New to Forum, New to crawlers

[rec_outdoors]

Here is my story. My boys and I were visiting Eddie's John Deere Museum in Michigan when I stumbled across a little dozer that really caught my eye. Upon further investigation it was a JD 420. I had not given it much thought until I started building a trail around my 60 acre property. As I worked my way around I thought how nice it would be to have a little dozer like the one I saw last summer. So, the quest started.

I just ran across and nice JD 420 with a winch that would be perfect for my property. It is in nice working order, but seems a little pricey. As I started to investigate on the web I ran across this site. Let me say that I have learned more about crawlers in the past couple of days than years of tinkering with one would provide.

I thought I would list my needs for a dozer and see if the 420 is the right dozer for me or if I should be looking at something different. So here are my requirements and I would appreciate if anyone could comment on how well the 420 would meet my needs:

I plan on doing trail creation which would involve knocking over some trees (probably 6"-8" in diameter).
I would use it as a snow plow in the winter since my MF65 is not quite up to the task since I always get it stuck if the snow builds up on my driveway (>1/4 mile long).
I need to skid out some good size poplar trees and other various hardwoods for firewood.
I need to do some driveway grading and general grading around the property.
I need to remove some Hawthorne trees that are mixed in with my apple trees.
Plus, it sounds from reading the forum that it would be all around fun to work with.

I would appreciate any comments from this group since everyone seems to have a wealth of knowledge.

Thanks in advance
Dave

[spooler]

I am pretty new to the 420 thing myself. You will find many more experienced folks on this foram than me.
I run around pulling logs on 50 ac. The crawler easy pulls(1-3) 12"-16" spruce logs about
20' long. She will do this on a grease job and 10 gal. of gas a day. I am blessed with a Mod. 90 Loader , on my 420 and a set of forks. I can skid spread,dig and load.

Before we go any further lets discuss Safety.

When I purchased this crawler it was painfully obvious that I knew nothing.
The old skinner looked at me as I crawled off. Shaking from the "Test ride" through the forest, I asked. "I notice there is no seat belt. Think I ought to get one?"

"No", He says. "I think you need to learn how to operate."

Morale:
These are cute lil' ole' crawlers..but they can kill ya quick.

My rig has no 3 pont hitch or pto. I have a Homemade ROPS with a chainbox, engine screens all around and counter weights. The box holds 60' of chain in 10 ft. lengths with a hook on one end. The box is made of 1/2 in. steel with chainslots cut in it.
Dragging tree's through the dirt is not good..try to use a skid of some sort or log in winter,
{on flat ground ONLY}

This loggin seems real dangerous to me.
When I want to haul in some tree's, I call a Faller. He can clear cut 1-2 acre a day and it costs me $200 bucks. I have enough with the skidding and loading. I then get a 50/50 split with the sawyer at the local mill.

Slow and easy wins the race.

Wear a Hard Hat
Wear Safety Glasses
Don't work alone

Spooler

[Howard Yoder]

The only thing you might have trouble with is pushing out a 6" tree. It will do it but it is acording to what type of soil and what kind of tree. You can dig around these trees if you have lot's of patience but you have to be carefull or you will tear up the dozer. As far as the rest of the chores it will do a great job other then if your going to skid some 40" diam. logs out then you might get in trouble. They are very nice machines and if you take care of them you will be surprised at what they will do.

[JD40c]

I've removed a few smaller trees (8" in diameter) with my 40C and it takes time, a lot of time. If you don't have a huge amount of trees, I'd consider logging them and using a stump grinder to get rid of most of the stumps. If you're really going to remove stumps, you need a bigger machine to do it efficiently. Something like a D6 would do nicely

[Howard Yoder]

Just another thing about safety I pulled a truck out that was stuck and had to pull it out backwards. Had a 20 ft. chain on it and it was loaded with logs some hung out the back of the truck a few feet. After I got the truck out the guy kept backing and the dozer was in low gear and I was howlering for him to stop which he did luckily but it scared the crap out of me. It was just one of those things I didn't think through very good. When your logging you have to stay on your towes all the time. I never did that again.