I’ve never heard a bad report … touch wood.With the old-style open cabin, steering clutches protruding from the dash cowling with brakes left- and right-side floor-mounted and three-speed forward and reverse transmission perfectly located on the left hand of the seat, the operator is made quite at ease. But if you can source a set of ear plugs, a hat and some glasses, it may minimise the health effects on you by the end of a big shift. Heading up the front is a well-designed blade, followed up by a good set of three-tine hydraulic rippers (pulling two), very similar to those you could find on a Komatsu Dozer of similar size.
Big pushes and full blades were the order of the day for me; I just had to see if it performed once in work mode as, to this point, it had all the boxes ticked.To the right of the big chair and at elbow height are the ripper controls – a bit sloppy but they work fine – and a full set of working gauges smack bang in the centre of the console. Shantui Bulldozer, Dozer, Shantui Sd22 Bulldozer manufacturer / supplier in China, offering Shantui Bulldozer SD22 Cummins Engine 220HP Equivalent to Cat D7, Generator Set Spare Part Model 501K Deep Sea Control Module, Engine Spare Parts and so on. The Chinese-manufactured Shantui 220hp dozer … I’ve got to give it a thumbs up.The Cat D6R Series III dozer is a modern, reliable brush clearerThat question aside, I had my chance to crank the old girl up and give her a bit of a workout while in the quarry. Phil commented that this engine has been a godsend with nothing failing and through regular servicing and maintenance it has performed exceptionally. The upgrades to the Shantui dozer line was identified by the New York Times as one of the primary concerns for Caterpillar's business in Russia. A few boxes ticked already.Fortunately enough, this big girl is running a tried-and-true big-cam six-cylinder Cummins 220hp turbo-diesel engine and it runs like a clock. Word of note – you will get dusted.No transmission slop or fade when I engaged the clutches to get this rig off the ground; steering direct; brakes all good; and hydraulics doing exactly what they were designed for. McCarthy Heavy Equippment (MHE) isa subsiduary of Bidvest (top 100 company) and MHE imports the Shantui range of dozers into southern Africa. Overall, it’s a tidy-looking bit of gear.I get to talk to lots of contractors and operators, and all have a favourite engine or make of dozer, which have ‘bragging rights’ for some reason or another. Shantui Dozers HI Guys - My name is Rob Baker and I am based in Durban South Africa. Phil Sweet of Sweet’s Strawberry Runners, who just happens to supply about 30 per cent of Australia’s strawberry plants, surprisingly gave us the nod and without hesitation we decided to head up the paddock and into the quarry for a play.With a bit of a crook back and neck due to some severe work injuries over many years, I opted not for the quarry but towards some topsoil stockpiles across the paddock to continue my overall review on this big girl.The old girl ticked most of the boxes you could wish for and, relevant to the purchase price, I think the Sweet crew should be happy with the purchase and outcome. If the old girl thought of doing it in semi-retirement mode on the Strawberry farm, well, it was in for a big shock.The big ‘square boofhead’ nose, the aftermarket scrub canopy and roll cage tend to hide the shape of the ‘big girl’ but it is robust and tough in looks and fits in just perfectly in this rough and rocky terrain.
It is as conforming as you could ever wish for and one does not require an extra bag of brains to sort this out.Now, for those like me who are not in the know, Shantui is a Chinese state-owned company, (Shantui Construction Machinery Co Ltd) founded in 1980, and now finds itself as one of the top 50 manufacturers of construction machinery in the world. In 2009, the Shandong Heavy Industry Group was established and Shantui became one of its subsidiaries.A daily driver; parts availability via Komatsu confirmed; cheap alternative; and performed well – there’s not much more you can want if you ask me. It could have been mistakenly identified as another major brand of dozer of around the D7/D8 (ish) size, so subtle was its design, and definitely not like the Chinese-manufactured farm tractors we see all over the place that clearly make a ‘made in China’ statement in design. Shantui has increasingly developed bigger dozers, capable of competing against the large products made by Caterpillar Inc. and Komatsu.