slabs and place it on the top. Cranes are required when you are constructing high end towers. They are also used to lift heavy machines which get s stuck for some reason. It is therefore basically used to lift and ferry a heavy item which can’t move on its own from place to another. Conveyors are used to move heavy and bulky materials from one place to another. It is quite common is many construction sites as they all involve moving of heavy material items from one place to another.

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How to build a lake with a dozer

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We all have this thought that dozers are meant for mowing down huge structures and ramming down anything and everything that comes in its way but hardly do we know that it can also be used for building a lake. Though the need of other heavy equipment cannot be ruled out but if the work of building a lake is assigned to a contractor and he does not have any other heavy equipment apart from a dozer, he can still get the work done through it. He does not have to start hunting for an excavator or something that specializes in excavating work. However, one also needs to understand that this will take long for the work to complete and also the need of an experienced operator plays quite a crucial role.

So when you are digging the ground with the intention to build a lake with a dozer, you should first check the kind of dozer you may need for the purpose. Just because you are building a lake does not mean you should be using big dozers. At times small dozers can do the trick which big dozers can’t and therefore selection of dozers in this case is of utmost importance.

The crux of the heavy equipment comes while working in different forms of land. Not every kind of heavy equipment can stand in a sloppy land. The operator might find it very difficult to balance the position of the machine. The dozers may be a slow one but they can provide power, stability and have good traction which is perhaps the most required feature for building lakes. In order to dig deep, you can make use of some special blades that are designed for the purpose of making a hole in the ground. Well, these blades have some 6 movements. They can move right, left, up, down and can tilt from right to left and vice-versa. This position is specifically used to dig deep in the ground. You can also make use of rippers to break down a hard piece of land or any rock that you hit in the earth.

Using a ripper makes more sense because it has the potential to tear apart hard materials like rock and can thus help the dozer to dig deep without much hassle.

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How to change a transmission on a bulldozer

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It is never easy to work on things that you do not know especially when it comes to fixing your heavy equipment and you have absolutely no knowledge how to go about with it. This is when you should depend on guys who are into fixing problem pertaining to heavy equipment. It is better that you give the machine to a mechanic who after checking the stuff will do what needs to be done with it. However, at times it becomes important for you to know a bit of fixing thing as well. You do not always get the mechanic handy and in situations like this you may experience the real trouble. You have work in hand and your machine is just not ready to work. It could be due to some problem with the transmission and in order to get it fixed, you need to open up a lot of stuff and the transmission out.

Ideally in a bulldozer, the transmission is located near the engine crankshaft and it remains attached there with the help of a flywheel or a clutch. In order to change the transmission, it is first critical to remove the stuff carefully from the place it is located. In case of a bulldozer once has to be very careful while getting it removed beside the engine crankshaft. He needs to be make sure that he does not mess up with the crankshaft or that will lead to further complication with the machine. You got to be absolutely sure that you know how to work things out and get the transmission replaced.

To learn things in a much better way, it is advisable that one should go through the user manual as the procedure is stated with pictures so that one does not go through a lot of hardship to understand how to change the transmission. You can also check how the mechanic works on your dozer. The way he spreads out the engine crankshaft and from there he pulls out the transmission. You can even ask the mechanic if you can give it a shot while he is there monitoring your work. In this way, you can practically try to change the transmission but if you feel that you are confident and can do it again, it is prudent that you do it in front of an expert so that in case you go wrong somewhere dealing with it, there will someone who can set things right for you.

One more method that you can adopt to learn to change the transmission is through training videos. Well, you get to learn a lot of stuff from there. You only have to enter the things you want to see and you get ample of options. Just pick the one you feel you should watch and check if that is the one you are looking for. For instance, if you want to check videos where people are shown changing the transmissions, you can do that on YouTube. It really helps but if you want to do it practically, better try things in front of an expert.

 

Benefits of Bulldozer: Earth Moving Equipment

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Familiarized in 1920 and employed extensively ever since, the bulldozer widely recognised as dozer, is a clear descendant of the crawler tractor. Applied in combination with the earth moving apparatuses, the bulldozer is a potent and indispensable gizmo utilised in more or less every construction site of the world.

The earth moving heavy equipment, bulldozer was primarily manufactured in United States by some of the heavy equipment manufacturing companies like Case Tractor Company, John Deere and Caterpillar. This earth moving weighty paraphernalia proffers engineering application to several fields for instance agriculture, waste management, construction, mining etc.

Components of an Earth Moving Heavy Bulldozer

Bulldozer characterised for its versatile track and immense blade is comprised of several engines, pneumatic and construction assemblies. Here in the below cited points, the readers will get to know about the various essential parts of dozers:

  • The mainframe and the undercarriage parts of the bulldozer are made-up of low carbon structural steel platters.
  • The cab of the dozer is fabricated from plastic, rubber and glass materials that help in improving the ergonomic feature of the paraphernalia.
  • The steel made parts inside the engine of the bulldozer have the capability to bear the high operating temperatures.
  • When the dozer is filled with assorted sorts of fluids like oil, coolant, hydraulic fluid and fuel, its weight augments drastically.
  • Paint, decals and the patterned trim of the dozer helps in creating it the most artistic and appealing earth moving heavy equipment.

Advantages of Bulldozers

  • Dozers are big-sized weighty vehicles making them a perfect option for cleaning construction sites and for the purpose of demolition. The high-quality tracks offer bulldozers a distinct benefit permitting them to be astonishingly invariable for their excessive weight.
  • The tracks of the dozers have the quality of strong grip that assist them to undertake the rough terrain. These tracks also help the bulldozers to distribute their heavy weight thwarting them from submerging in dirty or mud-covered land.
  • Bulldozers are famous for their quality of grasping the ground tightly that gives them exceptional potency to shove and pull the obstructions coming in their path.
  • Some of the replicas of tanks attached in the dozers have the ability to pull up almost 70 tons of weight and are especially utilised for construction and military purposes.
  • In a bulldozer, the customers can find chiefly three types of blades that are straight, universal and S-U combined blades. These blades are normally employed for grading, carrying extra materials and for shoving large-shaped mound of rocks for instance quarry.
  • When the bulldozers are used in battle fields, the blades are attached on the battle tanks for clearing various anti-tank obstructions.
  • If the construction business owners want to buy dozer with stump buster, they get the additional benefit of brush scrape blade that helps in clearing in the land effectively.

So, if you are looking for an upgraded version of bulldozer, you can find it very easily by browsing the internet, as there are scores of dozer manufacturing companies that provide efficient modern technology designed dozers in reasonable price.

 

Steps to bulldoze a farm using a bulldozer

Do you want to clear a farm? Don’t you know how to use a bulldozer for it? No worries. You only have to follow some simple tips to use a bulldozer for bulldozing a farm.

It is a well-known fact that farmland clearing is a very difficult and lengthy task. You can make this job easy and quick only when you have the right type of bulldozer with you. Due to the presence of curved blade in its front, it is known as bulldozer. If you don’t have the suitable equipment then you have to spend a lot of time in doing this laborious work. You can directly go and buy a bulldozer, or you can rent it from some genuine renting company. Using the bulldozer, you can easily steer away any kind of debris from the farm. Even an average-sized bulldozer can easily clean acreages of brush and rock-mottled farms in one day. But, sometimes it takes more than one day to do this. You can also hire contractors, but you should try to complete the job yourself. This will keep away excess expenses.

Steps to bulldoze a farm

  • Cut the trees: – Get rid of the trees by cutting them with the blade of the bulldozer. Big trees may need some more shoves for completely knocking them down.
  • Tie up the remaining trees with chains:– The stumps of remaining tree and huge boulders should be tied with a chain. Attach the other end of the chain to the backside of the bulldozer. Now, to uproot the big trees, start driving the bulldozer in the forward direction. If there is any unnecessary small structures of farm, then pull it down using the chain.
  • Force the debris into heap: – Now, it’s time to clean the debris. For this, you have to use the blade. Force the debris and other rocks into heap so that you can pick it up later for disposal. Segregate the heaps into controllable portion so that you can avoid doing any extra work during the process of disposal.
  • Level the dirt: – This is the most important step in bulldozing a farmland. To make the land suitable for farming, you have to blend the dirt with the help of the bulldozer blades. Try to maintain very minimum distance between the blade and the ground surface.
  • Fix a rake: – Rake in bulldozers lends a hand to clear the remaining debris. The rake should be fixed to the bottom end of the blade of the bulldozer.

 

Scientists have designed the latest bulldozers which are good looking and can perform any kind of heavy task with ease. The modern bulldozers are provided with electronic goods. With the invention of the bulldozers, bulldozing farmland has become a child’s play. But, you should remain very careful while using it. Any negligence regarding it can cause havoc adversities. So, before using it, you should take the advice of the professionals.

Importance of Armoured Bulldozer in Battle Ground

Universalized in 1920 and utilised profoundly ever since, bulldozer is an incessant tracked tractor that falls under the category of heavy equipment. It is a crawler that is bedecked with a sizeable metal platter. The application of the bulldozer is to shove a large amount of soil, debris, sand or other construction materials. Very often, laborers recognize this heavy equipment as a dozer. It is a crawler that is assembled at the rear with a claw-shaped mechanism. This apparatus is known as ripper that is applied to slacken the thickly condensed substances. Armoured bulldozer is a fundamental contrivance of battle engineering.

Use of Armoured Bulldozer in World War II

The British were the first to employ armoured bulldozer in World War II. The soldiers used stereotyped Caterpillar D8 Bulldozer that was adjoined with armour. It helped the bulldozer drivers to protect themselves and the engine from the attack of the enemies. At that time these armoured bulldozers were manufactured by Jack Olding and Company Ltd. The British soldiers referred these bulldozers as “Hobbart’s Funnies”. In the Battle of Normandy, the armoured bulldozers were used to clear the incursion beaches of hindrances and to create roads. When the military persons reached Europe, they realised the need of Centaur bulldozer. This bulldozer was very much effective in battle grounds for instance in Korean War.

Modern Use of Armoured Dozer

Some of the eminent contemporary bulldozers are Caterpillar D7 and D9. These dozers are bedecked with the tanks that have blades. Some of the attributes of current toughened bulldozers are as follows:

  • Caterpillar D9 bulldozer is used in military as wells as construction purposes. It is chiefly utilised by Israel Defence Forces and United States armed forces. This bulldozer has the capability to bear up profound attack.
  • The modern dozers have the power of 405 to 410 horsepower.
  • The drawbars pull capability of this updated bulldozer is 71.6 tonnes-forces.
  • The D9R bulldozer can be operated by two crew members.
  • The armour kit installed in the IDF modified bulldozers defends the motorized system and the compartment of the operator.
  • The bulletproof casement of the IDF bulldozers protects the engine and the bulldozer machinists from the machinegun, sniper blaze and grenades.
  • The RPG rounds can be averted by the slat armour. Sometimes the D9 bulldozers are available with the attributes of smoulder projectors, grenade installers and crew-functionalised machine guns.
  • D9 bulldozers are mainly utilised in excavating moats, saving stuck, glade landmines, accumulating sand blockades etc.
  • The Palestinian soldiers used these D9 bulldozers to open secure path for IDF armies.
  • These bulldozers are also employed in cleaning bushes and structures.

Application of Armoured Bulldozers in United States

The US armies bought Tractor Protection Kits (TPK) from the Israel Military Industries at the time of first Gulf War. They used it in their Caterpillar D7 bulldozers. These are significantly utilised in mine cleaning purposes. D9 bulldozers are operated by the US soldiers to destroy the vehicles from dig channels and roads.

 

 

SU Blades vs. 6-way blades on a Dozer

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Bulldozer or dozer is specifically a crawler or continuous tracked tractor which is essentially used for pushing a huge quantity of either soil, rubble or sand or any other heavy or bulky material from the construction site. The machine has multipurpose utility and can be used at various sites as for military bases, mines or in heavy industry or in farms or at quarries. The multifaceted dozer has rear ripper in the shape of claw that can rip through materials and thus makes it easy for carrying or shifting from one place to another.

What are SU Blades?

Basically, dozer blades on the front are of different types and according to their shape and purpose, they have been classified.

  1. S-Blade—This is the straight blade that is short without any lateral curve. These do not have any side wings and are essentially used for fine grading.
  2. U-Blade—This is the universal blade with curved and tall design. Unlike S-blade, it has large side wings which are used for carrying heavy or loads of materials.
  3. S-U Blade—As the name suggests it is an amalgamation of the two but is shorter and does not have as fine curve as U-Blade. Comparatively, the side wings are also shorter.

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What are the 6-way blades?

The 6-way blades are a bigger track dozer and are used for lifting and doing much bulkier work. Ways signify that blades can be moved in various directions like it can go left, right, upward, downward, tilt and curve. The ways define the movement of the blade. For intricate and finer work, one can choose to dozer with better efficiency. 6 ways basically defines the size of the dozer and the capacity. If someone has loads of work to do, then one can opt for bigger frame and much efficient machine. It is the cylinder and the horse power which actually measures the efficiency and weight of the machine.

SU Blades vs. 6-way blades on a Dozer

The 6 way blades can either have S type or U type or S-U type blades. The blades make dozer sharper and give it a better edge to crawl through the terrain and clear the way whereas 6 way blades increase the functioning capability of a dozer. The increased number of blades gives better mobility.

This is the main difference between the two. Various companies make dozer which is either light or heavy and depending on the work, one can make a smart choice. To know more about a dozer, it is best to make a comparative analysis of the different model that can give a vivid idea on the bulldozer and be cost efficient.

 

 

Operating A Dozer Is As Simple As Driving Your Own Car

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If you think that in order to operate a dozer, you need to take some very special training then you probably have to change your thoughts. It may require you to take some level of training but it is definitely not as rigid or complex as taking a space shuttle and flying away in the space. It may sound to be little complicated but the process is quite simple and easy to understand. At the end, you may find it as simple as driving your car. Few things that are important is to understand the intricacies of the equipment and once you know the in and outs of operating the dozer, it would be nothing more than a cake walk for you.
Things that one should consider learning in order to operate a dozer
Knowing more about the machine:- If you want to be a good operator, it is of due importance to know well about the machine. You should know the utilities of various switches inside the cabin. They may be for various reasons and as long as you do not know them all, you may not be able to make optimum utilization of those switches. It may also extend the period of a work assigned to you which will ultimately affect your productivity and may also incur loss to the company. Other than this, not knowing the various functions of the dozer may also lead to accidents and unwanted casualties. No company would ever want these things to happen and therefore, one should learn everything possible about the dozer they are working on.
Get some basic training:- Due to technological changes happening every other day, new model are coming up in the market. These models more or less have the same functions. However, the manufacturing companies try to add few more features to make it look more user-friendly and therefore also attach a higher price value to it. It is because of this reason that the operator should get some basic training in understanding those extra functions and that he can incorporate them in his day to day activities.
Buddy-up under an expert:- You learn well if you learn it from an expert. Operators who have been in this industry for years may have worked with all sorts of machines and therefore are quite competent enough to train young guns. They may teach you many things as to how you can operate a dozer and may also share few of their experiences which may help you under a given situation. The knowledge they have gained all over the years will help the trainees fetch more benefit than any other book can ever provide.
Check the web:- You can also take help from internet to know how you can operate the machine. You can go to youtube and check live demonstration. This will give you a better picture of how you can operate the same stuff all by yourself. Though this is useful, you still will get to learn more from physically working on the dozer.