Price Check Can Kubota L2500 with FL dig HARD CLAY? Price?

Steve66 · May 16, 2005

I am thinking about buying a used, 1998 Kubota L2500 with front loader. The rated horsepower is 27.0 according to the "manufacturer's estimate."

I want to use this Kubota to remove about 20" of HARD CLAY from a 20' x 20' area which will be a house foundation.

Questions:
(1) Will the L2500 break when I try to dig into this HARD CLAY?
(2) Will the L2500 allow me to do this excavation in a reasonable amount of time?

This 1998 Kubota L2500 is being offered with a Front Loader, Box Scraper, and Blade for $10,000. I think it has front wheel drive. It has 426 engine hours.

More questions:
(3) What is a good price for this combo?
(4) Will likely repairs make this a bad deal?

Thanks a lot.

Bob_Skurka · May 16, 2005

Steve, I don't really know of any brand or any model of compact utility tractor that will "dig" into clay. Now what it will do is tear up the clay with the box blade, then after you get it good and loose, you can scoop it up with the front end loader. It will take you a bit of time, but you will be able to remove the clay by trearing it up and then scooping it out. In fact just the box blade will do a nice job of dragging most of it away.

But if you try to dig into HARD CLAY with the front end loader you will likely get frustrated pretty fast.

Bird · May 16, 2005

Welcome to Tractorbynet, Steve. I've done just what you're talking about doing in clay with both a B7100 and a B2710, and as you've already been told, you aren't going to do it with the bucket on the front end loader. However, you can lower the scarifiers on the box blade to break it up, drag it on to wherever you want it, or break it up with the box blade, then use the front end loader to pick it up to move it. A toothbar on the front end loader helps a great deal in digging, but you'll probably still do much better and faster with the box blade.

Tom_H · May 16, 2005

Welcome to the forum!

You can loosen the soil with the scarifers on the box blade or with a rototiller, then use the FEL. Having a toothbar on the FEL will help tremendously. You may also want to consider wetting the area really well about a week or ten days prior to digging. This will give time for the water to seep down and moisten the lower levels while drying at the surface to a degree that will not be soupy or too sticky. Having slight moisture in clay makes a world of difference, but the moisture level has to be JUST RIGHT, and it can be tricky finding that "just right" level.

Henro · May 16, 2005

Steve66,

There was a time when I did not know the difference between "hard clay" and shale...that was probably tomorrow... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I had an area beside my small pond that I wanted to dig out and leveled a few years ago. I happened to run into a guy I used to work with and he told me he had a skid stear and could dig that out for me. He tried. He got about half done and gave up. He called my hard clay "shale." I don't know...to me it was still hard clay...it got soft when wet...

So a year or two later I got my tractor/loader/backhoe. I was able to dig it with the backhoe and then carry it away with the loader. Final grading was done with the loader and box blade in combination.

I guess all I am trying to say is that if you had a backhoe, then you would certainly be able to deal with "hard clay." With the loader/tooth bar and box blade and not a backhoe, maybe.

All depends on how hard that hard clay of yours is I suppose...

Actually I still think I had hard clay...but that hard clay sure showed that skid steer who was boss! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Even though in the end my little TLB prevailed... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

slowzuki · May 17, 2005

Boxblade and tooth bar on the loader should see you through.

May want a 3 point single tooth ripper or subsoiler to break it up.

Tom_H · May 17, 2005

Henro is correct when he says that not all clay is the same. "Clay" means that the rock particles are extremely small. Virtually all clay particles have a similar shape: relatively long while very flat and thin. The materials from which clay particles eroded, however, are very numerous and of many chemical compositions. There are some claypan substances in which hunderds of thousands of years of settling have allowed the particles to shift and pack so tightly that there is virtually no space between them. Water penetrates this more slowly than other clay and it is hard enough that a boxblade and FEL w/ toothbar have a harder time than you think. Durapan is claypan into which silica has leeched over tens of thousands of years and cemented the clay into a water impermeable soft sedimentary rock. Its quite difficult to chisel a piece away from the mother rock. Once you do, soft pounding will pulverize it right back into powdery clay, but while it is in monolithic form, it is very difficult to break it up at the surface.

The reason I know about this stuff is that I have 5 acres of it that I'm trying to bust up now. A volcanic eruption 200,000 yr. ago laid volcanic ash with silica over some claypan. The silica leeched in and cemented the pan, making a durapan layer anywhere from 4'-16' thick. Since then, nature has deposited anywhere from 1'-4' of regular clay on top of that. The silica doesn't leech upwards, so the topsoil clay is hard when dry, but soft when wet. I have a 10 lb. 5' prybar with pointed tip. It took 6 hours of slamming the thing straight down to chisel out a 12" x 4.5' deep hole into the durapan. That's with a little water in the hole. Water won't penetrate the mother rock AT ALL. Once you finally pulverize it, however, it's texture with water is just like that of any other clay. When I asked my local dealer if a BX23 bh could dig in the local clay hardpan, he broke out laughing. He says anything smaller than a commercial TLB has great difficulty in it and he doubts a BX23 could do more than scratch it.