What should my friend buy for $30,000 ?

Scottyb · Post by **Scottyb** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:20 pm

He has a very large ranch, but no cattle. It is all medium size aspen forest with at least 10 miles of fence lines that he wants to be able to clear roadways along, and drive around. Also wants to clear roads where needed and open up a few meadows for deer, Elk and Moose hunting. The budget is 30,000. He thinks he prefers a dozer but is a Doctor not a equipment person. Wants to keep it for a long time. Any suggestions on what he should buy?
Scott

Post by **Lavoy** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:08 pm

That kind of money should get you into some later 450 series crawlers. For clearing woods, I would stick with a crawler, the question would be loader or dozer. If he has no need to lift or load anything, I might lean towards a dozer. Root rake might prove to be handy too.
Lavoy

Scottyb · Post by **Scottyb** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:28 am

Lavoy, I was thinking the same thing and I am trying to put that combination of 450 with root rake together for myself. However, I do not have his budget and am not able to give him advice from experience as I am only just past my first year of crawler ownership. All of my operating time has been on a loader.

He wants to buy reliability, an obviously good plan for him as he will be hiring a mechanic to fix things when needed and a driver most of the time. He thinks dozer. I was thinking a loader would be better for him, pushing up brush piles, moving rocks, filling low spots etc. and he does not have any equipment there now with a front end loader.
One think I am learning as I start clearing my roadways is to try to save some topsoil as you go so I have some to landscape with when I am done.
I am getting better at this, on my first roadway there was no topsoil left when I was finished. It all ended up in the low areas.

Is there any down sides to having a loader instead of a dozer for bush clearing, assuming both have a root rake or ripper?

Scott

Post by **Lavoy** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:53 am

You know, if he has that kind of budget, yet will have to hire and operator and mechanic, crawler ownership may not be for him. He may be better off hiring done what he needs done instead of buying a crawler, and hiring the operator.
Lavoy

Tigerhaze · Post by **Tigerhaze** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:40 am

Scottyb wrote: Is there any down sides to having a loader instead of a dozer for bush clearing, assuming both have a root rake or ripper

If strictly brush clearing, it seems like a couple downsides may be the extra weight of a loader on slopes and the lack of grousers for traction. However I like the ability of a loader to get leverage up on the trunk for pushing over trees as well as being able to pick them up as needed.

JD430C · Post by **JD430C** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 12:16 pm

Your friend might want to consider a 20k pound to 30k pound excavator like this cat I am renting. I am clearing pasture for my beef herd and find myself using the excavator for most of it. The guy I am renting it from uses it for everything around his hobby farm. Around here you can find them for 20k to 30k, and most have blades too.

Andrew

Willyr · Post by **Willyr** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 1:49 pm

LOL I have some land here in Maine I would like to sell so I could get a class 8 starter truck........

wishful thinking.

Scottyb · Post by **Scottyb** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:42 pm

Andrew the Excavator makes a lot of sense. I had not thought of it even though the guy with the golf coarse next to me has one and he uses it for pretty much everything. It has the thumb on it as well. I have not shopped for one around here but there is a lot of them around the country side.

Scott

Scottyb · Post by **Scottyb** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:47 pm

Tigerhaze, I have not asked him how much hill work is involved. I have hunted out that way and it has hills for sure so I will ask him about it. I too use my loader to push over trees and it works real good for me when I am 6 feet up the trunk(or sometimes more). I know I push over trees that would not topple without the height of the loader bucket
Scott.

caribcanuck · Post by **caribcanuck** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 4:19 pm

around here we use excavator with a twist bucket for pretty much everything the twist ability makes the machine more useful

http://69.61.75.88/pdf/P-EAB-tow-6.pdf

caribcanuk

gus · Post by **gus** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:39 pm

Will he be clearing snow too??

I would go dozer or excavator. I use my small excavator with blade and thumb more than anything on the place. But.... it's no good for snow... but then I also deal with a lot of sloping to steep ground.

JD440ICD2006 · Post by **JD440ICD2006** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:52 pm

That twist bucket reminds me of the Gradall units.

kedorland · Post by **kedorland** » Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:40 am

If his budjet is that good....I'd give some thought to hiring it done and invest the balance in DUK stock.

Kevin

Scottyb · Post by **Scottyb** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 8:46 am

Paying to get work done here has become expensive. With Alberta next door and in Saskatchewan as well, the construction industry is having good times.
No deals getting work done here. Add to that, my friend is an outdoors man who would enjoy the pride of owning a crawler, purchasing is the only option being considered at this time.

Scott

wildbill65 · Post by **wildbill65** » Fri Sep 14, 2012 9:30 am

I think the Dr. may be missing out on a lot of enjoyment by hiring all of his work done. He may want to start out with an operator to train him, and do the work himself, if he's not in a big hurry. Seems as though I make the biggest mistakes when I get in too big of a hurry.

I had no dozer experience before buying my crawler, but over time, my operating skills have improved a lot. I'm not a pro, just much improved.

I asked an old dozer hand how to get the ground level. He said, 'You've got to have a bubble up your a$$!' I said, What? Then I understood what he was talking about.

Good luck.

Bill

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What should my friend buy for $30,000 ?

What should my friend buy for $30,000 ?

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