Talk me out of an excavator!

[Jaybr]

I’m back at the new place this morning so snapped a couple of pics of what I’m dealing with.

This is the dam, the section on the far left is the neighbor and completely cleared.

View attachment 2891034

 

[Jaybr]

And the other end of the pond, I'd like to clean up the bank so it's accessible. There is an old overgrown road/path along the edge of the pond most of the way to the end.

 

[Jaybr]

This is a grove of trees next to the house that is overgrown, there is another grassy area to the right. It's not a very wide section and I'd like to clean it up and turn it into a "Stand of Trees"

 

[Jaybr]

This is just one of the pasture areas, if you look at the far tree line you'll see it's overgrown with bushes and briars along the edge of the pasture. Once you get a few feet into the woods it's open and fine. There are 1000's of feet like this around the property.

The fallen tree is from an ice storm a couple weeks ago. I've cleaned up some of them, but there are a lot of fallen trees to take care of from that storm. That's chainsaw and grapple work, not something I need an excavator for.

 

[WVH1977]

I know you said you did not want a big machine, however if you look around that might be the best deal.

I wanted a mini-ex some kind of bad but they are so expensive. My cousin up the road had a Hitachi EX100 sitting in his field with weeds growing around it. He did not want to mess with it anymore. It is now mine and I have $7500 tied up in it. 5900 hours now and works like a champ.

I thought it was huge when I got it to the house. A little intimmidated by it at first. Now, I just hop on it and knock out big work fast!! It makes great work at burning big piles of trees and brush. I dig out big stumps with ease and just use the bucket to move dirt back over hole and drive tracks over it. Come back with tractor and box blade for easy leveling. Also, I just leave it out in the weather. Not worried about storing it in a barn. Been outside its whole life.

 

[Jaybr]

I know you said you did not want a big machine, however if you look around that might be the best deal.

I wanted a mini-ex some kind of bad but they are so expensive. My cousin up the road had a Hitachi EX100 sitting in his field with weeds growing around it. He did not want to mess with it anymore. It is now mine and I have $7500 tied up in it. 5900 hours now and works like a champ.

I thought it was huge when I got it to the house. A little intimmidated by it at first. Now, I just hop on it and knock out big work fast!! It makes great work at burning big piles of trees and brush. I dig out big stumps with ease and just use the bucket to move dirt back over hole and drive tracks over it. Come back with tractor and box blade for easy leveling. Also, I just leave it out in the weather. Not worried about storing it in a barn. Been outside its whole life.View attachment 2891044View attachment 2891045

That sounds like what my buddy did, not sure what he paid but not near as much as a new mini. Not sure what brand he has but it's a 20 ton unit.

 

[Jaybr]

This is an overhead view of the place, 48 acres total and a good mix of pasture and forest.

 

[loggin]

This is how I approached that question for myself. Of course it all depends on your situation and how often you will use the machines.

I need a tractor but wanted a backhoe because they are sort of like a swiss army knife tool. I don't use the backhoe often enough to justify having another engine, drivetrain and hydraulic system to maintain so I opted for a frame mount backhoe attachment for my tractor. Likewise to have to maintain a separate machine like an excavator made no sense for me so I figured that for the times I would need one I would just rent or hire the machine with operator when needed.

This set-up has worked well for me so far.

One danger of having a machine is you will always find creative ways to use it... Kind of like "make work projects" just because you can..

Just my 2 cents, I hope this helps!!

 

[Carl_NH]

Just looked at FB Market around VA and there are a number of nice 4-5T machines - like a Bobcat E32 for $30K and a few Cat 303.5 in the same price range with 2K hours or less. Then a few bigger machines e50 JD and a few others in the 40-50K range, then a decent New Holland 37C with 1000 hrs.

So lot's of decent options if you want one!

 

[Tinstafl]

I have been thinking about this very thing. I have a pond with a dam that needs to be cleaned out periodically. An excavator would make it much easier.