Best Method to Make Trails

[Ken45101]

and many of them are equipped with a front blade, which would greatly help your needs.

ALL mini excavators have a blade, they need it for stability. The great thing about the Kubota excavators after 2006 is that they have a swing blade which is great for pushing the loose dirt off to the side.

So much depends on the steepness of the hill. If you can drive the tractor across it, a box blade or scraper blade works pretty good (except for stumps and large rocks). A dozer works better but needs an experienced op to work on really steep slopes. An excavator makes it's own level work platform before it moves forward so it can handle just about any slope.

Small, used dozers can be had for $10-20,000. But repairs are difficult and expensive. I have a friend whose dozer broke down working on a bridle trail in a state park. He had to have it towed out by a larger dozer. The belly pan covering the transmission weighs somewhere around 1000#, not something that's easy to work on

As someone said on another board, if you get a used dozer, you had best be good at doing repairs on your own. Personally, I'm not much of a mechanic.

With the economy as it is today, used construction equipment can be had at relatively low prices. You might even find leftover new equipment at nicely reduced prices.

Ken

 

[Ken45101]

BTW, on the trail in the picture above, I ran into one rock that was 10'x8'x6". It took a bit of work, but eventually I got it out and slid it to the downside of the trail. I couldn't lift it with the mini-excavator but I could scoot it around.

Ken

 

[scoutcub]

Yes it is Originally it was a deer trail. I widened it enough with a mattock in the bad spots to use it as a horse trail but maintenance was a pain. Now I can get through it with the 4 wheeler.

Ken

ALL mini excavators have a blade, they need it for stability.

With the economy as it is today, used construction equipment can be had at relatively low prices. You might even find leftover new equipment at nicely reduced prices.

Ken

Ken -

whats a mattock?

Good point on all the mini ex's having a blade. My concrete sub has one and the things he does on that thing are amazing.

Now's the time to buy equipment - some great deals out there.

Are you in SW or SE Ohio? I'm just south of Canton, I guess that's considered NE.

 

[Ken45101]

A mattock is sort of like a pickaxe. One side has an axe head, the other side has a broad flat blade 90 degrees to the axe head. Effective for digging in heavy dirt but also an "instrument of pain" for the operator :laughing: It's similar to a Pulaski used by wildland fire crews.

I'm halfway between Cincinnati and Portsmouth in the steep hills near the Ohio river.

Ken