Looking for a dozer and operator in California

I knew this would be a good place to ask.  Thanks Bob. pepage, have any idea where I could find a logging road person?  I was going to make a call to the CDF (California Department of Forestry). I thought I'd post a picture of what I mean by the “roads”.  This is a picture during our fire in 2007.  The road actually looks pretty good here but this piece is STEEP.

@Bob: That picture is taken standing on the very edge of the northern property line of Henry Coe State Park.  It looks nice because of my constant maintainance with picks and shovels.  This is why I NEED a little Yukkai dozer.  The job is small if you keep up with it every year.  It's gotten way out of control and now beyond the reach of a little dozer (well unless you have a lot of time on your hands).

@ pepage:  I completely agree with you.  I've watched several dozer operators work back there.  The roads that were built by someone who knows what they are doing are the easiest to maintain.  They build in little swails and such so the water never builds massive ruts.  Also they guys who know what they are doing seem to take a whole lot less time doing it.  I would take an experienced operator with any equipment over an idiot on a big machine.

That picture is of a crazy steep road built by a guy trying to “save us money”.  He took the most direct route straight down hill.  I personally don't think he saved us anything.  I have twelve ditches and four culverts in that road to control run-off.  They are maintained with pick and shovel twice a year.  I would have paid more for a better road believe me!

Just FYI.  (I hate threads that have no conclusion.) 

I found a guy to do the work by calling Henry Coe Park.  I asked them who their “go-to guy” was when the state had some maintenance to do.  He didn't hesitate for one second to recommend this guy.  He has done a bunch of work on the roads back there for years.  Some of the other “neighbors” have used him as well.

For reference: Junior Moretti of Robinson & Moretti.

I'll post pictures and maybe a vid or two for those of you like me who never get tired of watching big machines push dirt around. 

Griz

ok…well I thought I would conclude this thread with a long series of pictures and maybe a video if I can figure it out. 

All this week we will be working on grading our “driveway” (about 2.5 miles) and adding a little bit of new road (~0.5 mile).

First step is accomplished.. got the D6 in to the start.  The driver already impressed me by getting the dozer in ahead of a small storm that happened here in June!  He thought he should run it in ahead of the storm so he didn't damage the state road through the park too bad.  Good thing.  Turned out we got almost and inch of rain!  In June!

He did some minor grading to the state road on the way in and I like what he did.  Good sign.

Here is a pic of the dozer with me (one the left) and my dad (90 years old this Feb!) on the right.

I will update this thread daily as we progress.  There is much to do.  Not sure if anyone really cares but hey….it's got pictures of big machinery!

Ok, an update and a few pics.  I will post a couple of highlight videos as soon as: a) I figure out how to edit and b) how to post to YouTube and c) how the heck to embed the video here. 

First I want to say that Robinson and Morretti have been fantastic.  These guys really know what they are doing and have left us with a very good road so far.  I knew this was going to work out when we met them on a very narrow portion of the road and none of us could backup or get around.  He said, “hang on a sec….I make a spot.”

First pic.  We've been driving in and out everyday.  It's nine miles of off road to get to the “job site”.  Here is a pic of my morning commute:

This is a view of our property.  Pretty much everything you see in this picture and a little more off to the right.  Two things are often said of our little homestead:  “It's all flat…just straight up and down” and “God had some rocks left over after making the earth.  He put 'em here.”  The road we are improving comes right down the back-bone of the middle ridge in the photo.

This picture just gives you an idea of what I mean when I say 'steep'.  You can see the quality of the road he is leaving behind in the very bottom right hand corner of this image.

And this last pic shows the dozer starting down.  He's clearing a little spot for a turn-out.  We put in a switch-back when ever possible.  Sadly it often wasn't possible.  You can see bits and pieces of the old road going down the ridge.  This part is all done now.  We need another day or so to finish the bottom end of this where it gets really steep.  We all had some good ideas.  We'll just have to see which ones work out.

Videos to follow later.  I got some nice high-def shots of the D6 at work.

Thanks for all the compliments guys.  It's been our slave labor camp er…I mean vacation cabin ever since my dad's uncle homesteaded it back in the 20's.

@Bob: yeah some of those roads are old fire trails.  It doesn't look like it now but everything in those pictures burned back in Sept. 2007.  Here is what those same hills looked like then:

Well, I'm off to go do the last bit of road work.  Should be able to get great video of some side-hill work and of him pushing some mighty big rocks.

Ok, here is my very first attempt at video editing / YouTube posting / embedding video here…etc.  I will post the rest if this works out.  I want to get more explicit permission from the dozer driver first though.  He said “ok” but I want to ask again just to make sure.

About this clip:  Just a quick clip to make sure things are working.  It was one of the many “pucker factor” moments we had this week.  I told him this moment made me nervous and he just laughed.  This guy had some serious skills and I'm really happy with the quality of the road he left us with.

ok…can't figure it out after 30 minutes of tinkering.  It will have to wait.

Bob, you seem to be able to do it.  How to you embed a YouTube vid?

http://youtu.be/6HakTm71MrE

yes but that doesn't embed it like I've seen Bob do.

I'll try one more time:

Hmm.. doesn't seem to work for me.  anyone else see the video above?

Clicked on share on Youtube (basically just gives you the link)

http://youtu.be/6HakTm71MrE?hd=1

then clicked on the filmstrip here and pasted the link there.  All I see is a box with a letter F in a circle.

….and yeah Bert it was tough to watch for me.  Especially when he started sliding sideways.  I did learn a huge amount by watching him though.  Some of his techniques confused me at first.  After watching him do the same things over and over I slowly realized the reasoning.  If I get his permission I'll show some clips of what I mean.  Maybe when I get my Yuchai I can try them for myself.  (on a much smaller scale! )

Yeah the video is in full Hi-Def.  You can lower the resolution on the player to speed the download a bit.

Ah HA there is one more detail.  When I click on “Share” to get the link I have to click on “options” then check the box labeled “long link”.  THEN and only then does it work.