If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment...

   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #31  
Tractor + this + chain harrow when you don't need the LPGS.


IMG_538338.jpg
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #32  
Having a drainage tile installer come in and lay drainage tile with a tile plow is more cost effective as the tile plow
will be driven over the acreage first to allow the laser grade control computer to fix the starting point for the drainage
tile and the end points where it drains into the road ditch.

Repairing the drainage is the first thing that needs to be done on this acreage before you do anything else as simply
adding aggregate and leveling it will not solve the frost heaving issues.

Having the drainage tile installer come in with a tracked tile laying plow will let you install drainage tile every 40-80 feet from
the drainage ditch by the road and then the property will properly drain for you and the ground will be firmer and you will
not have to deal with the mess you have now and you can have stone trucked in if needed in the most traveled areas.
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #33  
Go with a skid steer with the land plane attachment. You are going to need to be able to move around specific materials to targeted areas.

I just had a huge project go through my 40 acres and the guys with road knowledge used a skid steer to put in place and and spread their initial rock to stabilize their base, and then groomed the top.

They then brought through several tens of millions of dollars of equipment with quite a few pieces of equipment over 50 tons loading and unloading on the pad. ....Their strategy was to stabilize at ground level or in holes with 'bull rock', and use smaller gravels and topsoil to stabilize the top. They also used heavy timber mats on the perimeters to support the excessive weights. ....It has worked just as planned and they are getting ready to tear it all out in the next few weeks and restore it all to prior conditions, leaving me a 40 foot driveway built to withstand some of the heaviest loads in the industry.

With this in mind, I would suggest affordable equipment and a lot of time learning how surface stabilization is done in heavy equipment use situations.
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #34  
I would probably use a 6' 3 point landscape rake with guage wheels (Landpride LR1684 or LR2684)
on a 30-35 hp 4wd CUT. I had a Kubota B7800 (30hp) t/l with a 60" rake w/ guage wheels. Worked wonders on my gravel drive.
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #36  
I recently bought a business that has approximately 40 acres of gravel lot. The lot sees infrequent automobile use (5-15 cars/day), and less frequent use by a seventy-ton capacity Marine Travelift carrying up to 80,000 lbs of boat (up to 4 times a day). The gravel lot was in rough shape when i purchased the business and i would like to repair and maintain it. I know nothing about grading but can drive a tractor. If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment to fix/maintain this lot, what would you recommend? I've thought of perhaps a tractor/box blade, or a skid steer ("Bobcat"), or a backhoe, but am not experienced enough in grading to choose intelligently. If you have a recommendation, could you please include model and/or minimum horsepower. Oh, i should maybe mention the lot seems to have undergone some haphazard repairs along the way. There are spots with #57 slag, fine slag, fist-sized concrete chunks, #8 stone, sand, etc. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
I will throw in my 2 cents.
#1, a good sized compact tractor. Not a sub compact. It will be more versatile across your needs.
Things to look for:
#1, weight. You are looking primarily for "ground engaging" uses. This takes torque and needs weight to apply that torque to the ground.
#2, get a shuttle shift transmission. Not a hydro. Same reasons as above. Yes, lots of folks will chime in with storied benefits of a hydro transmission. However, simple facts are that a solid gear will out pull a hydro all day long. If you are grading 40 acres, that is serious work on a transmission. You can look on YouTube, there is a kubota dealer who did a pull test with 2 similar tractors. Hydro vs gear. NO comparison!
#3, fill your tires with rim guard. It's not expensive and will make a WORLD of difference in your stability and traction.
#4 look at frame size/ weight more than HP.
My 36 hp tractor with loader and filled tires weighs 7,000 lbs. But there are sub compact 32-35 hp "tractors" that weigh around 1700 and would not even pretend to pull the land plane that you will need.
#5, RENT.
Go to the local rental store, rent a compact tractor and landscape rake for a weekend for $200.
Just see what you think.
If you can find a land plane to rent, do that too.
It might help you choose what you want, and just as importantly, what you don't.
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #38  
I will suggest you look at what your future plans and goals are. Is it just maintenance , or expansion, grading for drainage, do you need to tow anything in the future. Sounds like the boats are something you will never have to move yourself or will you? Small equipment does light work, heavy equipment can do heavy work.
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #39  
40 acres of parking lot would be larger than a huge shopping mall lot, wouldn't it?
A 4 (four) acre parking lot would be tremendous.
40 acres would be over 1.7 million square feet, enough room to park well over 80,000 cars!?!!!

I'm thinking out loud here.
I enjoy reminding people that a football field is a little over an acre in size so this parking lot is the size of 40 football fields. That's a big parking lot.
 
   / If I Only Buy One Piece of Equiptment... #40  
I enjoy reminding people that a football field is a little over an acre in size so this parking lot is the size of 40 football fields. That's a big parking lot.

as a reminder: its 4 acres, it was a typo. its only a few posts in.
 
 
Top