Excavating with a compact tractor?

[Regal]

<font color="blue"> </font> </font><font color="blue" class="small">( you could use a boxblade with rippers down to loosen the soil )</font>
Small machines tend to pack the ground as a result of many passes back and forth. The box blade w/ rippers or even a 3pt plow could tear up the soil. Then moving it is much easier. From my smaller projects, I've found that travel time between where I'm digging from and spreading to can be a problem. I have a 3pt dirt scoop and front dozer blade that are fine for filling holes etc. but for larger projects I have an old tumble bug (I think that's what it was called) that we made into a mini scraper using the 3pt to raise and lower with. Then you just keep going in circles, digging and dumping.
However, I would be reluctant to tackle a job the size you described with a CUT. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[chuck1975]

Yes, My dad did this back in '69 he cut a complete side of a hill out for the new home (2800sq). It was a family project. Dad had a "trip scoop" on the TO35 Ferguson. It was slow but by "scooping" the clay out he was able to dump it exactly where he wanted it. He cut the entire basement out and then called in the concrete trucks and we framed and poured the footers. He sub contracted the poured walls. That was a first in our area (poured walls). He also subed out the masonary. Outside is brick and Indiana limestone total maintainance free. Inside bearing wall limestone from basement to ceiling / roof joists. Everything else we did as a family and our friends also helped. That's probably what started me into the carpentry trade years later. Folks are gone now but I still own the house and still we have no foundation problems or water problems of any kind. Dad didn't even put in a sump pump. Today I don't think the town will grant a permit unless the house has one. We weren't in town / city limits back then.
Good luck with the project.
chuck

 

[Farwell]

If you have the time and the soil is workable with your CUT then go for it. I have a JD 2010 that is rated somewhere between 35 and 45 horse power that has a little bit bigger bucket than a CUT and I move a lot of dirt with it. I have a lot of sand that is easy to load and dump until I reach about 4 foot deep then the sand turns to sugar sand if it is not damp. I have not been able to dig a trench deeper than 5 feet because I get stuck in the sand. If I was digging into a hill side or slope like you have described my 2010 would work fine.
After you spend a few days digging you will know if you feel like finishing the job with your CUT or finding another way to get the job done. Also with your being new to tractors you will gain a ton of experience and confidence to do other projects. I have done so much digging on my place that my SO has threatened to hide the tractor keys and perish the thought of my ever getting a back hoe or a CAT.
Farwell

 

[jinman]

Frank, have you done the math for your project? With your description of your excavation as being 30' x 40' x 8' sloping to 2', you will be moving about 250 yards of compacted dirt. When it's loose, it will probably be 1/3 bigger or maybe 350 yards. The tractor you describe will have a bucket that will average 1/4 yard at best. That means around 1,400 buckets. of dirt. Do you really have that much time?

That's just the dirt digging/hauling. It doesn't account for the smoothing, grading, and leveling you will end up doing. If you run into a big rock, what then?

I'm going to suggest you rent a excavator or a full size loader backhoe for your project. Even then, it will be a challange. I am going to post three pictures. This is the excavation and foundation for my little 3-story, 2000 sq foot house that has slightly smaller footprint than you are doing. My excavation was not nearly as deep as you describe. They used a loader-backhoe with a 3' bucket to do the excavation. He hit some hard rock and they ended up bringing in a small dozer to finish the job. All-in-all, it was cheap and fast compared to my trying to do it with my own tractor. If you contract it out or rent the right equipment, I don't think you will ever regret it. If you buy a new tractor and overwork it, you may end up wishing you'd saved the tractor to haul off the spoils and landscape later. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Here's a picture of my groundbreaking.

 

[jinman]

Here is the completion at the end of the 1st day. About 2/3 has been dug and the spoils hauled away. I worked hauling spoils with my tractor all day as the LBH dug it out. Even so, he had to haul 1/3 himself because I could not keep up. My tractor holds about 1/2 yard per bucket.

 

[jinman]

In my opinion, this is what you want to get to. You want to get the excavation completed and and the foundation poured. There will be plenty of work for your tractor after you get this far. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[IslandTractor]

The Kioti D35 would be great. I would personally tackle this job with a CK20 TLB without hesitation. If you are not pressed for time, I don't think you'd have any trouble doing the work even with the CK20 and you'd save something in the range of $3000-4000 I think.

I have been surprised at how much the CK20 TLB can do but once you compare the numbers on the FEL and BH you can see that there is not a huge difference between these two tractors or even the CK30 for FEL/BH functions. To be sure the DK35 and CK30 outperform the CK20 but not by the same ratio as the engine horsepower at least in FEL and BH figures.

Here are the comparative numbers:
Tractor-- FEL --- Full lift at pivot --- Breakout
CK20 -- KL120 --- 1074lbs --- 1511lbs
CK30 -- KL130 --- 1155lbs --- 2046
DK35 -- KL1450 -- 1350lbs --- 2100

The backhoe figures:
Tractor -- BH -- DigForce -- DipperStick -- Reach
CK20 -- KB2365 -- 2875 ---- 1744 ---- 105"
CK30 -- KB2375 -- 2675 ---- 2105 ---- 116
DK35 same BH as CK30

As you can see, for digging operations, there are only relatively small advantages for the CK30 and DK35 over the CK20. For ground engaging operations things would be very different of course.

 

[frank29]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( For ground engaging operations things would be very different of course.)</font>For the benefit of a "wet behind the ears newbie", can you expand on this comment?

 

[frank29]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Frank, have you done the math for your project? ..................... Do you really have that much time? )</font>Yeah, I know it will be time intensive. It's just something I really want to do. This will be my first tractor and my first job....I hope the honeymoon lasts until the excavation is complete!

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you run into a big rock, what then?)</font>I'm going to hope for the best. When the existing basement was dug, there were rocks; but, none were huge and all were loose. I do have a lot of exposed rock around me. 500' behind my house is a two acre rock. A mile behind my house there is exposed rock that extends for a couple thousand feet in length and about 300 feet wide. I am hoping for the best.

 

[IslandTractor]

By "ground engaging" (a very poor choice of words on my part in a thread discussing digging /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif) I meant plowing or dragging some implement behind the tractor like a box blade. To put it in a different way, the DK35 could easily out pull the CK20 in a tug of war. So long as traction is not a limiting factor, the bigger tractor will be able to put much more power to the ground as well as put more power through a PTO. The point of my original comment was that the DK35 will not "out dig" the CK20 tractor by much but that doesn't mean there are not significant overall performance differences between the two.

Thanks for pointing out the ambiguity.