I have 12 years experience running equipment. All of it has been in the oil and gas industry and the last few years have been really slow and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna get any better. I’m wanting to start a excavating business while I am home from work on the road. Do you think it would be better to go with a backhoe or to get a skid loader and a mini x ? I live in northeast Missouri so a lot of the work around here is putting in automatic waters for farmers , clearing fence rows things of that nature. Any input is welcome
I started with skid steer and a mini ex. That worked well for me. I think a lot depends on what you plan on doing and how many other guys are competing for the same work and what they are using. A large frame skid steer or CTL and a 6 ton mini, can get a lot done.
Thanks for the input. Most of the guys around me are all running bigger dozer and excavators and are just doing terrace work and putting in drain tile. I feel like there is plenty of work here. I’m leaning more towards the mini and skid steer because that’s what I’m most comfortable on of the 2 choices. I would like to eventually turn this into a full time business and be able to stop traveling like I am for work and spend more time with my family.
If I had to buy only one thin it would be a big CTL. You can do so much with them.
And if you ever grow much, the mini and CTL can run at the same time with 2 folks whereas the backhoe is a 1 man show. But sometimes the bigger hoe can wrestle stuff the CTL and mini ex can't handle. For less $$ to buy as well. You know on my farm, I started with a hoe. Then got a skiddy. Then a mini. Now looking to sell the hoe....
Really depends on what work you want to do. I started with mini, then got into basements with big hoe, CTL was last. Made do with the mini ex for many jobs and anything it wouldn't do I just rented a CTL until I was able to buy in cash didn't want to finance too much at once. 2 years and my CTL has only got 400 hours of use, by far the machine I use the least. I find some of the niche jobs like foundation repairs, weeping tile repairs are by far the best paying jobs around. There's tons of guys around to repair foundations (mostly from inside), weeping tile, and excavating companies but not too many that will do jobs that are all 3 combined. Jobs like that with my mini ex are the best paying jobs I do.
Backhoes are the only way to go as a one man outfit in versatility if you were doing strictly one type of work then yea a mini cant be beat for certain applications but a backhoe will never be replaced in my buissness for productivity from one operator A well handed backhoe will smoke a mini in skid steer unless you dont have room to place dirt witch is less than 5 percent of my jobs
I agree with Aziron. I have a friend that has a regular loader backhoe, he has been running one for 25 plus years. Very versatile machine for a one man operation. He does every thing with it. He does have a skid steer now days, but he ran with the one machine for 10 plus years. If i was trying to get started i would start with as nice of machine i could afford. Get heat and AC so you arent sucking dust all day. you will be more productive if you are comfortable and work longer.
The other thing is price a 10000 lbs skid will run about 60 plus and a 10000lbs mini will run about 60 plus I can get into a backhoe for under 110 and neither machine will compete with a backhoe in reach or capacity Our buissness has run backhoes as the front line tool for over 40 years in that time we never owned a mini till 2 years ago and I am now penciling out a ctl but I would not build the principle of my buissness around those 2 machines they are great for diversification but in lean times they cant take on outside your normal market work as easily or cost effectivly Minis by far require less experience to operate productively than a backhoe and that is the biggest reason for there rise in popularity because you can put a guy with little experience and he can operate it in a fashion backhoes dont work that way almost any job you can get the machine in it can do the limitations are on the operator most of the time
For a one man show a backhoe is great, especially because you can drive it to jobs and not use a trailer. But they are scarce here except for utility companies. You will never see them on any residential sites just too big and cumbersome. A mini will trench faster and in tighter areas. A CTL will move dirt faster and in tighter areas and backhoes have terrible flotation. The backhoe is good because it does a ton of jobs ok instead of a few well. Put one guy on a site with a 6 ton mini and a 100hp CTL, compared to a backhoe, the ctl and mini will work circles around the backhoe in any task.
MO-9 do you have a Class A CDL? In order to make the CTL and mini combo a success you will need to be able to take both the job. There is no combination of tow vehicle and trailer that will do that legally under 26K combined - 8K CTL and 8K mini for example. One thing about a backhoe is it can be roaded short distances. The first piece of "larger" iron I bought new was a Cat 420DIT in 2002. Up until then I was running skid steers in my homebuilding business. Still have the 420 and it basically sits on the yard, it hasn't been to a job in over a year but that's my business model. We have 2 Cat 279 CTL's that get used on a regular basis as support machines in all sorts of ways in addition to being fine grading masters. If I were getting into the business and I could afford it I would buy a 953 track loader - the real kind with metal tracks. IMO there is no one machine that can provide a living like a real track loader. Clear and grubb, load trucks, cut basements, spread fill and fine grade all with one machine. I've torn down countless buildings, loaded out the debris and fine graded the new building pad with my 953C. Moral of the story is there are thousands of different ways to make a successful business with different types of equipment - the hard parts is figuring out which one to use and how to do it.
The other thing that matters greatly is what equipment the local market believes is required to do the job. There are a bunch of ways to do most jobs, but when everybody in the area says you can't do that job with that machine, it's hard to get hired. There are guys in this thread saying you can't do such and such with a backhoe, but, how did we do it with backhoes when there were no minis and CTLs? But, that doesn't matter if you can't get hired. If CM shows up in this area with his 953, nobody is going to think you can do the work with it. There were lots of them here before trackhoes came in in the early '70's, but I doubt there is one less than 30 yrs old within 100 miles. The hard part for him would be getting hired, not doing the work.