We are tired of paying to have all of the dirt work on our farm done. It makes more sense to me to put that money into our own equipment. What is your take on us doing this? I'm thinking a D6 dozer and a track hoe. What size hoe should I consider? I want something with a thumb so I can clean field edges with it.
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How much transportation will you need to do to get your work done? Clean field edges... does that mean multiflora rose bushes or does that mean 2' and larger oak? The general go to machine for contractors needing to move around is the 160 size, just under permit requirements, can be moved with a tag trailer behind tandem dump trucks. If your not going to have to move it, and you have a lot of large trees to deal with, the bigger the better, up to I'd say the 300 class machines.
To help you out, I'll need some more information, what type of terraces are planning on doing the most, what footage are you thinking about doing, and what size and footage of tile are you planning on putting in, the reason I ask it makes a difference as to what I tell you to get as far as equipment. Next question is, how much top soil are you dealing with in your area and are you planning on doing nrcs approved terraces or just farmer spec'ed terraces on your own. If you can help me with the questions, I'll help you out with some answers. If your thinking about only a few thousand feet of terraces and less than 10 feet of tile, you can get by far cheaper than if your thinking over the next few years of 10k feet of terraces or more and up to 40k feet of tile, your going to need far different equipment. And lastly what type of soil is your subsoil in your area, is most tile plowed in or dug in around you at this time.
Would a Cat d7 sized dozer and a 320 excavator with a thumb be a good start for this kind of work?
Most of the tile here is still dug in. Our soil around here is black gold. You have to dig down 5 feet in most places on our farm to find any clay. I'm not looking to get rich with these purchases just do enough work to justify paying for them.
Having done a lot of that type of work for agriculture my experience tells me you are going to have a hard time justifying that type of investment. That type of work always came in a flurry in the spring when everyone wanted to get planting done. It was only a few weeks in the spring. My guess is if you bought the equipment you would be using it short term in the spring when you wanted to be planting. I would say you are better of hiring it done.
Go with a D6 & a 160 -200 class excavator- will do all the work with ease you refer too. Where in MO you located? Is the "black gold" soil heavy water retensive wet type or does water pass right through it?
6 way blade, straight blade on the dozer? I'm outside of Marshall so pretty close to you.
My preference would be straight blade, my farm is located on 20 hwy east of Higginsville.
5' of BLACK GOLD!!!!!!!!!!! Wow,if I ever came across that,I'd be in topsoil heaven.
5 feet of topsoil:jawdrop Hell I'd be happy to dig down 5 feet and not have to battle rock to get there.
Would it be possible to rent a machine from a local contractor? Maybe his 'second' machine and the annual scheduled rent would be possibly a good arrangement for both parties?
We need to make a purchase for tax reasons.
Your never going to justify the cost of an excavator of that size by digging in tile, repairing tile or anything tile related, an excavator is about the slowest form of putting tile in the ground there is, for the size of that machine, its a pain to move from job to job, or farm to farm, worse to maneuver in the field and dig lines in or locate them, your far beyond anything handy for terracing or tile work, I have two excavators for tile work, a ten ton and an 8 ton class machines, instead of backhoes around here to dig start holes and locate lines with, guys are going with the smaller cat 308,305 and 302 size machines, those smaller kutoba are even better, those 5-12,000 lb class machines are the ticket. I don't know if your locating tile or installing tile, but I've done many a hundred thousand of feet of tile over the years, to do it with any but a trencher takes first and foremost, someone who's good behind the joy sticks of the machine, and two ditch monkey's, one with a grade rod and another handling tile to lay it to grade and do a good job, if you don't your going to get to do it again, many times over in the next few years. Instead of investing in a large excavator, hunt up something smaller and much more handy, if your planning on using it for other things, that 120-160 size class is probably the largest to ever go, and your going to have to live with unhandy for tiling to use it for other things, don't let anyone talk you into a backhoe for tiling anything related, that's one step up from a shovel and worthless for anything else compared to an excavator. Go buy a trencher and put in tile, set it up with a laser setup and do the job right, how much to spend is up to you, there are older chain units out there for very little money to get some idea as to what you need for "your" operation, even some larger ditch witch or vermeer trenchers will get you up and going for installing tile for few dollars, if you ever expand later on for a larger unit you then have the old one to install water lines and work around buildings. As for a dozer, if your doing grass back terraces and many feet of them, like in the tens of thousand of feet of terraces, if your doing hump me dump me terraces or farm over's, and again any footage of them, go with a larger four way blade cat, that 160-200 hp size machine. If your doing repairs and shaping of existing terraces and your only going to buy one dozer, make it one with a six way blade on it, especially for back filling lines, you'll love it, and don't go less than that 120 hp size for that machine either 140 hp would do just fine, even bigger you won't be disappointed with either, it just depends on the footage and type of terraces your doing. For the hump me dump me terraces with the intake close to the terrace, those work the best with two dozers to build them, one from each side is how we do it, to get the nice looking ridge on top, if you haven't figured out by now, I don't care for those dump terraces at all, but that's a long story in itself. A lgp dozer would be nice too for tile work, wider pads and more floatation to help you out. If your planning on doing tens of thousand of feet of terraces and up to or over 50k feet of tile per year, your going to need some equipment of size and your not doing it with a large excavator either, you need a trencher and two dozers and a small to medium excavator for hookups and locates, a laser and some maxi stringers and you have more than enough equipment to buy for tax purposes. Like I asked in the last post I did, if I knew what type and how many feet of terraces and tile and your doing would help me to steer you in the right direction of equipment to buy. Installing tile with with only an excavator gets old in a hurry, one spring we did over 15,000 feet because it was too wet to trench in, everyone was beyond sick of it and we hunted up a trencher with tracks and winch to do what our rubber tired trencher couldn't. If I knew what soil type and how wet it is, I could point you in the direction of a trencher to start you out on too. Installing tile sounds nice in theory, but when things are wet, everyone's cold and wet and water is as far as you can see, and your standing in water and mud up to your knees, ideas change pretty quickly as to what machines you need and how fast things get done, so it would also be nice to know what conditions your planning on working in too, if its pure mud, you want a much smaller excavator, if its high and dry ground, doesn't matter what size you get, but the bigger they are the harder it is to dig them back out when they start to sink, something to keep in mind which is very important when it comes to anything tile related. And when its down deeper than the tracks, the engine fan is kicking up water and there is no forward motion any more, and the machine is sinking and the closest you can get to it with any other machine is maybe 500 feet is where it starts to get fun very fast, and yes I've been there many times over the years, also had help fall into the mudholes in over their heads as we are tiling up through the fields as well, and left many a machine sit for weeks until what we tiled dried out enough to go back and then try to get my stuck machine back out then, so when you ask what machines and what size to buy, it just depends on what your doing and how your doing it, you don't want to have a 320 size excavator with the top of the cab sticking out and the upper portion of the boom visible and that's all, your going to need some serous machinery to get it out, much rather have that 5 ton machine stuck to get it back out, if you don't plan on working in those conditions, your not planning on installing or fixing much if any tile. Just some random thoughts.
Absolutely HazellFarms . A dozer paired up with an excavator is a great combination for work around a farming operation.I like to stay in the 20 to 25 ton size range on both machines as you can still move them easy on a lowboy and they are big enough to tackle some tough jobs. The job possibilities are endless what they can accomplish working togather.Clearing,ponds,drydams,and digging in field tile.I think I understand your situation.You dont have any excavating equipment at this time and want to do you own work in the future to save some money,Rite? It's not like you are going in the tile business,The 320 would work great for short runs like building a drydam then tying in to existing tile in the field. For bigger drainage jobs like a 100 acre field call a contractor like Randy88 who has the trencher or plow and expertise to go with it. It's a no-brainer and good luck digging in the near future HazellFarms
Hazellfarms I'm a mechanic up north of KC and basically everyone I work for has a D6R semi-u and a 320 or 325 with a thumb. I always recommend nothing smaller than a 320 for clearing and general hoe work on a farm. If you think maybe you might ever clear trees with the 6 don't bother with a 6 way. A 7 would work well also. Good luck in your search. I know where there's a nicely maintained pc200 if you get serious. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
02Dmax, what is the pc200 priced at, how many hours and what model is it?
Pretty sure he wants 45k for it. Might be some wiggle room. Its got a fixed thumb. I think ifs got almost 8,000 hrs on it but its been very well maintained. Pretty tight machine. Only bad part is it has no A/C. Wasn't ordered with it I guess. Send me a PM if you need more info. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
I'll find out what model it is. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2