Should I upgrade from 1010 to 450?

[digitup]

I have found that you dont mess with anything large tree wise and shure not useing a small dozer any way .I will not push out trees with my 450J and the 550Js .I only use a larger dozer for that job .As these machines are trim dozers .They were not made for this job. And our old Deeres are getting hard to find parts for why beat them up like that .They made larger dozers for a reason A farmer in my area was hurt[broke his back]wile pushing out trees with a crawler loader and was not hit by anything . The tracks went over center under load . now that is easy enough done isnt it .I guess that I have hoes and larger dozers avalible if they arent busy.But it would not make sense to me to put my old Deeres to that task . And as parts are geting harder to find as well as I am not geting any younger .Iwill use the proper equipment the big stuff for trees .Digitup.

[ggfossen]

Digitup,

I have to agree completely. Although I don't have a large machine available, I will always resort to some other means.

It is for that reason that I related my moment of stupidity...so that it might not be repeated by others.

This SW Oregon terrain is sufficiently steep and rugged that it can bust crawlers without out the additional help of operator foolishness.

Gary

[Tigerhaze]

I agree with the others about renting a machine for bigger work (and especially for large tree removal) and saving the 1010 for smaller jobs. I actually did that for my current grading project (building my residence in the timber). I rented a CAT 939HST to do the larger-scale earthmoving and large tree removal and am currently using my 2010 for the finish grading and small tree removal. There is no comparison power-wise between the two. I was able recently to push over a 25' tall hedge (Osage orange) tree with the 2010 so it can do more than you think. Safety should always be first on this; I only did it because I had it planned out and the topography was right.

I also agree for doing large-scale tree removal, the excavator with thumb is the way to go. I do construction oversight sometimes in the Mountain West, and we used an excavator with thumb to grab 40' to 80' pine and spruce trees, uproot them, and break them in half with the thumb for slash (when not salvageable for the sawmill). This also allows the operator to be in a much safer position relative to the tree. The power of those excavators is incredible!