![]() ![]() You'd be miles ahead in my opinion to have a cheap old 2wd 30-35hp tractor to bushhog, and a dirtwork machine for everything else. I think you are asking too much to get a machine that can do all those things and ALSO bushhog. Its not as good as the skidsteer, and not as fast, but because the blade is low and inline with the tracks, it pushes like a champ and can leave a really nice finish too. ![]() I've done a ton of wide finish work with the fixed blade on the front of my mini-x. Even if you could find one, they are probably $10-15k for worn out junk, or $20k for a decent one with the way prices are these days.įor grading/finish/backhoe/auger, a skidsteer or mini-x is your best bet, depending on if you need more wide grading or trench digging. They are all 20+ years old, so good luck finding one that is not worn out. I'd say more like 40+hp industrial grade machine, but yes, a "big" 4x4 tractor with 3pt is a hell of a handy machine. Even rubber tracked machines are hard on grass and field, and a steel tracked machine is going to be even worse. Also, if its an area that you care at all what it looks like, the tracks are going to destroy the turf. The shorter the length of track on ground, the more of a bucking ride you will get, and these little dozers have a very short track length. I imagine it could be plenty fast if you could handle the rough ride. This is very true, and if you're not willing or able to work on things yourself, you need to buy new stuff with a warranty, and if you can't transport it, you better get it from a company that has a service fleet that will come to you. That doesn't mean things never break, but it does mean that you can get parts and get back to work, and that stupid stuff doesn't break all the time because of poor design. They are made for day in, day out durability. That's not to say deals can't be found, but there's a reason the market allows the prices to be so high. Even high hour stuff is 50% of new price. Go find a low hour name brand machine of any type, and let me know what the depreciation is. There's a reason the depreciation is so much. It's a little different for a home use machine because transport isn't involved, but it all comes down to maximum flexibility. But I can have a pile of gravel pre delivered and then do all of this with one machine and not have to make several trips or try to time anything with weather or other people. A forestry mulcher would be better for reducing material mass, a dozer would be better for grading the roadbed, a dumptruck would be better for spreading gravel, and a tractor might be better for smoothing gravel. I can pull one machine to a job site and mow down brush for a trail, take 1 minute to slap the dozer blade on and knock out the stumps and level the ground and shape the crown and ditches to make that trail into a roadbed, then 2 minutes later I'm switched over and running a bucket and scooping and spreading gravel for a driveway, then stick a harley rake on there and go down the sides to prep for grass. The skidsteer with a dozer blade is nowhere near as good for cutting dirt, pushing trees, and other "real" dozer tasks, but it makes up for it in speed, manueverability, ease of use, and the ability to swap attachments that work well. I had a Komatsu D21 9k pound dozer for about 10 years, bought a tracked skid steer, then bought a 6 way dozer blade for the skidsteer, then sold the small dozer. The dozer blade and C-frame alone weigh 2300lbs. And it weighs 18k pounds, so not small enough for the average homeowner or landscaping crew. And actually Case kinda has (DL550B, except its not really available, it's been a SEMA queen for several years), but it going to be in that $100k price range, so not at a mass market price point. You are absolutely correct about making a killing if one of the "big names" came out with something like this. In execution, it will probably be able to most everything, and not really be good at anything. In concept they are very neat and seem to check a lot of boxes. There's good reason for both, and again, all are a compromise. Pros have migrated towards skidsteers and mini-ex's, and homeowners have migrated towards 4x4 compact tractors with FEL and BH. They could do all dirt related tasks inefficiently. Only problem was they couldn't run attachments, were large and heavy, difficult to manuever, and not very good at cutting dirt. Backhoe's used to be the ultimate "multitasking" machine. ![]()
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