I have asked here before so don't shoot me. My hand is being forced now so I have to get this done... JOB: Excavate and shape 2 ponds and use soil to create privacy berms on edge of large property LAND: Exactly 1320ft x 1320ft, berms to be along the majority of 3 sides of this property. PONDS: Est 1.5 acre total between 2 ponds but material required for berms will dictate size. SOIL TYPE: Sandy loam soil first 2ft, then clay loam. All easy digging. TERRAIN: Mostly flat REQUIREMENTS: Minimal man power support on this job. I can get some help for a day or two but I don't have hired help for weeks. I desire to find a way to mostly do this solo. EQUIPMENT ON HAND: CAT225LC Excav, CATD7E no remotes for tilt S blade, CASE 1170 ag tractor FEL rear remotes duals clutched no power shift. PLAN: Privacy berm width to be as wide as needed to create reasonable berms for working. Berms will be planted in native grasses. Cut top soil from all berm areas to save and reinstall on berms when lift is finished. Cut top soil from pond areas as well and spoil for later use. Final shaping will be likely be done by a good friend on a 6way D4 familiar with what want. Just need to move bulk material. Pond slope to be determined but as high as feasible and reasonable to consider erosion movement. I have done many calcs on this and considering about 2 weeks work here with ideal conditions. Thought 1: Use dozer to pull a pan for majority of work. Issue is pull pans cost as much or more than a powered scraper, dozer speed is slow. However, dozer is pretty solid so may have minimal down time. Final shape with excavator from inside and ramp my way out and reshape. Thought 2: Find a powered scraper. CAT 623 (ish). Push off top soil areas over pond and berms with dozer for later use. No angle blade and all berm top soil needs to be pushed to one side only so might not be efficient. So....What do you guys think? I am going to have to go at this probably early Summer this year one way or another. I have looking at numbers on the excavator and for bulk material removal, a scraper is better. Excavator requires ADT support and still not as fast. Not convinced the dozer and pull pan thoughts are efficient. I don't want to drag this out for months. If the powered motor scraper is a good idea, my thoughts were to use a paddle scraper to reduce need for pusher but I know they have a lot of moving parts that may break. I will not be hiring this done. No budget for it. I guess unless someone is really reasonable but I doubt it will make sense. I have equipment and the time, just need to execute it.
Yeah fastline I remember the other thread and was curious what you decided to do ? HeavyEquipmentForums Sounds like you have a job that a motor scraper would come in handy for moving the bulk material . I'm a one man show for the most part and the motor scraper is a great equalizer when it comes to moving dirt . I don't see any problems using one as long as the ground is solid, not soft or muddy . I see a lot of Cat 623's for sale in California on machinery trader . Another option would be to rent one . This one shows rental rates as well. www.machinerytrader.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=7328198
You know, renting might be realistic at this point. I was not on board with pissing away money on a rental but I would have to buy an older scraper where I could burn a lot of timing fixing one and I really only need it for one job. Unfortunately, the only ones I can rent locally are from the CAT store and IIRC, maybe as high as 5K/week for one. I might go 2K but we passed up a 633 for 9500 and REALLY missed a 623 for 3K! Hard to pay that when you can buy one and scrap it if it breaks and come out ahead.
1 dump truck. You can buy it, use it, and resell it. Makes a long day moving from truck to hoe to load and back to truck to haul, but it's a cheap way to move dirt for 1 guy. 3900 ft long of berm under 8' tall will need 27,000 cubic yards. (I figured 3900 long 3:1 slopes to a 8 ft tall peak). 27,000 cubic yards will get you over 11 feet deep in 1.5 acres. 10 loads and hour is easy enough, 12 yards would be a easy load = 120 yards an hour. 27000 yards /120 yards an hour=225 hours. IF you are a good hand on a 623, and have great conditions, you might double that production. = 112 hrs. Use some dirt to make steps up to the excavator if you use the dump truck, much easier to walk back to truck then have to jump off of or climb off of the excavator.
I think scraper is the only economically viable solution... a 623 would be ideal (IMO) but I have also had good luck with the Deere 762 & 862, which are more economical to get into used, than a Cat. Also International has a self loader that you can often find cheap as well. With the smaller machines you will be hard pressed to move more than 1000 yards per day, but even at that rate it's how I would do it given your situation. You should be able to pick up just about any older self loader for scrap price which kind of serves as insurance in my mind.