Hard to say for me.
But some things help. If the dozer has a ripper that can be a BIG help. We have a D6N XL that I have used to clean out three ponds, build a 3 acre pond as well as a couple small sediment and forage ponds plus more lately a one acre pond. Never had a ripper on the back for any of them.
Bought a ripper for it because we had a number of terraces to build and running the ripper at the depth of the cut makes controlling the blade a lot easier, especially in clay.
Boy howdy. I wish we would have bought that ripper before digging all those ponds. In clay with good working moisture it does not make as much difference (although still helps a lot) but get in some clay that is on the dry side of working good and the ripper about doubles the dozer productivity. Even loading a scraper in really hard dirt can be facilitated by running the ripper just deep enough so the cutting edge stays on solid ground but the ground is ripped enough to make loading go faster.
In hard ground, the ripper saves a lot of wear and tear on both the dozer AND operator because the dozer can do a steady push of soil instead of the jerking and gouging that goes on with really tough, dry clay.
So if you have a choice in rental machines, I would take one with a ripper on the back over one without any day. The smaller the dozer, the more difference having looser soil to work with makes. On a 450 a ripper would help a lot.
Pushing out a hole in the ground is only about half the job. Where the time consumption comes in is properly compacting the dam and finishing out things. It is kind of like building a house. The frame work goes up fast. It is finishing the rest of it that takes forever.
Last edited by snrub; 12/21/18 08:40 AM.
