Moving lots of dirt with a Case w18?

[charlz]

Local gun club I belong to has a many years long list of improvements they would like to make. Not the least of which is digging rifle and pistol pits, building and maintaining roads etc. They rely mostly on grant money and then bid the jobs out. I have mentioned they might be money ahead just getting some equipment and having members do the work. I have looked around and found a Case W18 for sale fairly local. Has a 2-yard bucket. How realistic is it to move 1000's of yards of dirt with one of these units? The pits would be dug out of rolling hills type terrain which is mostly sand and silty loam, no rocks bigger than a golf ball. Would dig down some and use the dirt to build up berms on the far end/edges so wouldn't move far.

Obviously a 900 series CAT would get the job done quick but this unit is more realistic budget wise ($9k) and easier to work on.

Thanks for any input.

 

[crashz]

I'm guessing here, but it sounds like you want to do the excavating and moving of the soil with the loader. A jack-of-all-trades machine.

It will do it (you probably will need to put teeth on the bucket to dig easily, but that makes grading more difficult), but it won't be efficient, easy or clean. It will produce a jack-of-all-trades job. A small dozer will grade better and produce a much cleaner look and you will be able to strip re-use the topsoil easier.

The biggest problem grading or cutting to grade with a wheel loader is the tires. The bounce and give never allows a clean accurate grade, and invariably I alway spin a tire and create ruts that later has to be fixed.

The strength of a loader is the scoop and carry. If you have your source and your end pile location say 1000' away, this will do a great job of moving the soils.

Sounds like a big job. Remember that when you hire a contractor to do this work, you hire him also to take the responsibility for permits and regulations to be filed and followed. I say this because I'm envisioning a site that will be a couple acres or larger that is disturbed. You'll need to file for a Construction General Permit for instance. This may make it infeasble to work at it a little at a time.

 

[charlz]

Thanks for the reply, yes wheel loader/front-end loader.

Can a machine this size use a bolt-on toothbar like a tractor? Specs say is has 20,000lb breakout force. Maybe bolt-on teeth that could be removed? Separate bucket?

I have not researched permits, grading plans etc. This is in the middle of real farm country and may not be required.

I don't know what the previous projects have cost or what the planned projects are estimated at. I am just trying to get an idea of what size/type machines can do what. Right now they don't even have a small tractor or anything to maintain roads/trails. If someone ruts things up in the winter they pay to have someone come out and fix it. If purchasing something like this wheel loader can not only do that stuff but maybe also do some of the projects I think it would be the way to go.

For reference what I am talking about is making pits like those center/lower right. Those are pretty massive berms though so maybe the small pistol pits can be built with a loader this size but anything larger is best to contract out. For reference the black dots are probably mostly 55 gallon drums. Can a dozer build berms like that? Up close they look like they were piled with a loader. Obviously a contractor could, and probably did, use more than one machine.

So a project is to put in a few more of those smaller pits and maybe one larger one in the upper left/center off the edge of the pic. Another project is to make the area to the left of the long pits into a RV parking area so that would essentially be lots of road building. A third project is to put in a 1000 yard range so that would be building butts, building up shooting areas at different ranges, building road etc.

 

[JasG]

Just a thought but renting IMO would be much better. You don't have to worry about repairs. You can get better tools for the job you want to do.

You could buy and old dump truck and rent a dozer and excavator when needed. Or if you not moving the dirt far forget the dump truck. Or even rent a ADT, but they are pricey to rent.

I do agree a loader is better than nothing, but not very good for grading.