Mini Excavator

[yoderjac]

Yes. But specifically on the excavators it’s more good than bad. There isn’t much to them. Massive heavy steel parts with big hydraulic pumps. If the hydraulics / pumps are well maintained and the lubrication schedule is kept they’re pretty hard to abuse. Different from a lot of rental items. Anything broken during a rental would be noticeable and would have to be fixed.

I agree less hours is better as a general rule of thumb but don’t discount one for that reason alone.

You're probably right about that.

 

[yoderjac]

Just thought I'd follow up with a pic of my Hillbilly hole patch:



It is the side of an antifreeze jug with gorilla tape!

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Jack it would have literally took you 10 minutes to access it, with just a 7mm socket.

 

[yoderjac]

Jack it would have literally took you 10 minutes to access it, with just a 7mm socket.

I'm not a mechanic. I have a trusted shop. They wanted $1,500 bucks to pull the dash and fix the problem. I would have no idea how to pull it myself. It is a 1997 that I'll never sell. Cutting the hole was no big deal to me and having the 4wd working for $350 instead of $1,500 was well worth the hole. If I was a car guy, I may have done it the right way myself, but I'm not. This was a great solution for me.

THanks,

Jack

 

[chummer]

I've heard the same thing about rental units. Most have very good maintenance, but they are operated by inexperience operators which can cause issues. They are both good and bad.

That may not be true. I worked for a Volvo dealer and we didn’t rent to non businesses. The insurance requirements eliminated it. I know the CAT and Deere dealers are the same. Now that doesn’t stop a business from throwing in an operator with no experience. Since we charge for damages guys are pretty good on them and damages are fixed by the dealer before they go out again.

 

[chummer]

I would be surprised if you put 1k hours on this machine in 3-4 years. That is a lot of playing on the farm. 1k hours is going to depreciate the machine very little compared to the amount of work you can get done. If you are only planning on owning for a couple years I would get an 18k lb machine. Service intervals are 500 hours so even if you did want the dealer to do it they could come out or you could truck it. There is a huge amount of work difference between the 12 and 18k lb machines.

 

[chummer]

I brought this 18k lb machine home last year. On one tank of fuel I cleared an acre and cleaned up a trail. Probably 8 hours of run time.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

That may not be true. I worked for a Volvo dealer and we didn’t rent to non businesses. The insurance requirements eliminated it. I know the CAT and Deere dealers are the same. Now that doesn’t stop a business from throwing in an operator with no experience. Since we charge for damages guys are pretty good on them and damages are fixed by the dealer before they go out again.

Yes, I think most of the homeowner rentals are smaller machines than I'm interested in. I would think that most of the stuff 3.5K and up is more rented by businesses. However, even a professional operator may do things with a rental that he wouldn't do with a machine they owned.

I would be surprised if you put 1k hours on this machine in 3-4 years. That is a lot of playing on the farm. 1k hours is going to depreciate the machine very little compared to the amount of work you can get done. If you are only planning on owning for a couple years I would get an 18k lb machine. Service intervals are 500 hours so even if you did want the dealer to do it they could come out or you could truck it. There is a huge amount of work difference between the 12 and 18k lb machines.

That is a beautiful machine! I have a pine farm that is about a 15 minute drive from our retirement property. The retirement property needs some driveway work and we will be building a house on it in a couple years. Clearing land is probably a tertiary consideration for me. I think I need it to be small enough that I can tow. Heavier is generally better, but do you think there is a lot of difference between 3.5 ton and 4 ton when it comes to work. Until you add bucket weight and such to a 4 ton machine, you are getting close to my 10K trailer limit.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[chummer]

Yes, I think most of the homeowner rentals are smaller machines than I'm interested in. I would think that most of the stuff 3.5K and up is more rented by businesses. However, even a professional operator may do things with a rental that he wouldn't do with a machine they owned.



That is a beautiful machine! I have a pine farm that is about a 15 minute drive from our retirement property. The retirement property needs some driveway work and we will be building a house on it in a couple years. Clearing land is probably a tertiary consideration for me. I think I need it to be small enough that I can tow. Heavier is generally better, but do you think there is a lot of difference between 3.5 ton and 4 ton when it comes to work. Until you add bucket weight and such to a 4 ton machine, you are getting close to my 10K trailer limit.

Thanks,

Jack

No there is not a noticeable difference in terms of work. Manufacturers try to hit as many weight classes as possible just for your situation. Trucking plays a big part into what is made and stocked all the way up through the 100k lb machines.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Dang, I wanna be neighbors with Chummer when he gets his toys out to play and feels like sharing.

Jack,
Would think a 10K trailer probably has a haul capacity of maybe 7500 lbs with a trailer weight of around 2500. At least that is a guess since my old 7K trailer I had was a bit light duty and weighed 1600 and my current 12K trailer is about 3200 empty.

Unless you spent the big bucks on 10K and went full aluminum with the aluminum plank decking. Believe those can get just under 2000 lbs empty

 

[yoderjac]

Dang, I wanna be neighbors with Chummer when he gets his toys out to play and feels like sharing.

Jack,
Would think a 10K trailer probably has a haul capacity of maybe 7500 lbs with a trailer weight of around 2500. At least that is a guess since my old 7K trailer I had was a bit light duty and weighed 1600 and my current 12K trailer is about 3200 empty.

Unless you spent the big bucks on 10K and went full aluminum with the aluminum plank decking. Believe those can get just under 2000 lbs empty

Good point.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

My thoughts on trailers, a lot of times you will find private sales of equipment include the trailer. So you can get a larger machine, and not be limited by your trailer. Not that I would recommend this, but my 10,000 pound trailer has hauled a 12,000 pound Cat 299D with bucket, and handled it as well as my bigger trailers, just watch the tires.

 

[yoderjac]

My thoughts on trailers, a lot of times you will find private sales of equipment include the trailer. So you can get a larger machine, and not be limited by your trailer. Not that I would recommend this, but my 10,000 pound trailer has hauled a 12,000 pound Cat 299D with bucket, and handled it as well as my bigger trailers, just watch the tires.

I'm wondering if I need a CDL to tow a larger trailer.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Not sure of your state, but in MN, only if you are commercial. Mn has a 26,000 pound limit truck and trailer before you need a CDL, non commercial.

 

[yoderjac]

Not sure of your state, but in MN, only if you are commercial. Mn has a 26,000 pound limit truck and trailer before you need a CDL, non commercial.

I did a cursory look into it a while back. It is very confusing. I think the limit here is about 10K but there are some exceptions to 15K for personal things like travel trailers. I don't have a real clear answer as to whether I could go larger here, but I'll be close to my budget limit with the excavator. I've found a few that are close to meeting my criteria inside my budget. Even with those, when I add in the cost of the buckets I'll need, I'm slightly over. I've been perusing the ads and haven't seen any package deals. I'm not convinced I need anything bigger than 4 tons for my planned work.

 

[rocksnstumps]

The whole CDL thing can b confusing factoring in state rules. Think in Cali trailers 10,001 and over require it except as noted exceptions for rv/camper rigs and some states it's the combo of truck and trailer. Believe WI like MN and its combo 26,000 and below ok. So for most 3/4T trucks they have a gvwr of 10k and that means trailers 16k and under are ok. For 1T most are gvwr of 12k and trailers 14k and under are ok. Of course only the 3/4T that have biggest engines and high ratio rear ends could pull that kind of weight. But if u can get ag or farm tags they offer weight exemptions to farmers and u dont need cdl for above 26k. So while living in Texas saw many ranchers with 1T trucks pulling gooseneck livestock trailers with 10-12 cows.

So is the above mentioned Pine farm an llc or some type of business. That would likely make an advantage for hauling if truck and trailer could be tagged for ag.

Right now u can order 2021 1T truck that is rated to pull over 35k!

 

[yoderjac]

Saw a JD 35G that popped up on Craigslist today. I called and the guy said a guy is coming to buy it on Wednesday. The price was pretty good.

 

[breddick]

Another thought on the rental vs private owned. Now that I have idk maybe 75-100 hours of operator time on my bobcat E42 (I had never been on one before buying) I will say that I don’t treat it any better today than on day one (not saying I abuse it). As a matter of fact I probably babied it more the first few hours than I do now. Now that the muscle memory has really hit stride and I know what it’s capable of I really make it work hard.

Other than ignoring scheduled maintenance and failing to clean / lube it I don’t know how an inexperienced operator would be harder on it.

 

[yoderjac]

Another thought on the rental vs private owned. Now that I have idk maybe 75-100 hours of operator time on my bobcat E42 (I had never been on one before buying) I will say that I don’t treat it any better today than on day one (not saying I abuse it). As a matter of fact I probably babied it more the first few hours than I do now. Now that the muscle memory has really hit stride and I know what it’s capable of I really make it work hard.

Other than ignoring scheduled maintenance and failing to clean / lube it I don’t know how an inexperienced operator would be harder on it.

For example, to dig a trench, a good operator will reach out, square the bucket, and strip a few inches back toward the machine curling. When he lifts the load and rotates to dump it, the weight distribution is close to center and it puts little stress on a machine. A novice will often reach out and take a bucketful at maximum reach retracting the load only slightly when rotating to dump the load putting more stress on the machine. As an individual act, this not hurt the machine, but stress adds up over the years.

I don't think it is really rental vs privately owned. As someone pointed out, whether rented or owned, a professional operator knows how to work efficiently while using the machine as it should be. A homeowner renting a machine or you or me who don't do this for a living probably do things that they should not, often not knowing any better. Another example might be protecting final drives. With machines over 3-tons, a good operator will dig with the blade in the front of the machine protecting the final drives. A novice doesn't think about stuff like this. A practiced operator will do jump turns to minimize track and final drive wear.

The problem is that since I'm a novice, I'll probably be doing stupid stuf fmyself.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Jack, these things take a lot of abuse, lube it, change fluid and filters when needed, and you would never wear this thing out around your yard.