I Need an Earth-Mover-Thingie-Doo-Dad

CTyler · Jul 24, 2004

We rented a couple CAT machines for $65 an hour plus fuel and a one way delivery charge of $100. They were about 10 miles away. We had a 613 and an 815, one is a paddle wheel scraper that holds upwards of 7-9 yards. The other unit is a sheep foot with a 10' dozer blade.

The scaper was an older single engine front wheel drive and it worked just fine. You just dont dig the grand canyon in one pass. Our property is farm ground mostly a topsoil silty clay mix. A 200' pass or less and it was full.

I'd love to have one of those smaller pull behind units but I can move a LOT of dirt in a day with that CAT.

To add......There was a few times I had to take my little Bota and push the scaper to get it going again in some greasy spots.
My father in law just shook his head but pushed him out every time. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Taylortractornut · Jul 24, 2004

One word of advice about enlarging a 3 point scoop wouls to make a longer bowl instead of a taller one. It take more hp to load one thats taller it takes alot less to pushe it to the back of the bowl then loads vertically better. A 2 wheeled trailed pan isnt hard to get leveled cuts either just make sure you can let the bowl down evenly and cut shallow. if you make shallow cuts your cut ill be longer but the longer continuous cuts are usually smoother. also to help loading you make a few cuts tin one path then move abore about 3/4s of a bowl then load 3 smooth paths then come back and get the 3/4 of a bowl you skipped that helps making loading friction reduced and also helps maintain grade.

MossRoad · Jul 26, 2004

Just interested... how much soil do you actually have to move, cubic yards wise?

BobInMN · Jul 26, 2004

If you had a 4' wide scraper and made a 2" cut you would have to pull it 81' to load it. If you had a sharp cutting edge I think 2" would work. What I would do is print out some of the pictures of the scraper that I wanted to build. Then I would draft it up on AutoCad. Then I would make full size patterns out of cardboard. Then I would take them to a machine shop and have them cut your steel for you. Then I would take it home and weld it up. When I built my pull-type grader I took a drawing of the blade to the machine shop and they fabricated it for me. It was a 15" X 84" X 1/4" piece of steel they bent for me. Only cost $120 (which included the steel). It cost me less than $350 to build the grader. I think you could build a 2 yd scraper for less than $500. Your hydraulic cylinder would be extra.

have_blue · Jul 27, 2004

( Just interested... how much soil do you actually have to move, cubic yards wise? )

About 9 or 10 acre feet.

MossRoad · Jul 27, 2004

Yeowch!! That's about 16,000 yards, or to put it another way, if you had a 5 yard scraper it would take 3200 trips.

My advice to you... hire it out. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Egon · Jul 27, 2004

For that amount of dirt perhaps start thinking of alternate plans that do not require all that moving.

Egon

have_blue · Jul 27, 2004

( For that amount of dirt perhaps start thinking of alternate plans that do not require all that moving.

Egon )

No

have_blue · Jul 27, 2004

( My advice to you... hire it out. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif )

Not an option... unless you have 20,000 bucks to loan me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

have_blue · Jul 27, 2004

( For that amount of dirt perhaps start thinking of alternate plans that do not require all that moving. Egon )

Oh, yea, I forgot. I DID have an alternate plan. It was to trade dirt for work. That didn't work out too well. Everyone wanted the dirt, but nobody wanted to work.

Oh well, I'll get it done. Probly later rather than sooner, but I WILL get it done.