Hey guys. I'm in the 4th year on my own. I finally upgraded to a tandem and have a 299. I've reached a point where I'm doing clearing, residential drainage, basements, crawlspace, etc. Tired of paying rental. I'm torn on what size machine to buy next. I'm a cat guy so I looked at doing a demo on a 308 as well as a 312/313. I hear a 308 size machine is pretty impressive for doing everything I do but my salesman and friend of mine who has been grading for 30 years both agree the 308 will take a while to dig basements and do clearing and probably won't be as productive is I need to get to the next job. What so some of you guys think? Buy a 312 and rent mini or buy mini and rent big? I wasn't sure what thread to put this in since it's kind of a machine question but also a matter of what works best in the industry for this situation I guess.
All depends on what you would use more.
If 70% of your work is basements and over 1 acre clearing i would get the bigger machine. If its the other way around than do the 80 and rent the big stuff.
What are you setup to haul? I always liked a 303.5-305 and 312- 315 combo you'll never have perfect got to figure out what you need on site more
If your digging basements, and that means basements with 8-9 walls plus footing depth, a 308 machine is not going to be very productive. You will end up double or triple swinging all your dirt (of course every time you have to reswing your loosing money) It is still an issue with the larger machines you listed, but certainly better than 308. I am not sure how big your typical basements are there, but here 2-4K sf is typical. I do it with a 160 and wish I had a 210. Maybe a zero swing 145 sized machine would make a lot of sense. Easier to clear with a zero swing and can still handle decent sized buckets and are easy to mob. from job to job.
Basements are standard 8-9 feet and 2000-4000sq ft as well. The drainage and clearing is about 50/50 as far as how much of the work I take in. I have a tandem dump and I'm about to buy a 20 ton trailer. I'm mainly concerned about the 308 being underpowered. Ideally yes, a 305, and 312/320 would be perfect but of course can only afford 1
I don't think a 308 would be underpowered if you run the recommended buckets. It just cant move enough dirt per throw or throw it far enough. I cant imagine digging 3K sf 8' in the ground with a machine that small. You would have to use your CTL to continuously move material away; back to the more you touch the dirt the less you make. I am not sure what the smaller machine in this application buys you? A 30K machine will do it all with only slightly larger footprint, especially if you go zero tail. Plus it allows you more capacity to take on larger projects. The 308 is going to limit what you can do moving forward.
That's very true. It sounds to me going the 30k machine or a zero tail swing machine is definitely the way to go. I was only thinking the 308 would allow more versatility but just as you said, less stick length to move the dirt, smaller bucket capacity, etc. Ill go for the bigger machine. Thanks for your insight!!
Plan the work and work the plan buy one and rent the other for now it's easier and cheaper to rent smaller machine id be leaning towards buying bigger if u got work
My $.02 - Buy the bigger machine and rent a mini. It's nice to be able to pick up a 303 or smaller for very tight jobs or a 305 for the "larger" small jobs. I would look at the new 315 zero swing. Also you may want to look at a 25 ton tag if it's legal in NC. We've got a 321 and 325 zero swing 55K machines and thinking of going up a size on the next one for more reach and lifting capacity. I don't own a mini we just rent them.
I'd go with the biggest machine I could afford and move. I've got an e85 and although we dig the occasional basement, most of our stuff is a 2-3ft cut, and fill the rest. If I was digging basements full time with a 8-9ft cut, I'd being looking at a 20-30 ton shovel. If you're looking to do land clearing and might use a mulcher head, look at aux hydraulic flow.
I know you favor Cat but here is an idea/opinion. Several years back I had a special steep hillside job to cut in a road to a dock landing. After doing some research, I rented a Kobelco Blade Runner. That was the most productive machine I had ever run because it was a full size 6 way dozer with a 150 class machine on the turntable. No wasting time to grade with a bucket and no need to go back and grab the hoe to set stones or pull ditches. I always work alone and for the best time efficiency, this was the machine for that job. I had it rented for a week so once done on the job, it went to my uncle's place and them my own for several small jobs. It was fast and powerful and I got small jobs done quickly. Running 2 machines at once - that was the ticket! I really enjoyed running it as I could be ever more productive. Transport was still at 8'6" wide. The only drawback that I saw on the machine was the blade C frame mounts - they hung a little low and were a bi**h to clean mud out of. This made that machine a bit less than ideal for swamp work. In drier conditions, it was not an issue. It would make digging basements a breeze as you could pile and push back your spoils quickly when needed and hold grade with ease. If I was to get back into dirt, a triaxle, tag trailer and Blade Runner would be my choice of kit. I'm still not sure why other manufacturers have not adopted this idea of a machine. Maybe it cuts into sales of individual pieces too much?
I have never run a Blade Runner but man they are sexy. I bid on one a couple years ago at auction and payed attention when you see one for sale. Their used value is very good. I would like to own one.
Those blade runners seem cool but i'd never want one. There was a 225 for sale here awhile ago, be nice for some jobs but hauling that pig around would be awful, or trying to keep it from sinking in any soft ground. A 225 is bad enough. Probably a 60,000lbs machine with a thumb. That's a lot of extra weight to keep afloat on the same footprint as a 200 not to mention wear on undercarriage. I think no one else makes one because there is such a small market for them. You have to either dig over the drives, or deal with the blade. For the odd sidehill work and a quick grading for a backfill it would be awesome but I know it would be so rare to use the blade, that the times it's in the way and a nuisance would be much more common.
I dug one full basement with my 6 ton and i'll be very happy if I never do that again. It was around 2200 sq/ft walkout with 4 car garage, took me 4 days and wasn't very profitable. I could have dug it in 1/3 the time with my 210, and it only went that quickly because the owner was taking away a lot of the fill as I was digging to use elsewhere on the property. For that size of digs you got to have at least a 120 to have any hope of making it profitable. One big factor would be, are the digs mostly city or acreage/farm? Pile on site or haul away? If you can haul it and it's not too big for the bulk of the jobs, a 160 is probably perfect. If you are just piling all the way around the hole a smaller machine won't be so bad. I can dig a 2000 sq/ft 8' cut with around 1000 sq/ft garage 4' cut, move machine in dig it and back out in one day if it's just piled all the way around the house and lots of room.