Dozer Service advice needed

[Bear82]

I have several places to clear some cedar trees. I'd like to try it myself. How hard is it learning with a dozer if I rent one. What size or any special attachment to use. Or does anyone on here hire out or make recommendations on someone. I have several places and they aren't very big jobs. The projects are just a little too big for a skidsteer.

Abilene Location. I need to clear out a fence line after a wildfire. THe property line is actually 50 ft from the current fence so I want to put new fence back on the property line. I also have a tank I want to clean out and make bigger. Its actually 3 small tanks connected but want to make it one large tank.

Crowell. Want to widen the roads and maybe clear a couple fence lines. Also neeed to clear a place to build a cabin one day.

Sweetwater. This is the biggest job. I need to split the property to put up a fence in the future and be able to get around property easier. 1 mile long. Might also clear fence lines and a couple small roads.

[Drycreek3189]

I’m gonna say hire it done unless you have experience with heavy equipment. The guys who say it’s easy to learn have never mastered it. If you have lots of time, by all means rent a dozer and knock yourself out, but don’t knock yourself out if you get my drift. Good luck !

[jimned]

Goldsmith Fencing 325.668.1120

[BubRay]

I have a buddy with a dozer. I can tell you that it’s not terrible to run but I will tell you that a true operator is worth the cost of admission. They will get more work done and do it right in 10th of the time it takes you. Also maintenance on these machines is ridiculously high and if you break something it’s thousands of dollars typically not rebuild or fix. I say that to say I have access to use one for free and still pay his operator to sit on it.

[scott1022]

I'm not a dozer guy, but I do love to play on equipment any chance I can.

It sounds like you have a lot of work to do. If money was no issue and I could afford the extended rental and I had the time, I would do all of that myself learning as I went... but with an understanding that a trained operator could complete the job a lot faster and a lot better than I could do it myself.

[Gumbo Man]

Consider the minimum rental (2days ?) with delivery and pickup charges and weigh that against hiring out to a pro. Modern dozers are easy to run. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to use if you don’t know how to use one. Good luck sir.

I watched a neighbor destroy his property clearing trees. He wanted to do it himself because he knew how to “run” one. First thing he did is take the rake off of the blade. I don’t have a clue why. He would dig around the base of each tree and then push it down and immediately push it to a burn pile with the root ball full of dirt and pushing more dirt with each tree. It took 2 years to burn because of all the dirt and he left huge wholes where the trees were. And he is one of those guys that hates advice.

[tdwinklr]

Consider the minimum rental (2days ?) with delivery and pickup charges and weigh that against hiring out to a pro. Modern dozers are easy to run. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to use if you don’t know how to use one. Good luck sir.

Same here. Of course some of these places are cheaper to rent for longer periods, price per day that is. The delivery and pickup charges are pretty substantial too, and I'm assuming they want you to refill it with fuel before they pick it up, ??? If you want them to refill it, the price per gallon is going to be much higher than you doing it.

[Bear82]

Lots of good comments. I understand an experienced operator is a lot quicker. But I'm sure when they started they were experts. I kind of want to try learning to see what its like. One neighbor had a new fence put up and I know I could do a better job than their dozer work. Another place a half mile down the road did some good work with dozer. I will try to see who they used. I'm in no rush so doing it myself is no problem. But I also don't mind paying if its good work.

[panhandlehunter]

I rented a dozer and a backhoe to do some work on my property. Delivery was free. Had to fill up with diesel before returning. I’m not a heavy equipment guy and I wasn’t doing finesse work, so i was able to do whatever I needed pretty easily. Weekly rental was a little over 2k for the dozer. I had originally planned to hire somebody to do the work, but after weeks and weeks with no return calls and people saying they were going to come give me an estimate not show, I just did it myself.

[walker1983]

For the work you described, I would certainly hire it out.

[Silvey]

It's not impossible for you to do it. Play with it on the fence lines and the cabin clearing, then hire an operator to clean up your mess and do the pond work.

[Kong]

I run dozers on a daily basis, from a D3 to my D9 and by the time you halfway figure out what your doing and attempt fix your screw ups a good operator could be long and out of site clearing your project.
Can you do it? Of course on a modern dozer but it’s not going to look the same and by the time you factor in diesel at over $4 a gallon and how many gallons you wasted trying to figure it out you’ve spent more playing than you could have hired it out for. That’s my 2 cents worth anyway

Side note, dozers are fuel hogs especially the big ones so definitely keep that in mind if you opt to try it yourself.

[RiverRat1]

Great points.

Only concern I'd have hiring a guy is how do you know they are actually good using the equipment? I'd assume the good operators are backlogged months.

[oneeye]

The guy I hire to build my logging roads here in MN can accomplish more work in an hour then I could all day, and I have operated before. My advice is hire it out.

[andre3k]

I've seen these threads pop up more than once and the consensus is to hire it out. I say buy a dozer and do it yourself. I started doing everything myself when I bought my property. I made some mistakes along the way but I've learned way more than I ever thought I could by tackling tough projects. If you have more money than time then hire someone to do it.

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