I rented a mini excavator this weekend!

[finn]

I dug about 200 ft of water line at the farm early this winter. I really appreciated the bigger machine when digging a 6-ft hole. Dug the hole in a few hours and I won't claim to be that great of an operator. Has good reach and lift capacity too. I set cement curbs for the pit with it.

Downside is it's heavy. Almost too much for a pickup unless you got a heavy gooseneck trailer. I've hauled it on a 14K bumper hitch trailer but it's overweight.

I did about four hundred feet of drain tile with the 26G. All sandy soil, so it was no problem. Also excavated maybe fifteen F450 dump truck loads of grapefruit to football, or maybe basketball sized rocks that were buried maybe a hundred years ago when a half dozen housing sites were cleared for workers at a remote dynamite manufacturing installation. Looks like they picked the rocks, probably by hand, and buried them to get them out of the way for basements and gardens.

Where the 26g is limited is large stumps and moving large birch logs. It gets a little tippy swinging logs off the side. I have about a half dozen birch, oak, and maple stumps to do this summer. We’ll see how that goes.

Fun machine, though, and it fits in my garage, with a 9’ door for the winter.

 

[greg13]

Any brand that you would say is better then another in the used market?

Right now we have Bobcats, JCB and JD in the fleet. Personally I think JD will out dig the others. If you are large I find the cabs on JCB & JD a little tight. You pay extra for the Bobcat name. I have found that with ALL of the new Tier 4F motors fuel problems are HUGE. The systems are so tight for emissions ANY dirt that gets past the filters takes the whole system out $$$$.

 

[930dreamer]

I have a tank removal service scheduled for this week.

EDIT: All the tanks are removed and documented.

 

[930dreamer]

North side of the shop is free from obstacles.

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

I'm jealous. I have been looking for one for four years without success. My 12k original max price is now 17k and I still haven't found one worth buying, or someone beats me to it.

Ditto, but I haven't been looking nearly as long.
With my champagne tastes (and beer budget), I convinced myself that I need an enclosed cab, a/c, a hydraulic thumb, and enough power to dig out stumps without having to fight them all day.

Oh, and low enough hours that I don't have to wrench on it every time I use it.

After searching tons of ads and following a lot of auctions nationwide, and bidding on a few, I finally lost my mind and bought a new Kubota with 60 month 0% financing . Getting delivered tomorrow... let the buyer's remorse begin!

 

[930dreamer]

What model did you pick?

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

What model did you pick?

It's a KX057-5. Probably more machine than I need, but I only want to do this once.

 

[MennoR.]

I always fancied one but living in an area where a lot of neighbours have one 'on site', makes it easier to ask a neighbour to help me. One of them came to help for (in total 1.5 day) earlier this Spring: digging up a part of a lawn for a new gravel path, flattening 500m2/5300 sq ft for a new lawn. 'Flattening' in this case: pulling stumps, getting rid of all sorts of trees and shrubs.

In return, he gets a cord of wood (or more) for his log burner. Everybody is happy.

 

[jblnut]

Any brand that you would say is better then another in the used market?

Look for dealers that service them and stock parts then decide on brand. For the most part they'll all do what you need to do but support is king in my book.

It's a KX057-5. Probably more machine than I need, but I only want to do this once.

That is a nice machine !!!!

We purchased a Bobcat 331E a while back thinking it'd be nice to repair tile lines and who knows what else. We've put 350-400hrs a year on it since we purchased it. It's the most used piece of machinery on the farm.

The next one will be a Deere 60G or a Bobcat E60. One always wants a larger machine

 

[4xdog]

I always fancied one but living in an area where a lot of neighbours have one 'on site', makes it easier to ask a neighbour to help me...

...Everybody is happy.

Yes, but did your neighbor let you drive?

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

We purchased a Bobcat 331E a while back thinking it'd be nice to repair tile lines and who knows what else. We've put 350-400hrs a year on it since we purchased it. It's the most used piece of machinery on the farm.

The next one will be a Deere 60G or a Bobcat E60. One always wants a larger machine

That always seems to be the case. The shop is never big enough, the trailer, the truck, and so it goes.

I'm not sure if I'm more intimidated by the machine or the price tag, but I think they're both plenty big for me, at this point!

 

[MennoR.]

Yes, but did your neighbor let you drive?

No, and I wouldn't. Like using a chainsaw, I'm very careful when it comes to using machines I don't 'know'.

 

[sgf13]

I make sure and have some cash around if something comes up on the weekend I want. I drove 5 hours from NM to divide CO to get a Bobcat trencher attachment that was brand new for $3000. The ONLY reason I got it was I had cash on the weekend and I left to get it at 6am on a Sunday. One more day and 50 other guys would have bought it.

I'm sure you'll get one if you keep after it.

I finally took the plunge in June. It took me this long to say so because Garage Journal seems to have disappeared from Tapatalk. I ended up with a Takeuchi TB 015. At 3300 lbs. it is smaller than I'd hoped for but in less than two months I have successfully used it five times so hopefully it'll work out for me.

 

[rockcrawler]

I rented one from HD that had a hydraulic thumb. Rented it the day before Christmas. That way I got it for two days for the price of one. Spent two days clearing a bunch of trees, root and all. Man, that thing was super useful. Plucked at lot of trees by just leaning on them and then just pulling up. Wish I had one. I could have used it ten times since then. If you rent one to remove trees or even move cut down trees, get one with the thumb. You will not regret it.

 

[930dreamer]

My F350 transmission went out so no equipment renting until it's rebuilt.

 

[Juiced06GTO]

I also work for an equip rental company. We rent mostly Takeuchi up our way (North East). They have been great machines, I prefer them over the JD/Bobcat/Kubota's I have run. We do have some of those mixed in the fleet, but have had the best luck from Tak.

 

[yelchevelle]

If you think a thumb is handy, you should use a bobcat powertilt with a 4’ grading bucket. We install concrete pavers, and I bought one for my e26 bobcat 1.5 years ago. I went to the dealership to buy a skid steer, and I ended up with a skid steer and mini. My payment was cheaper than what I was paying in rent every month on just a skid steer. I can do the same job with a three man crew now that I used to do with 5. Plus I pick up a lot of small job, high margin “side work” that I never would do if I rented. I have only done it a couple of times, but that powertilt is amazing at cleaning out ditches.

 

[Sumboodie]

***** that it not have a hydraulic thumb. It makes them much more versatile.

$40k will get you started rburke65

Yup. The minis are $$.l because they are handy and easy to move.

Get into an 8-12k hr 200ish sized machine and they are often cheap.

Freind paid $16k for a Hitachi 200. Need a lowboy to move.
It paid for itself after 2 or 3 jobs, he's had it ~10 years now and done little to it

 

[Sumboodie]

I make sure and have some cash around if something comes up on the weekend I want. I drove 5 hours from NM to divide CO to get a Bobcat trencher attachment that was brand new for $3000. The ONLY reason I got it was I had cash on the weekend and I left to get it at 6am on a Sunday. One more day and 50 other guys would have bought it.

I'm sure you'll get one if you keep after it.

I bought a Ditch Witch 460 a few weeks ago for 2500 Planning on turning it into a mini log skidder.
Has a ~100hp douche (deutz) engine