Adding to the Fleet

[CuttingEdge]

Just curious what some of you wish you could add to the equipment fleet. Myself, I have quite a few additions I would not mind seeing. I figure I would break it down into two categories:

Reality (as in, it might some day happen).
Dreaming (as in, it is never going to happen, but I still want one anyway).

For reality, I would like to get a decent grader so that I can do more town work since they pay on-time, and are decent people to work for. Tax-Payers always keep you on your toes because I pay quite a bit in property taxes every year, so when I am working for a town; I stay right at it and give the tax-payers the most that I can for their tax-payer dollar.

Dream wise, I would like a 7295 Caterpillar Rope Shovel. I got about 70 acres of stumps to clear, and figure there is not one of them that would stall that machine. I got a little ore in the ground I would like to move as well, and basically turn this hill I live on, into CuttingEdge Lake. A Caterpillar 7295 Rope Shovel would put a pretty good dent in the hillside at least.

[dtoots1]

am kinda considering wanting a mini excavator, if can find reasonable price/condition.

[B Town]

Okay here it goes.

Reality- 100hp tractor with cab, reverser, front wheel assist. I’m thinking Kubota, Case/IH. Pre-emission rig. Like M9000 or 5240 with the legendary 5.9 Cummins.

Dreaming- Midi excavator with a tilt rotator. A diesel single axle dump truck to replace my gas burner and a TAG trailer for the midi.

[gus]

am kinda considering wanting a mini excavator, if can find reasonable price/condition.

Get nothing under 6000 lbs. I had a 6000lb Yanmar and did a lot of work. Got a fantastic deal on a near new Kubota 4000 lb. No where near the old one. Grab something solid and the machine goes to it..... I'd also get steel tracks if possible.

[dtoots1]

Gus,
sound like good advise, especially about the steel tracks, where else you expect to have ex, except in the muds!! ad know rubbers slip,
tho i don't think am doing commercial so in lite of fairly light work how does the smaller do job wise? and price wise?

[hydrogeo]

I have a Kubota 121 mini, which is about 9,000lbs. It's got a thumb, and I use a 4' piece of I beam for fine grading. It's a really nice size, as it's big enough to pop a few stumps (albeit slowly) but I can still move it with my one ton. Just can't expect it to do the work of a larger machine. I mostly use it for odds and ends around the yard. When I got my Bridgeport mill I used it to pick it up off the trailer and set it into my garage. Job was done in 5 mins when otherwise it would have taken a full day of rigging. For firewood, picking up a log and cutting at waist height is really nice and almost twice as fast. It does have rubber tracks, which are terrible. When those finally give out I'm going to switch over to steel.

[townlineterry]

Reasonable prices used graders are easy to find. Might have be patient for the right machine. I looked about 9 months for mine. A 72 Galion 503A with 10 foot blade. Only needed a wheel cylinders, a cutting edge and one hydraulic hose. Only have $8500 in it. And is precomputer.you would need something bigger but they are out there.

Additional equipement? A 4x4 wheel loader with 1 yard bucket for the gravel yard, maybe a mini.

[CuttingEdge]

Additional equipement? A 4x4 wheel loader with 1 yard bucket for the gravel yard, maybe a mini.

I got a gravel pit myself, nothing big at 8 acres, but quite a bit of gravel because it is down pretty deep; about 32 feet according to test drilling. Some is above the waterline, but not much. Legally I can get it because the gravel was pre-1970 so I do not have to comply with mining regulations.

That means either getting an excavator with a long boom like a cat 245B (pre-computer) or a dragline.

I have some other uses for the dragline too, like digging out a pond, but I also got 70 acres of clear cut I need to put into field at some point. We cleared that two years ago, and about 5 years afterwards is the ideal time with the stumps rotting down, but underbrush not getting to be too much.