Meadowlark,
Be glad to answer any question if I can.
I'm referring to flotation as ground preasure, normaly measured in psi, Pounds per Square Inch.
A lady's spiked high heel has a very high psi, small surface. A snow shoe would have a very low psi.
So a dozer with high flotation can work on softer earth without sinking in. While none of the dozers can work in the wet silt of a pond without sinking through it, a high psi low flotation dozer probably will start sinking into the moist clay under the silt where a low psi machine probably would not.
I can share at least one simple fact about excavators. The size designation number on later machines relates to the weight of the machine.
On most brands it's the first 2 numbers, on cats it's the second 2.
Examples Komatsu 300 is 30 metric tons, Komatsu 250 is 25 metric tons, Komatsu 200 is 20 metric tons, Komatsu 150 is 15 metric tons. A Cat 330 is 30 metric tons, a Cat 325 is 25 metric tons, a Cat 320 is 20 metric tons.
Seems like my Cat 330 weighs 74,000 lbs. which should come out around 30 metric tons.
I don't use my excavator as much as a lot of contractors. If I can doze or haul with a scraper the dirt from the cut to the dam and pack the dirt in with the machine I am doing it with, I can do it with one person. If I use the excavator the material has to be pushed, or loaded onto trucks and hauled, and then leveled and packed. It cost me more to move and process the dirt than the other way. If the dozer and scraper were smaller the cost would be closer to balancing.
The good part about excavators is that they move dirt cheaper and with less fuel than about any other machine. The bad part is they can only move it 40 feet or so. Long reach excavators can reach further at the expense of not being able to move as much quantity each cycle.
