Mini Excavator vs Compact backhoe vs bobcat attach hoe

[bimmer1980]

Hey Guys,
I did a search but didn't come up with anything.....

I need to dig the trenchs for my 3' foundation walls, electrical runs and plumbing runs. I have the option to rent the following:

Bobcat 323 for $210 per day, $310 per weekend, plus $65 for delivery

Kubota B-21 back hoe for $210 per day, $310 per weekend, plus $65 for delivery

Massey GC2310 for $195 per day or $295 per weekend, plus $25 for delivery.

Also have a 709 hoe that the bobcat dealer says would work on my bobcat 642 (I have the aux hydros and the hook attach) that rents for $95 a day and $135 per weekend. I think I could haul this in my 4x8 trailer--it weighs about 1400lbs.

Experience with any of these machines??? I'm looking for input from people who have actually used these machines or similar.

I have about 180 ft of foundation and about 100' of electrical and 60 ft of plumbing.

Is this doable in a weekend?

Thanks!

 

[nate379]

I am looking at running power about that long this weekend and the mini-ex they have down the road is $225/day or the 36" trencher (what I call a ditch witch, but it's not a ditch witch brand) is $190. Thinking about getting the ditch witch since I have never run an excavator before. 36" is plenty deep for power.

 

[A_Pmech]

Mini excavator, all the way!

When I dug the foundations and pit for my place, I rented a mid-sized Bobcat trackhoe. I believe it was a 3.5 ton unit. I had the pit and footings dug over a weekend, but I had previous equipment operating experience.

When digging with a hoe, remember that the bucket curl has the breakout force. You dig with the bucket curl, not the boom or stick. On an ISO standard control setup, swivel is left to right on the left stick, boom is up and down on the left stick. Bucket curl is left to right on the right stick, and stick is up and down on the right stick.

To dig, set the depth with the boom and apply pressure with the stick to plant the teeth while curling the bucket to break out the soil. Towards the bottom of the hole, sweep the bucket in the trench with the stick to obtain a flat bottom. A few hours with it and you should be doing fairly well.

Remember, footings must be on undisturbed soil. So, remove the bucket teeth before beginning that stage of the task, or dig very carefully. Raking the teeth though the bottom of your trench means hand work with a shovel, as the soil has been disturbed to a depth of several inches.

Backhoes are harder to operate in my opinion due to the design of the controls. They're also less productive, because you have to bring up the outriggers and swivel the seat around to drive forward on the trench. With a trackhoe, simply pull back the track levers for a few seconds.

 

[wakeboarder311]

stay away from the skid steer attachment its a pain in the *** to get out and move every time. you are doing alot of digging so think about getting out every 4' to 5' to move. go with the mini

 

[Joe92GT]

Mini excavator all the way.

 

[snorky18]

I've only used a mini-excavator out of what you listed (don't recall what size, but the bucket was 18" wide), but I can't imagine anything being more efficient for digging trenches for foundations and pipes at the appropriate depths and soil strength (You're not going to hit rock 3" under the surface are you?)

I had never run one before, and it took me a total of ~7 hours to put in 100' long french drain with one other guy, and I'm a perfectionist. The slope was only about 0.5% (as in 6" fall per 100' run), so with my inexperience it took a lot of time to dig carefully to establish that with a large piece of equipment.

If you've never run one before get them to drop it off out in the open somewhere, and spend a couple mins getting familiar with controls before you taking it anywhere "restrictive", like up next to buildings or trees.

I'm just an unemployed civil engineer who used to drive a desk, but I would think all that should be easy do-able in one weekend as long as you're in soil, not rock, and as long as you already have everything painted up (existing utilities, proposed foundation and utlities) before you rent the machine.

 

[twostory]

I also vote for a mini-excavator. The bucket can be 16" or 24" wide. Get whatever size make sense for the ditches you are digging.

I recently rented a 6,000# Bobcat model. The more mass the excavator has, the better you can dig and it will reach farther. The next size up (10,000#) is too large for most work. You have probably seen the 3,500# size at you rental center.

As for learning to use it. it takes a while. I have about 50 hours in running them & I can dig the ditch fairly level, but I always hand dig the last few inches of a footer (need that undisturbed soil)

I also had the opportunity to watch a professional a few times, you can learn a lot by watching (after you have run the excavator for a few hours).

 

[TRTOOLSUPPLY]

Bimmer,
If you have to haul away any excess soil or carry pipe etc. use the backhoe.....use the mini if you are not hauling off soil but just back filling..but if you have your own skid loader,just go with the mini.

Most all the mini have a selector lever to switch from JD controls to CAT(ISO) controls,usually behind a cover right above the tracks or under the engine cover.
You can easily move the backhoe down the ditch line by raising your front bucket and using the backhoe(rear bucket,stick&boom) to push the hoe along.
Don't take BIG bites,just nice even scraps a few inches at a time..it is faster than ripping out big chunks..to level the bottom of the ditch,just curl up the teeth on your bucket..the heel & bottom will leave a nice flat cut.

How do I know.... I am an Operating Engineer(heavy equipment operator).

 

[hodag]

The Bobcat mini track hoe dug my 42" deep, 22'x36' trenches in about 5 hours. My buddy was a equipment operator for the Air Force, and he made it look easy. I only had to do about 40 mins worth of shovel work.

We found roots from an old stump and it went through them eventually too.

The hoe was the middle of the 3 sizes the rental place had. I towed it behind my diesel F250.

 

[Pritch]

I am an exellent back hoe operator, but I think I would get the Mini-X. The point about hauling off the spoil is valid, though.

I like the JD control set-up, intead of Cat, but I have nearly all of my operating hours in John Deere equipment, so I'm biased.

 

[bimmer1980]

I did end up with the Bobcat 331. It was a step up from the original machine I was looking at renting, but I'm glad I did. The extra HP and reach made it a lot easier.

I was able to dig everything you see in about 11 hours on the hour meter. It took me a lot longer than that in total time, as I used my skid loader to move the dirt away from the center of the garage.

I was like a big kid in a big sandbox! I had a lot of fun digging. It may not have been as perfect as a professional, but I enjoyed it!

thanks for all the input guys!!

 

[logical]

Is a plain old big trencher unit an option?

 

[vartz04]

Get the mini. My dad rented one about 6 months ago to dig a ditch from the house to the pond and tied it into our footing drain. At the house we were about 10' deep and then ran it out the birm around the pond 500 feet away. It took me 10 hours to dig it did it all in one shot and just stopped for lunch. Also did this in march when it was cold as hell. It is a lot of fun since all day at work I watch the pro's dig I had ideas on the best ways to move to make things as efficent as possible. I wish we had to do it again so I could do some more opperating haha

 

[Costner]

Did you guys happen to read his follow-up post? He said he already rented the 331 and the job is done.

Looks good bimmer - and looks like it was a heck of a lot of fun!

 

[Hades12]

 

[Rocketman17]

Hi, I'm a complete newbie to this, and want to rent a mini-excavator to dig a trench around my foundation, 80' altogether. Can this be done in an 8hr. rental?

 

[APEowner]

Hi, I'm a complete newbie to this, and want to rent a mini-excavator to dig a trench around my foundation, 80' altogether. Can this be done in an 8hr. rental?

There are a lot of variables including soil and depth. Also, are you going to dig, install drain tile and then refill? For a first timer I don't think it's realistic to think that you can even get it dug in 8 hrs and I really doubt you could dig, do any work and back fill in that amount if time.

 

[LXCam]

Hi, I'm a complete newbie to this, and want to rent a mini-excavator to dig a trench around my foundation, 80' altogether. Can this be done in an 8hr. rental?

When you say around the foundation do you mean tight against it or a few feet away. If it's up tight, you might be better off with a offset hoe.