If you are working on a side slope (most likely finishing) your sphincter muscle is something to believe when it puckers up. It will warn most novice operators when the slope is getting too steep to be on. Believe it. Experienced operators that have operated a dozer for many years learn to somewhat ignore it and instead rely on slope meters and other more technical indicators. Thing of it is, most dozers will not NORMALLY tip over. They slide sideways. The problem is if the slope is too long it is at the bottom of the slide that the problem comes in. A local long time operator with thousands of hours experience slid down the side of the embankment which I imagined had happened more than once before. This time when the lower track caught the bottom the momentum tipped the dozer on its side. He ended up with a control lever knob through the side of his cheek, loosing several teeth in the process and bunging him up pretty badly. He actually crawled out of the dozer and drove himself home before going to the hospital. Just be careful finishing side slopes and about a 3 to 1 is enough for my warning system to pucker up and that is good enough for me.
An operating tip but not safety is if you are pushing sticky material that wants to stay with you on the return trip to get more, a tip I learned 40 years ago while operating an old Cat D7 3T cable machine right out of high school leveling strip pit dumps. Right before you go into reverse shove hour blade down into the pile or ground just enough till you see the material on the blade start to roll from the cut action. Then immediately go into reverse. Sticky clay or muck will tend to suction onto the blade and it is a bugger to get off. If you don't get it off, you end up wasting about a third of your blade capacity each pass. This little trick getting the material to slightly move releases it and allows it to drop off.
Some people have a natural ability at operating equipment and a new guy will get right with it. Some can be taught. Some never have the talent available to them and best leave such things to professionals.
Be safe, have fun, and hopefully get something done in the process.
snrub
