Terramite big enough?

[Richard]

Big enough for what I'm not sure as my father is NOT one for accurate descriptions.

That said, I'm going out of state to help him over the July 4th weekend.

He said he needs to clear out some brush up the the diamater of 8 inches. Though I think he said the diamater of a cantalope /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

He priced a small trac-hoe and just now found out he can get a Terramite (sp?) for probably a bit cheaper. My recollection about those is they are very light??

Imagine a THICK hedgerow. The electric company cleaned a large swath of it out while they were doing maintainence on their power line. He wants to reclaim the area for grass.

Evidently there are "tons" of stubble, stumps and just junk sticking out of the ground anywhere from sapling up to "the diamater of a canalope or watermellon" (his exact words if not exact spelling)

So, if you have stumps the size of those fruits, tree species unknown, (near Columbia, SC) would a Terramite be sufficient or would a trac hoe be better...? how about a Kubota B21/L35 size? I like the rubber wheels and loader buckets too (over trachoe)

Thoughts?? & Thanks

 

[ScottAR]

I wouldn't get anything smaller than the mini ex or L35 unless the area is very tight. More power the better for stubborn stumps.

 

[jim_wilson]

I rented a Terramite once a few years ago - I remember the backhoe as having some decent power - but I couldn't dig with the front bucket very well. The Terramite has only the rear wheels driven - no 4WD, and the bucket on the one I rented did not have a toothbar. If you really want to make short work of all the stumps I would recommend renting the trackhoe. A decent size trackhoe will probably do a much better job than the Terramite will.

You might also want to check out the Home Depot's in your area, if they have a rental section some of them have started carrying JCB mini-excavators and a small JCB TLB that is about the same size as the Terramite TLB but looks more capable ( to me anyway ).

 

[Berniep]

I rented a Terramite a couple of years ago and it had 4wd.
It also had decent power. My neighbor who had just used his employers big cat backhoe was impressed with the power of the little thing (not that it came anywhere close to the cat)
I used to live in Charleston and got up around columbia once in a while and it seems I remember the soil was kinda sandy. Might make it easier to get those stumps out than if they were in hard clay. With the terramite you will have a better way to smooth out the ground afterwards than if you used the trac hoe. Also you might look for a place on the property to get some fill dirt to fill the holes, and as close as possible to the work site, those terramites don't travel very fast. I used the backhoe to loosen an area of dirt then scoop it up in the bucket.


With all that said it might take a lot longer to do this job than you think A good operator with a with the right sized equipment can knock it out pretty fast and might not be much more expensive than renting the equipment for the whole time it would take you to do it with the small equipment.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Phred]

With all due respect to the other guys comments.....

Here is my two cents:
A few years ago I called up and reserved a compact tractor with a backhoe attachment. It was suppose to be a NH compact tractor.
I showed up and it was a terramite. They said the could not get the NH back in time and all they had was the terramite.
I took it beacuse I needed to get the job done and did not know any better.
Bottom line is that IMHO it was a piece of junk and not worth towing to my place.

Get the mini-excavator. I have used many of these and the difference is night and day.
You can use one as a mini dozer for small areas and they will dig circles around even a full size back hoe, because you do not need to set any stabilizer arms. Dig, move back or forward dig more, etc all in one smooth process.
Also you can take one of these on some very steep ground. I have had one on a hill that would have flipped a terramite even without digging. When you get to pulling with the hoe you can flip over pretty easily on a hill side.

Only negative is they are very heavy. You need at least a 3/4 ton truck to tow an excavator. If memory serves the average rental sized unit is about 7K all by itself. Add in a trailer and you will be the better part of 10K easily.
When I load one I also put a set of jack stand under the trailer end. The heavy weight of the tracks is hard on the tow vehcile unless you have some stands, or ramps that have built in supports.

Fred

 

[dummy]

Terramite T5? No. T9, maybe. How big of a lot?

Sunbelt
If you look here, they have a couple locations around Columbia and...... they rent JCB TLB's /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif or another nice attraction, the JD 555 with a 4n1 /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[grandad]

I'd have to agree. I've rented Terramite's a few times. Sometimes they were in OK condition and I could do some decent work with them; other times the unit I got was so beat up it couldn't dig out a dandelion!

Terramite is good for light-duty landscaping, etc. But if I had a hedgerow of stumps and brush that absolutely, positively needed to be taken out, renting a Terramite - even a new one - is sending a boy to do a man's job. That's a job for a trackhoe, L35/L48/JD110, skidsteer or even a small dozer.