Bulldozers vs. Front End Loaders

Every day many people drive by construction sites assuming they know what equipment they see building the road or house. In reality, not many of those driving by have any idea what they are looking at; for instance, many people have no idea what the difference is between a bulldozer and a front-end loader. In fact, most people unfamiliar with construction will simply call both of these pieces of heavy equipment a bulldozer. In reality, these construction beasts are built to perform completely different jobs on the work site.

The bulldozer’s main purpose is to push large amounts of dirt, rock, or other materials around a work site without lifting the materials. To perform this, the bulldozer is fitted with a blade that is lowered to the ground and used to basically scrape the material to be moved to its final resting spot. It usually also has a “ripper” or large hook at its rear end that can be pushed into the ground and dragged to loosen dirt. The front-end loader on the other hand can push materials around but is really built to lift these materials and move them to another location or into the back of a truck to be removed from the site. To pick up materials, the loader is fitted with a bucket that can be controlled to tip the materials into the back of a truck.

An additional difference between these two pieces of heavy equipment is how they move and are transported. A bulldozer will most likely be on tracks like a tank. This gives the dozer the traction required to push materials. As a result, the bulldozer will usually require a flatbed truck to transport it from site to site. The front-end loader on the other hand is on wheels and can drive short distances on the roads dependent upon road weight rules.

Many people feel like the machines found on a construction site are very similar, but in reality, each machine is built with a certain job in mind. When used for their designed purposes, these pieces of heavy equipment are very effective, and this is especially true regarding the bulldozer and the front-end loader.