Hello Everyone, I need some advice from you seasoned people with the purchase of an excavator. I'm an Electrician and find myself having to repair underground electrical feeders, depths vary from 8" to 18" deep. Burying rigid conduit. I'm looking for a way to minimize the amount of energy required to dig these trenches in finished areas, yards, parking lots etc. Minimal mess if possible. I absolutely HATE digging trenches by hand or trying to schedule landscapers etc. Dealing with tree roots, rocks and water getting back into the trenches, then back fill.... BLEGH.... There has to be an easier way, what do you guys recommend, I'm looking for advice on a system. Hauling around plywood just seems like 1970's **** that works, but can I get a way with a thick gauge plastic for the depths I'm going? How should I do the back fill? What type of Machine should I get? (Bobcat E10, Kabuta, Cat, John Deere....etc) What about dumping the excess dirt, how do you guys manage that? What type of equipment and where are you dumping the excess dirt? Any help would greatly be appreciated, Electric is my expertise, but now I'm being forced to grow as a person and learn trench digging from the pros.
There is always labor in trenching. Its unavoidable. In grass you have to cut the grass off the top first by hand. Then put it back. I'm assuming you dont want a trencher. They are slightly more dangerous, but you won't mess up as much asphault gaining experience. Hard material is a PITA with them tho. A mini ex with rubber tracks and a blade I suppose. The brand is location dependent. The closer the shop is to your yard, the better. Hate on different brands just comes with preference. Deere, bobcat or cat are usually more reliable with reliability testing and parts. They will all have some type of quirk. Jumpier, more cramped, slightly more lift capacity. Try them out and see what works for you. The more comfortable, the better IMO. Plywood on the ground would be the best. Buy it once and use it for a while. A lot of labor tho. Plastic is iffy, and expensive. You can do it, but you can't use a machine on top of it, and wind makes it a PITA. You can handle the most dirt with it tho. If you aren't going deep, you can possibly use roofing paper. It's cheap, and easy to roll out. For parking lots, direct loading to a dump truck may be best. Rolling a dump truck on grass can leave ruts if the ground is even slightly soft, but the cleanest option. If you lay out plywood on both sides, it helps protect grass a bit. You can make a stock pile area with plastic with a dump truck, but then you need a skidsteer to get it back in the truck. At that rate you can just load into a track skid bucket. Then you just haul a mini ex and skid and make a lay down area. You see this setup a lot in cali. You need 2 people to make this efficient. 3 if you have to avoid live underground. Let me just say this. Every job is different, and the way you go about it depends on the equipment you have, the man power you have, and how much money you want to spend.
A small mini excavator and a dump trailer behind a one ton dually to haul it and/or spoil away would be a starting point.
I think you’re on the right track with a smaller mini excavator in the 2700lb - 4500lb class. You mentioned a Bobcat E10 which may be ok, but I’d also look at a Kubota U17 in a slightly larger size but still under 4000lbs. At that size I don’t think you’ll tear up too much tracking on yards (if you’re not turning crazy). For installing smaller conduit (<= 3”) and only 8” to 18” depth, I might try a ripper attachment and use a spade tooth or weld a small 4” wide plate to the end. Never personally tried it since I don’t lay pipe that small but i’d experiment with it. For larger conduit, or repairs like you mentioned, I’d just use the 10” or 12” bucket it comes with. I’d use some filter fabric laid next to the ditch to place spoil to keep a yard clean.
get it with a quick coupler and a hydraulic thumb, or you will regret it latter