Building new home on 1.6 acres.....need a machine

biggeemac · Dec 11, 2019

So a Kubota TLB is preferrable over, say, a full-blown Case backhoe? Do TLB's sell faster?

4570Man · Dec 11, 2019

biggeemac said:
So a Kubota TLB is preferrable over, say, a full-blown Case backhoe? Do TLB's sell faster?

I traded my John Deere 310 for a M59. The 310 would dig circles around the M59 but the M59 is a lot more versatile. If the 310 had all the options the M59 has I’d have kept it.

ovrszd · Dec 11, 2019

How much money are you willing to spend?

Henro · Dec 11, 2019

I dunno, but buying a machine for the purpose of excavating ONE foundation, then trying to sell it seem like a much greater risk than just paying someone to excavate, or renting what is needed to do the job yourself.

Just speaking from personal experience. Built my house 99% myself from the ground up. The other 1 % was friends that happened by at the right time...

So I do have some experience with where the OP is coming from.

Back filling? I did it by hand with a shovel and wheelbarrow... A bx with a loader would have been a blessing. My bet is a BX TLB would suit the OP fine for miscellaneous tasks on 1.5 acres. Could it dig his foundation? Maybe, but it would probably take several months...

As for a slightly larger tractor, whoever said a B series can't move dirt better talk to my tractor. Over the years it has moved hundreds of tons of fill, mostly dumped by trucks though. Digging and moving virgin earth certainly takes a LOT of time with a small tractor. For example, one day I got 16 tri-axle loads of shale to build up my driveway and fill in behind the house next door that I am renovating. That would be over 300 tons easily. At the end of the day it was where I wanted it...

A couple summers ago, I dug and moved several hundred cubic yards of earth to taper the banks around my pond and up near the house. It was a summer project done when the ground was dry, but it was done with my B2910. Granted, I used my dump trailer pulled by my BX2200 to move the dirt from the digging spot to where I needed it. But both are small tractors...

In my mind, not knowing exactly what the short and long term needs of the OP really are, if I were where I seem to think he is, I would probably buy a BX with a loader and backhoe. The BX is also a pretty good mower, which I imaging the OP will need over the years.

I bought both my BX and B when I had 3.7 acres, 2 of which were old farmland that was overtaken by nature for 50 or more years, so I had a lot of things to do at the time. Frankly, I doubt something larger than a BX would work for me long term if I only had 1.5 acres. On the other hand, if things changed and I only had the original 1.5 acres that the house I built sits on, I would probably not sell my B2910, as it has been the hardest worker here over the years and we are pretty good buddies now...

ovrszd · Dec 11, 2019

Let's see, 300 tons of material, moved 1,000lbs per trip, is 600 trips. If each trip took 3 minutes, that's 20 trips per hour. That's 30 hrs of seat time. Pretty good day.

biggeemac · Dec 11, 2019

Well, I can finance pretty much any amount, but I want to be reasonable. If the machine can help and I can use it to eliminate all but a small amount of the moving duties, then spending more isnt a problem. If I end up with a machine that is overkill for maintenance and sell it and lose a few bucks, not a big deal since it pays for itself in convenience and saving backs and hands.

biggeemac · Dec 11, 2019

Kind of bummed......found a nice JD 790 with a backhoe for $13.6k, but its not hst.

ovrszd · Dec 11, 2019

biggeemac said:
If I end up with a machine that is overkill for maintenance and sell it and lose a few bucks, not a big deal since it pays for itself in convenience and saving backs and hands.

Yep. I bought a full sized TLB for $8,500. Did all my own backhoe work laying all my utilities and sewer system. Not sure how many hours I put on it over an 18 month period. Certainly paid for a big part of the cost, if not all. I kept it. So now I've got a good TLB for very little cost. Win/win.

4570Man · Dec 11, 2019

Henro said:
I dunno, but buying a machine for the purpose of excavating ONE foundation, then trying to sell it seem like a much greater risk than just paying someone to excavate, or renting what is needed to do the job yourself.

Just speaking from personal experience. Built my house 99% myself from the ground up. The other 1 % was friends that happened by at the right time... So I do have some experience with where the OP is coming from.

Back filling? I did it by hand with a shovel and wheelbarrow... A bx with a loader would have been a blessing. My bet is a BX TLB would suit the OP fine for miscellaneous tasks on 1.5 acres. Could it dig his foundation? Maybe, but it would probably take several months...

As for a slightly larger tractor, whoever said a B series can't move dirt better talk to my tractor. Over the years it has moved hundreds of tons of fill, mostly dumped by trucks though. Digging and moving virgin earth certainly takes a LOT of time with a small tractor. For example, one day I got 16 tri-axle loads of shale to build up my driveway and fill in behind the house next door that I am renovating. That would be over 300 tons easily. At the end of the day it was where I wanted it...

A couple summers ago, I dug and moved several hundred cubic yards of earth to taper the banks around my pond and up near the house. It was a summer project done when the ground was dry, but it was done with my B2910. Granted, I used my dump trailer pulled by my BX2200 to move the dirt from the digging spot to where I needed it. But both are small tractors...

In my mind, not knowing exactly what the short and long term needs of the OP really are, if I were where I seem to think he is, I would probably buy a BX with a loader and backhoe. The BX is also a pretty good mower, which I imaging the OP will need over the years.

I bought both my BX and B when I had 3.7 acres, 2 of which were old farmland that was overtaken by nature for 50 or more years, so I had a lot of things to do at the time. Frankly, I doubt something larger than a BX would work for me long term if I only had 1.5 acres. On the other hand, if things changed and I only had the original 1.5 acres that the house I built sits on, I would probably not sell my B2910, as it has been the hardest worker here over the years and we are pretty good buddies now...

Buying a machine to dig one footer would obviously not be a good plan but there’s way more involved than that in building a house. Even if you hired out that there’s still plenty of work.