Never Moved Equipment Before

I just bought a 1966 Euclid / Terex Dozer. It it of the D8 class and weighs approximately 80000. I'm looking to move it 75 miles. It's 2.7 miles off the highway at pick up and 5 miles off at the drop off point. I have a few quotes but I have a few questions. Is it typical that once you go with someone their driver will load and unload the equipment by themselves without anyone else present? Or does someone have to be there to help the load and un-load it?

Does it run??

An experienced lowbed driver will be able to load and unload by himself. I would not hire an outfit that could not provide that service. You will probably need a pilot car too if it has the blade on it which the trucking company should also be able to provide.

Yes, they will load and unload it and that is their job. If it is a really odd piece of gear and an experienced operator offers to help most drivers will take that help, but a dozer is an ordinary load.

And......A couple pics would be nice, aint many of those ol girls left.

^agreed. My old friend had one. He's gone and I don't know what happened with the dozer. I don't recall it making the trek from Washington to Montana.

Yes it still runs.

OK, I'll bite. What type of work are you undertaking? How wide is that blade? You may need to plan on removing it for transport.

She's not going to push or rip much with those pads. Looks decent otherwise. Hopefully that 318 won't need an experienced mechanic for a long time.

I was going to say they looked like excavator street pads, but I was being too polite

Well I'm not fishing but here's what I'm looking at. The blade is supposedly 11 feet wide. It' not an option for removing it. I'll pay for the wide load and what it entails. My dad bought 52 acres of abandoned farmland in 1968. The farm was in full swing with cleared fields around 1950 as per plane photos from the state agricultural department. Judging by the stone walls in the woods in the areas of the 1950's where they were already forested, it seems the land was originally settled around the late 1800's. At some point half of the land was abandoned around 1900-1940's ish. Then in 1950's someone reclaimed about 80 % of the land and farmed it. Then fast forward to 1968. By the time my dad bought it, it was a freshly abandoned farm. He was not a farmer but a hunter. So he planted pine trees lower in the elevation which was open field. And he let the fields that were on a slope to just over grow. So here we are in 2023. The pines he planted in 1970ish overtook the fields. Then they overtook the deciduous trees and we now have patches of mature pines that are higher in elevation than the deciduous trees. A few years later (now) we have pine groves with no undergrowth. Essentially dead for deer and wildlife. So I looked into logging. All the loggers would be happy to come in a cut down the oak trees. Some of them said they would take away the pines while they were there. But to properly manage the land for the future for deer, it costs money. And there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in people and companies willing to do this. They won't even give me an estimate. I guess they're so used to selling good lumber when I have scrap/crap pines that doesn't bring in the money and they don't know how to the job. Anywho, I re-fuse to sell out to the make profit loggers as my neighbors did. That will only screw my kids and grandkids when I'm gone. I want to manage my land for deer because we are hunters. I want the land to be valuable for my kindred on down the line. So my plan is to gradually push down the pine groves and let the new field regenerate naturally and go through field succession. Turn it back to a field. Let competition go on for a decade or so. And let it slowly turn back to a forest. In the meantime it will be thick thick growth that harbors much much wildlife. Then repeat that for the next pine grove and on and on... At least that's my plan. The things I'm anticipating is that there will be dozer break downs and repairs. I will try to learn as much as I can. And I'll try to do as much as I can by myself. Anyway, that's the plan. So we'll see. As of today, I have an agreed bid for a company to come pick it up and transport it to my place. They say no one is required for pick up or delivery. So That would be perfect. If in about a week or two that 80,000 behemoth appears in my lower field just waiting for me to fire up that would awesome. We'll see!

It comes with (I'll estimate) two full tracks. Those tracks which are in three pieces are twice as high as the ones on it. So it comes with them. An maybe I'll able to replace pad by pad until it can do what I want it to.

At this point, it's a gamble. Some one was selling this (as well as other stuff) because of an estate sale. So I feel comfortable that I'm not getting screwed. I think I'm just at the right place at the right time (hopefully!). We'll see.

Push them down and burn them?

Have you tried finding a company that makes recycled mulch from trees and other lumber? They might have a big horizontal grinder, and would grind and take whatever you can pile up. That is how we disposed of tree debris on several hundred acres of land. We had it in big piles for the company. They brought in a grinder, ground it all up, and hauled it all off to their mulch making facility.

First of all welcome to the Forums CST! Glad to have you. Curious question - Obviously pine is not worth much up there per your post. Why is that? A stand of pine planted in the '70's would be worth big $$$ in the Southeast. Tress that would qualify as poles can bring $1K or more on the stump from what I've been told.

Compshooter said: An maybe I'll able to replace pad by pad until it can do what I want it to. Click to expand... You have to swap them all, or you won't be able to sit on it while working

Compshooter said: Well I'm not fishing but here's what I'm looking at. The blade is supposedly 11 feet wide. It' not an option for removing it. I'll pay for the wide load and what it entails. My dad bought 52 acres of abandoned farmland in 1968. The farm was in full swing with cleared fields around 1950 as per plane photos from the state agricultural department. Judging by the stone walls in the woods in the areas of the 1950's where they were already forested, it seems the land was originally settled around the late 1800's. At some point half of the land was abandoned around 1900-1940's ish. Then in 1950's someone reclaimed about 80 % of the land and farmed it. Then fast forward to 1968. By the time my dad bought it, it was a freshly abandoned farm. He was not a farmer but a hunter. So he planted pine trees lower in the elevation which was open field. And he let the fields that were on a slope to just over grow. So here we are in 2023. The pines he planted in 1970ish overtook the fields. Then they overtook the deciduous trees and we now have patches of mature pines that are higher in elevation than the deciduous trees. A few years later (now) we have pine groves with no undergrowth. Essentially dead for deer and wildlife. So I looked into logging. All the loggers would be happy to come in a cut down the oak trees. Some of them said they would take away the pines while they were there. But to properly manage the land for the future for deer, it costs money. And there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in people and companies willing to do this. They won't even give me an estimate. I guess they're so used to selling good lumber when I have scrap/crap pines that doesn't bring in the money and they don't know how to the job. Anywho, I re-fuse to sell out to the make profit loggers as my neighbors did. That will only screw my kids and grandkids when I'm gone. I want to manage my land for deer because we are hunters. I want the land to be valuable for my kindred on down the line. So my plan is to gradually push down the pine groves and let the new field regenerate naturally and go through field succession. Turn it back to a field. Let competition go on for a decade or so. And let it slowly turn back to a forest. In the meantime it will be thick thick growth that harbors much much wildlife. Then repeat that for the next pine grove and on and on... At least that's my plan. The things I'm anticipating is that there will be dozer break downs and repairs. I will try to learn as much as I can. And I'll try to do as much as I can by myself. Anyway, that's the plan. So we'll see. As of today, I have an agreed bid for a company to come pick it up and transport it to my place. They say no one is required for pick up or delivery. So That would be perfect. If in about a week or two that 80,000 behemoth appears in my lower field just waiting for me to fire up that would awesome. We'll see! Click to expand... Not sure how much the forest life cycle differs from your area to here. But (from what I understand) around here you would be most of the way to the end of the pine stand lifecycle where they start dying off and the hardwood understory gets a chance to mature and the forest gradually becomes deciduous on its own. Is it eastern white pine or some other sort? Here, often times, a field will naturally become a coniferous forest first because the saplings grow so much faster than deciduous saplings. A high concentration of pine saplings is best for timber because they compete with each other and grow tall and straight with lower limbs quickly dying and falling off. If your father planned them far apart, they may have grown into "bull pines" or "pasture pines" because they didn't have enough competition to grow tall and straight. If this is the case they will often be useless for timber and aren't even worth the time it takes to cut them down. Many times they are just girdled and left to fall on their own.

I wouldn't burn them only because I'm uncomfortable with burning. I'd push them down and push them into piles along the property line with breaks every so often to allow wildlife to walk though. But the key for me is that I want to clear the area of everything. And then let it re-grow in a natural fahshion. I think they call it re-setting the land.

You may have to do a little more, as some of the invasive species will take over freshly cleared ground ahead of the desirable species. Just keep that in mind. Many of those invaders are more hardy and will not allow the natives to come back, once you do that reset. I applaud your goals.