quote:

Originally posted by Bassamatic:
I've known a few people who have purchased excavators over the years and they have all regretted not getting a bigger one.

Are we talking about excavators, guns or gun safes?

In addition to my other interests I have owned an excavation company for 25 years. CAT makes some good equipment, so does Deere, CASE, Komatsu, Takeuchi, and on and on. The CAT dealer in my area is good, but they don't have the market cornered on good service or parts. Concerning mini excavators I have been running Taki mini excavators since the early 2000's. I cant say enough good things about them. I keep buying them because as a company we are more productive with them. I demoed a 305.5 last Summer, and it couldn't dig with the Taki which is a 2012 with 4K hours on it. If you want a CAT then get one, but don't think that being a CAT makes it more productive than other colors. The new CAT 306 I do think has potential to be a more productive mini ex than what they have ever offered before.

I think the color is less important than specing the machine correctly. Much depends on what your doing with it, you will likely want a thumb, quick coupler. Aux. hyd performance maybe important if you plan on running attachments. Do it right, think hard about what you want. Go to heavyequipmentforums.com Lots of smart excavators and a mountain of experience. Good luck

quote:

Originally posted by ksss:
In addition to my other interests I have owned an excavation company for 25 years. CAT makes some good equipment, so does Deere, CASE, Komatsu, Takeuchi, and on and on. The CAT dealer in my area is good, but they don't have the market cornered on good service or parts. Concerning mini excavators I have been running Taki mini excavators since the early 2000's. I cant say enough good things about them. I keep buying them because as a company we are more productive with them. I demoed a 305.5 last Summer, and it couldn't dig with the Taki which is a 2012 with 4K hours on it. If you want a CAT then get one, but don't think that being a CAT makes it more productive than other colors. The new CAT 306 I do think has potential to be a more productive mini ex than what they have ever offered before.

I think the color is less important than specing the machine correctly. Much depends on what your doing with it, you will likely want a thumb, quick coupler. Aux. hyd performance maybe important if you plan on running attachments. Do it right, think hard about what you want. Go to heavyequipmentforums.com Lots of smart excavators and a mountain of experience. Good luck

Specing the right machine for your needs is key. If you use the machine seriously and uptime matters, it may pay to investigate local dealers and talk to local operators about who does a good job supporting their brand in your area. In my area CAT is very good, John Deere is pretty good, and the rest are pretty much non-existent. I’ve spoken with folks in other areas where it was very different. CAT is a good brand generally (though apparently not the best on the minivators), but if there isn’t a good dealer near you you may be better off with a different brand (color).

I am leaning toward something 24-33hp units. Something in the 8000lb range. Something with rubber tracks, a blade and a thumb. No enclosed cab but a cage and top. A bobcat E26 or E35 or similar.
While not a beast. It can lift up to 2000lbs. Can grab and stack brush. Dig smaller stumps and pile them. Can build forest type roads.

Going to help me be able to be more productive in the forestry management on my property vs me doing it with just a chainsaw and manual labor. I need a tool that can do more, quicker and take a lot of the physical labor out of the equation.

Let me know if this type machine would be a mistake. From what I see my terrain is fine for this type of machine.



Should be able to find a quality unit for around $20k give or take. Something like this.


https://www.tlsequipment.com/i...=0&sps=0&lo=2&snai=0


It can be a Bobcat, Kubota, Deere, Cat, Case and the like. I am open on brand. Kind of looking like something with 2000hrs give or take. Maybe 2010-15 range. Seems very doable.

First excavator versus no excavator, you are way ahead with an excavator. Any excavator no matter the size. Get the biggest machine that matches your budget and be happy. For the stuff you say it needs to do all will be fine. I don't exactly get your terrain but mostly for me the issue on rubber tracks is when it snows and is muddy. avoid that and you won't care. To me the brand issue is one of current pain versus future pain. Buy something that has a decent supply chain and you get less machine upfront as that's in the price. The off brands will just be more annoying later on to get parts and fixed. You may not care as you are not running a business.

Thank you hrc, that is how I see it also.

My terrain is flat to varied. with some benches, and draws. Nothing major. It is forested with grass and dirt with a lot of timber. I can get a 4wd pickup any place and one of my Chevy Astro vans into most of it.

We can get snow. I am not doing a lot of this kind of work with snow on the ground. I can do the saw work in snow and then can use the excavator in the seven or 8 months when the snow is not a factor.

I would prefer to get a brand name machine. Bobcat, Kubota, Cat. JD, etc.

There is a rental yard that has a Bobcat unit with in 25 miles of me. I am not sure the model. It is an older unit (15-20 yrs.). I am thinking it could be in the 25-30hp range. I am going to check it out soon.

Thanks again guys.

I have little interest from a practical / real-life perspective on “Excavator’s 101”, but this is a fascinating, interesting and very informative discussion!

Wish that I’d checked it out sooner.

Thanks everyone!

Stay safe and healthy!!

ok guys, turns out there is an E35 bobcat with a hyd thumb and 12" bucket I can rent with in a reasonable distance to me. So in the next couple of weeks I am going to knab it for a couple of days and give it a whirl. If I can get a fair amount done in 16 hrs it may be a situation where I can rent it a couple times a year and make the progress I am wanting. If I will need it more than buying one with in my price range will be the probable outcome. I will report back once I rent it for the couple days. Thanks again for all your help and advice. You guys (SF) are truly the best!

I don't have heavy equipment experience. I've been around it but never operated one (except for a skid steer Bob cat 25 years ago).

If you're looking for used equipment. If you only need it for occasional use, perhaps look for a higher miles/hour unit (cheaper) but larger/more capabilities than you'd need (size, weight, attachments).

Just an idea.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
ok guys, turns out there is an E35 bobcat with a hyd thumb and 12" bucket I can rent with in a reasonable distance to me. So in the next couple of weeks I am going to knab it for a couple of days and give it a whirl. If I can get a fair amount done in 16 hrs it may be a situation where I can rent it a couple times a year and make the progress I am wanting. If I will need it more than buying one with in my price range will be the probable outcome. I will report back once I rent it for the couple days. Thanks again for all your help and advice. You guys (SF) are truly the best!

Be sure to post some pictures!

This (Dale the Builder's new Kubota Mini Excavator)



Plus this (an old and very decrepit chicken coop. This pic is 20-ish years old)



Equals this, in about 5 minutes. Giggled like a 10 year old girl at a pajama party the whole time.

Thanks for the pix PH. That is probably a $75k machine.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Thanks for the pix PH. That is probably a $75k machine.

I built it on the Kubota website - $88K and I missed a couple of the attachments he has. With the ditching bucket, the tree grinder and the new trailer to haul it all on, I bet he spent close to $100,000

Update: Ok guys I did rent the Bobcat E35 zts with metal tracks for a couple of days.

It was great. First day a track came off after 2 hours. That shut us down for most of the day. Got it fixed late in the day and got a total of six hours on it. Second day I did a 9-1/2 hour day for a total of 15-1/2 hours of the alloted sixteen hours.

When the machine was delivered the guy mentioned the one track looked a little loose. Hence it came off. We are very rural and some of this is what we deal with. So it was ok. We worked with the owner for several hours to get it back up and running. Once that was done the machine worked well.

Overall the machine was enough to do what I planned to do for the most part. When you are on the clock there is never enough time and excavator work does not go quickly.

I figured the machine out pretty quickly and will say I felt pretty proficient pretty quick.

Excavators are pretty versatile. You can do a lot of different things with them.

I would of liked to got a lot more done. But what we did get done looked amazing.

They are expensive to rent. It was a little over $700 for two days. That included fuel and delivery pickup.

I can rent a machine for a month for about $3k. That would be awesome and my estimate for time that I need one is about that. I would not need to be on the machine 40hrs a week for 4 weeks but having it at my disposal for a full month would allow me to get a lot done.

This was bit of an experiment. Which overall went well. Told me that a small excavator is something that will do what I need done with enough time to do it.

I might try to buy one. Not sure whether a month long rental will be better. I am still undecided.
A couple months rental over a year is $6k vs having one for the duration for $30k hmmmmm.

Glad I did it. Not sure I got over $700 worth of service out of it for the two days. Close I would say. But the experience was well worth it for sure. Thanks guys, orc.

I have learned over the years in renting JLGs and Cranes always go with the weekly or monthly rate.

It saves you a ton of $$ and you can always return it earlier

Nov. 10th update.

Ok guys, would like a little feedback on this machine. This is about the size machine I rented in the spring. Which did what I wanted to do. This one would need a hyd. thumb added. But otherwise is about what I am looking for and wondering what your thoughts are on it and the price. If you feel as though this is a dud I would like to know as well. Thanks.

https://www.machinerytrader.co...273/2006-bobcat-331g

My contribution:

https://avatarhost.files.wordp...xcavator-60x60-1.png

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Nov. 10th update.

Ok guys, would like a little feedback on this machine. This is about the size machine I rented in the spring. Which did what I wanted to do. This one would need a hyd. thumb added. But otherwise is about what I am looking for and wondering what your thoughts are on it and the price. If you feel as though this is a dud I would like to know as well. Thanks.

https://www.machinerytrader.co...273/2006-bobcat-331g

Boy that is a low hour machine for a 2006 model. Are you close enough to look at it in person. I would be worried about the tracks being dry-rotted..

maybe its that I live in the north but I have never seen a dry rotted excavator track. In any case you have to consider the tracks on these machines as a disposable part. I rarely get 500hrs from a set. And for common machines they are not very expensive.

So guys, any feedback on the price for this particular machine?