Types of Dozers – and which one is right for your construction project?

When you need to hire a dozer there are a few factors you need to consider before calling a hire company. While all dozers do the same basic task, they vary massively in size and the type of projects they work on. Dozers for hire can be found on residential construction, road construction, quarries and mines across Australia. While the actual design and attachments of a dozer for hire rarely change, dozer hire companies often specialise in a type of work or industry.

Dozers are a classic construction machine that have been around for over a century. Otherwise known as bulldozers, they were originally built to push large quantities of soil, sand and other materials during construction works. Dozers for hire also often have a ripper attached at the back to loosen densely compacted ground materials. Thanks to advancements in GPS technology dozers are now capable of clearing and grading land accurately as well.

If you’re looking for a dozer to hire you probably have some serious materials to move. A dozer, unlike a skid steer loader or front loader, doesn’t have the ability to perform a range of tasks. However, dozers are the best machine for what they do. Dozers are designed to push and pull with immense force over close to any terrain. Below you’ll find two factors that will ultimately help you decide which type and size of dozer you need, making your search both easier and faster.

What type of dozer do you need to hire?

Tracked Dozers

When you’re going to hire a dozer you need to know that there are three different types. The first is the standard tracked dozer. Tracked dozers are the original model of dozer and the most popular. The tracks enable the dozer to have higher traction on different terrains, enabling it to expel more force and get the job done faster.

Swamp Dozers

The only major difference between a tracked dozer and a swamp dozer is the size of the tracks. Swamp dozers for hire use extra wide tracks to ensure the weight of the dozer can be distributed over the largest possible area. This makes them perfect for swampy or sandy areas where a wheeled or normal tracked dozer or other vehicle would get bogged.

Wheeled Dozers

Wheeled dozers on the other hand are often mistaken for front loaders but are very different. Dozers are not designed to lift and carry materials, only push them, which is fundamentally different to a front loader. Wheeled dozers are also designed more for speed and maneuverability than power.

What size dozer do you need to hire?

Deciding which dozer you need to hire can be a tricky task as there’s little general information on the internet that helps you. Different size dozers for hire are separated by a class definition such as D5 and D10, however this classification doesn’t directly related to the weight or force of the machine. Because of this dozers for hire are broken into class groups where a number of different sizes are capable of completing the same job.

To start, the most popular class group is the D5, D6 and D7 dozers. This size dozer is found on the widest range of projects, from agriculture, small quarries and road construction to name a few. D6 dozers for hire in particular are starting to become more popular in road construction thanks to the improvements in GPS technology and new power-angle-tilt (PAT) blades as they can dig out the new road construction and grade to the same trim as graders. Medium sized dozers are also used on housing and industrial developments, forestry projects and bulk earthworks for land clearing and grading.

Smaller dozers on the other hand, such as Drott dozers and D3 and D4 dozers, are used sparingly in Australia. However, when they are used it is often for smaller agricultural and forestry works or for detailed trim work on housing estates. Swamp dozers rarely get any bigger than a D7 as they’re designed to work on soft grounds, although a D7 still has enough power to knock over mature trees.

Large dozers such as the D9, D10 and D11 dozers are built for mining and quarry projects. Their job is to push ground materials, whether that be coal or dirt or minerals, normally for excavators to load into haul trucks. Wheeled dozers are also used specifically on major quarry and mining sites for their speed and maneuverability. The work they generally do is the clean up of haul roads and stockpiles.

Now you’re ready to hire a Dozer

Once you’ve decided which type and size of dozer you need to hire, calling a dozer hire company is the easy part. A thing to remember though is the bigger they come, the harder they get to transport so it’s best that you work with the hire company to arrange the transport of your dozer. Often getting the dozer to site is the hardest part, once you’ve got it there it’s ready to be put to work. To get in contact with dozer hire companies across Australia do a search through iSeekplant.com.au or give us a call on 1300 691 912.