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Southwest Illinois | You can't do much tree work with a dozer. We had a 455D Deere for quite a few years but it was a highlift. It was a pedal steer with joystick for the bucket. Full joystick controls would be nice but I can't imagine finding one that new that fits your budget. It was nice around tree edges but a pain to move therefore there were quite a few years that it didn't get more than 20 hours on it. So if you don't have a trailer you need to figure that into your budget as well. It was expensive to get worked on even though it was pretty reliable. Wound up selling it and buying a 80hp track skid loader which will out work our old highlift(except in the hot coals of a brush fire) 2 to 1. The skid steer is so versatile we put 150 hours or more per year on it with brush cutting, trenching, clean up, rock spreading, etc. The grapple is super nice cleaning up brush piles and tree lines/edges.
For ditches and grading you would probably be better off with a decent dirt pan. I liked our highlift and it was decent to run and it filled that "I want a dozer" need I had for a long time, but sitting here today I would be hard pressed to ever own one again for the limited use we got from it. | |
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Looking at dozers.....advice?
