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These dozers are equipped with six--way blades and wide shoes for low ground pressure. “We are fine grading a lot of pads and if it is a little wet, we don’t want to sink in,” says Foster.

When confronted with very tight spaces, Rodman Excavating will rent smaller dozers. However, Paul Herron, fleet manager, points out, “Ninety--eight percent of the jobs can be completed just with the John Deere 850.”

Operators have a lot of input into which dozers they run. “They are the ones out there every day. They have to be comfortable and be able to put that machine to use,” says Herron.

A Versatile Solution

Another contractor using medium--size dozers for a variety of applications is Robinson Paving Co., a Georgia--based firm with an equipment fleet numbering over 200 pieces. “We do a fair amount of grading,” says Darrell Robinson, general superintendent. “I have a couple of jobs right now that each have about 900,000 cu. yds.”

Robinson Paving uses four Caterpillar 621 wheel scrapers and eight Noble 417 pull--type scrapers pulled in tandem by 9000 Series John Deere four--wheel--drive and Caterpillar Challenger tractors.