Actually pushed some stuff around today

The seat on these is pretty wide, I was thinking about having my wife drive with me and operate half the levers. After thinking about that for a minute, pulling 10 levers by myself didn't seem so hard anymore. 😄

Ha ha ha. I'm kinda wide myself and no wife to ask for help. But i'm with you, that probably wouldn't be such a good idea. You know what they say about women drivrs. No, I didn't say that!

Hi, Hdonly.
Yep, there a few things to keep you busy onna stick shift cable controlled dozer. One tip that you may find helpful regarding the actual dozing part of it all - try focussing on keeping the blade where you want it to be and using the information gathered by your eyes and the feel of the seat under your 'favorite rump steak' to tell you what you need to do to keep it where you want it. Anticipation is a big part of this but usually only comes with practice.

Some people laugh at this idea but it does work. Every time you are driving it from point to point, try 'shadow dozing' - keeping the blade as close to the ground as you can without letting it touch. This will help you to understand what your eyes and your butt are telling you about what the machine is doing on the ground that it is passing over.

Just my 0.02.

With a cable blade ALWAYS chase the blade up otherwise you might end up with the blade crashing down n busting the cables eg when backing off wind rows.

I figured that out today, keeping the blade close but not on the ground trying to see just how much the blade moves in relation to changes in the ground.

As for chasing the blade, I kinda figured that out after crashing to the ground when backing away from the debris pile. Didn't bust any cables, but I can sure see how it happens. I can see that this cable blade needs a lot of my attention. I had some of you on here tell me about quick bumps on the blade control instead of trying to feather it up and down. Even when I'm not on the dozer and just sitting around thinking about it, I try to remember all the tips that you real operators have given me.