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Usually considered a grading tractor, although people will try it, years ago, I used to work for a friend who did excavation jobs, operating those size tractors, he used to take jobs like building ponds that outclassed the size tractor or equipment needed, and would attempt jobs at wrong time of year, no fun when you really need something else to do the job. I've encountered those soil conditions while operating equipment for site contractors years ago, it's not easy to deal with rocks, especially if they are the size of a D3, smaller rocks the better when using a dozer, larger rocks, better to have a big excavator, use the dozer to push off the spoil. The first thing that comes to mind with a D3, even late model, is that the blade is 6 way, unlike on larger tractors, they have side push arms mounted to the track frames. You could damage a 6 way when trying to get the edge of the blade onto a large rock. You will be able to strip soil from the site, but once you get into those rocks it may be difficult going depending on their size, if they are like in the mountains, you won't get far, but if like in the glacial till around here, it may go easier even with some larger rocks, hardpan with rocks, that could be some tough digging. Consider your excavation depth, size of pond, estimate the amount of material you would like to move, then look at your pushing distances, even when making a slot to push off excavated material, the longer you have to push it, the less effecient it is to use a dozer, small grading tractor will have to make a lot of passes, 1-2 acre pond is large enough to create a lot of fill, depending on how deep you want to go. Never hurts to give it a try, strip some topsoil, work a machine for a day, see what it does, but the time comes quick when you need to make a decision as to whether it will do the work you need done. Once you open a site up, also have to consider what if you don't finish and it starts to fill with water etc. It's nice to get a pond excavated and graded promptly, while it's dry, get part of the way through, can make things difficult depending on the site and soil conditions.
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