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The 955 was known to be a good performer, and reliable. I can attest to its reputation based on spending many hours on these and its cousin the 977. It sounds like you have a fair amount of work to do, some of which is suited to the 955, like clearing. With a regular bucket you can pick and stack trees, dig out stumps etc., a 4 in 1 would be excellent, but if you have a mass quantity of stumps to dig, I'd prefer an excavator dig them out or another means. This is hard work for either machine, the 955 will most likely have double bar track pads, with minimal grouser height, which may allow the tracks to spin easily when pushing something with substantial resistance, and the 6 way blade on the 550 is really not meant for popping stumps, a straight blade with push arms and trunions mounted on the track frames is much stronger, so unless you are pushing the entire tree over and taking the root ball with the tree, this is something to consider. Most importantly, remember that clearing is very dangerous work, you will need a R.O.P.S. and or additional protection to insure that if something falls on the machine, you are protected on the operator station. The level of difficulty in clearing the hardwoods will depend on soil conditions, type of trees, and size of trees. Many times we would excavate one side of the root ball out and then push them over from the opposite side, you do need to be very attentive when pursuing work like this, the trunk of the tree provides great leverage, the higher up you can apply force, the greater the breakout force below, something the 955 can do, because the bucket can be raised much higher than the 550. One other difference is that the track frames on the 955 are fixed, rigid or non-oscillating, to provide stability for loading operations on hard ground, as opposed to the 550 which I assume to be just the opposite, because it is a dozer. This allows each track to conform to uneven ground or slopes better, than ones that are fixed, providing better traction. The 550 will be much better at finish grading, you'll spend much more time trying to achieve the same results with the 955. Remember anything on tracks is expensive to run, because undercarriage replacement costs are high, so you want good production, as old timers used to tell me, " Make every push count." Bottom line is that you don't want to spend time putting wear on your tracks and not be getting maximum production, this will also lower the re-sale value as percent worn of the undercariage is a big factor in determining actual worth. It sounds like you may benefit from both machines while doing the work, then once you are done, carefully selecting the one to keep based on your needs would be wise. Having a 2nd one around in case you get stuck, toss a track, or one breaks down is insurance that work can still progress. Don't forget about rental houses, when you have substantial work planned/laid out, its usually very cost effective to bring in a late model rental unit to bang out the work. When building ponds, it's best to make sure to drain out wet areas 1st and let dry so you can work with dry material whenever possible, so if its a wet area, best to plan your moves carefully. Even LGP's are not invincible, they perform great in soggy conditions, but can be sunk. Once you start pumping the water up by running on a wet area, making a mess and getting stuck will soon follow. If you plan to make an existing wet area into a pond, you may want to work around the perimeter in drier areas first and figure a route to create drainage, take advantage of good weather, you don't want to start a job like this in soils like clay and then have rain make things messy, best to dress up the work area each day, smooth out ruts, provide drainage, until finish grading, to avoid creating a mess. A little strategic planning will go a long way here. Hope this is of some help and that the job goes well for you !
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