Dozers have been used since the 1920s and are now an integral piece of earth-moving equipment. You'll find them at almost every job site and construction site, used with backhoes, cranes, excavators, rough-terrain forklifts and front loaders. Dozers are also often used in farming.

Bulldozers are similar to crawler tractors because of the track that's used in the place of wheels. It's easy to distinguish from a crawler tractor, even though many appear the same. Bulldozers are typically much larger, and have the heavy blade in the front design to push material, where crawler tractors can be fitted with a variety of attachments in front and not just a blade or pusher. Often, crawler tractors fitted with this blade are called bulldozers, but true dozers don't have removable blades and are used for only earth and material pushing.

Unlike many types of equipment like forklifts that come in both electric and fuel-powered models, bulldozers are always run by an internal combustion engine. This gives them the necessary hot running temperature and power needed for earth-moving that an electric engine couldn't come close to supplying. The engine is also better suited for outdoor work than an electric engine. The engines are diesel, which are more fuel-efficient and less prone to breakdowns than engines that run on standard gasoline. And they also can offer more horsepower--up to 700 horsepower in some models.

When you're looking at the variety of earth-moving and construction equipment available, you'll see that dozers are unique because of their long, steel blade and rotating tracks. Other equipment often sits on wheels. The blade is attached by lever arms that can lift and lower the blade.

Bulldozers are often a preferable piece of equipment because of the tracks they use instead of wheels. When the dozers are needed to push piles of dirt, it's often because the area has been cleared and dug. Tracks sink into loose and soft soil far less than wheels do, and they also cause fewer changes in the ground they move over because the weight is distributed more evenly along the entire length of the equipment than it would be if the equipment were on four wheels.

The track also makes dozers a type of equipment that's going to work regardless of the terrain. Because each track has dozens of points of contact with the ground as opposed to a small point of contact spread among 4 tires, it gets much better traction. Mud, loose soil, rocky terrain and even snow and ice are no match for a dozer. The tracks allow for maximum gripping and traction no matter what surface there is.

Cabs on dozers are enclosed and steel-framed to offer maximum safety and protection to the operator. The operator can move the dozer in any direction as well as lower and raise the massive blade on the front of the machine. Some models allow the operator to operate each track independently, allowing the dozers to be turned in a smaller space and making them more efficient.

Photo Credits: Seriously Photographic (Jim)

Originally posted 2010-04-06 03:16:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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construction, Handy Man, Tools

Tags:

1920s, breakdowns, bulldozers, construction equipment, construction site, cranes, crawler tractor, earth moving equipment, excavators, front loaders, horsepower, integral piece, internal combustion engine, lever arms, long steel, pusher, rough terrain forklifts, soft soil, steel blade, tractors