Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Excavation Equipment Advice

I am almost a complete novice to excavation equipment. It has always been a dream of mine to learn how to operate it and own my own equipment to do some side jobs to earn a supplemental income. I now have a decent tract of property that needs some work and I have a little pocket change to buy a piece of equipment. I need to make fire lane roads, clear some 20 year old regrowth, build a pond, and make a long gravel driveway. What does Aldeer say I should buy to accomplish my tasks with a beginner's knowledge?

Hire someone to do it for you. Zero maintenance

Prob gonna need 2 peices a dozer and trac ho I'd do trac ho first my grandad has several and I like the kamotsu 160 trac ho for all around work

My advice would be to find a good used mid size track loader and enjoy it for your personal use.
But don't expect to make it a profitable side income. It takes years of experience to become proficient enough to hire out, plus you will need other equipment for that. Like a dump truck and HD equipment trailer, just for starters.
But a track loader can do so much more than a dozer and once you get the hang of it you can ditch, bank and terrace as good as any dozer with a 6 way blade.

Your not talking about amateur hour with some of the chores on your list. IMO you need a dozer and a track hoe. You can get a lot done with a skid steer and maybe a mini excavator.

If you wanna get good at digging, you gotta dig around stuff that is dangerous and/or expensive to repair..

What you gonna haul it with? Gotta factor that in too, over 26k gotta have a cdl (or farm tag if you own enough land), heavy duty trailer, and YEARS of operator experience to hire out. You can accomplish a lot with a skid steer as far as clearing and driveways go. You need a good sized dozier for 20yr regrowth. You talkin some coin now, might as well not be a “supplemental income” at this point (not knowing your income)

Skidsteer. Get the pilot controls.

That's certainly incentive to get good at digging.

What kinda budget you working with?
A halfway decent dozer will run ya minimum 20k... a decent back hoe minimum 15k and those will take some looking to find close to that price in decent shape.

And it might be junk to.

Yea, when the AT&T guy shows up and tells you the 3/4" conduit your digging by is worth millions an hour, you proceed with caution..

Its always nice to hit an unmarked gas main too.. Pulled through a 2" gas main in centerpoint. It was so loud we couldnt hear the siren on the fire truck

deffinetly have a heavy equipment mechanic inspect..a simple pin can run $500 undercarriage 10k + hydraulic pump on a trac ho is the meat of it

I was the guy who usually arrived shortly after you burned the tires off the backhoe and melted a chunk out of the bucket.

I will say from experience if your running an track machine with out counter rotate tracks be mind full of what the track that stationary while turning is parked. I wasn't paying attention and was sitting on a volleyball sized privet hedge about 15ft long I pushed over and I turned and the track that was on the tree was stationary but swung that tree around quick and tore my fence that I was saving all to hell broke t post off and the bottom 2 strand of barbed wire on a 5 strand fence then I was pushing a few minutes later and had a limb come in the operating station and pull the steer lever back and caused it to turn to the left and brake the top 2 strands of barbed wire and bend the piss out of more t post all on the same fence so we took what I didn't tear to peices up and put it back up after I got done. That made me want foot steer instead of hand steer and be mindful of what I was parked on. I will say you need 2 peices of equipment big enough to pull the other out when you get one stuck

Retired from Alabama power? You can only trust line locators so much... I usually sweep an area with my pipe horn if I think something was missed. Ive been fortunate enough to not dig up high voltage but we dug up an unmarked phone cable on the side of valleydale rd several years ago and man, that was ALOT of mangled wires

Exactly what outback said. I do it for a living and outback is dead on. .you need a good trackloader with a 4 in 1 bucket on it for sure. That acts like a dozer for grading your road or dirt. Then the 4 in 1 bucket which opens and closes can grade, grub or pick up debris or trees. The bucket closes with enough force to drag large trees. It can reach up high to push trees over with rootball attached. It will do more than a dozer and acts like a trackhoe when it comes to clearing/pushin trees.

Did the lead i give you work out? If so, we're you satisfied with the way it worked?

IMO the single best piece of equipment to do your listed jobs is a dozer. Something like a D3 or D4 cat , later model JD 450 to 650 would fill the bill . You are prolly in the 20k to 30k price range. Either joy stick or peddle steer . When shopping , carry someone that knows dozers and track equipment , let them run it.

We have a winner. Get a 953 maybe a 963 if you get a good deal and you can do pretty much anything you’ll need to do. Easy to learn tough and the lowest maintenance of any piece of equipment you can buy. You won’t find a tree you can’t take down, dig a pond or build a dam plus all mentioned above.

The first couple times you get it stuck call me, I’ll bring a heavy and get it out at a reduced rate and after that you should now your limits