New here and I'm sure it's been asked before but im trying to figure out if I need to look for a smaller payloader or keep with my bigger skid steer to use with my screening machine it runs about 30yd per hr of cleaned dirt. Right now we are running it with my case 95xt and a pc50 mr2. The pc50 is running a 3ft toothed bucket and the 95xt is running my reto fitted 4 in 1 from a deere 410c it's supposed to be a 1yd bucket. I was thinking about looking for a deere 444 or something of the size. Or should I stay with a large frame skid steer like a tv620b or a deere 333g I know there's a size difference. Just trying to get a game plan together because my 95xt has 4200hrs on it and I'd like to retire it back up duties Thanks
If you're running it all day a wheel loader will be less fatiguing and you'll have better visibility loading the screener. Also much nicer for getting in and out of. If it's windy out and the dirt is dry you'll be covered in dust in a skid steer unless you have a door and that would another pain in the summer.
1 Yard every 2 minutes is what 30 yards per hour is. At 1 yard per bucket how far from pile to screen is the question. Your working the machine at close to full speed, so look for bigger equipment or expect less production. A 2-3 yard bucket will be working1/4 to 1/6 the itensity of the small machine. I have a 2022 John Deere 332 G rubber tired skid steer and yes it can muck dirt pretty fast, but at your speed pin and bushings and tires are wearing out faster. Good size loaders are not cheap to buy or maintain now a days. The new skidsteers are expensive by the hour to maintain with DEF systems and Diesel Particulate filters and all the sensors that run them. If you grease the crap out of all pins and bushings every 4 hours, you might get not bad life from a skid steer doing the work, but more prone to problems for production work. Smaller Deere or Cat rubber tired loader might cost less , depends on the budget. Remember salesman are not in love with you, just your wallet. How much service you will get after sales is super important. In first 500HRS of my machine needed a new Controller for emissions, New Sock filter and pump for DEF, coded out once for exhaust temperature. That was Dealer laptop every time, just for your info. Warranty covered other than $500 for 2 of the trips for travel. Just my opinion, you will have to make your decision. Simon C
A 2 or 3 yard bucket would speed up production and wouldn't have to work nearly as hard or fast as a skid steer. Like Simon said above, a lot less maintenance and wear on a wheel loader.
If you plan to run the equipment throughout the day, a wheel loader may be better. uh for what I know, wheel loaders generally have lower maintenance costs and slower parts wear...and according to your use time, purchasing a new one is reasonable. But larger ones like the Deere 444 could be expensive. but I'm sure it has better productivity.
Thanks for your input I'll going to be looking into a smaller payloader this winter I think that will be the best bang for the buck in the long run.
Welcome aboard and yes, wheels over tracks on a production pad. Skid loaders or track machines tear up the working surface and a wheeled machine can kinda heal it as you go, polar opposites that way.
I think the question comes down to what else you want to do with the loader. If all you need is to move material on the screener than a wheel loader would make sense. However if your processing 30 yards an hour, I am guessing its not a service that your living off of and may need the machine to do more than just process the topsoil. A 620 comes with a 1.25 cy bucket and it can handle a lot more (especially if its topsoil that tends to be pretty light). The ROI may be higher because you can do other things with it than just process the topsoil with the machine. Your basically handling 60 yards an hour, which is hardly working that machine. A 95XT is no slouch on handling material, a 620 could about double what your seeing now in productivity. A 321 or 521 would be a good wheel loader match and a wheel loader would be more comfortable to run and use less fuel. Its just largely a one trick pony. It all comes down to how many boxes you want to check in my opinion.
Welcome to the Forums kc! Glad to have you. What other services/work do you perform other than screen topsoil?
We started out doing land clearing and earth moving back In the mid 70s I'm second generation and since I took over the family business I expanded into field tile, oil well location maintenance, lease roads, fire wall, brush mowing So more less anything to make a dollar
Good deal. We never know one's background until they tells us a little more about it. So a small or mid range wheel loader to a large CTL will suit your needs and be a useful machine on your other projects. From what little bit I've loaded a screen or crusher I like using an excavator if the pile is close enough.
You have to think beyond loading the screen. You have to think about what the products doing coming off the other end. The reject Rock pile. All that stuff. It's easier to handle with a wheel loader. You can pack it away farther faster. I spent a lot of time with crushers in my early years and I can't imagine doing it without a wheel loader.
As a spectator sitting on the sidelines, i had the same thought as what you posted. Is this a dead simple screener, where the loader is kept busy putting material in, running around back to take out the screened product as well ? Maybe a conveyor or two for the out puts would allow larger piles, that only need attention every 4-8 hours ?
If the screener is high, like a dump truck, loading with a skid steer would get old fast. A wheel loader would be much more comfortable, faster, have better visibility and keep you out of the dust. It would also be a lot less wear and tear using a wheel loader.
What about a decent sized 4wd loader/landscaper tractor (skip loader), like a JD 210LE, Case 570N or the like? I think you can get a 1.25yd gp bucket on one and have a three point hitch for running other attachments. Might not quite be wheel loader productivity, but probably cheaper and more versatile. I've never loaded a screen plant, but for loading trucks I greatly prefer a tractor loader (backhoe in my case) over a skid steer or CTL. More comfortable, much better visibility, and doesn't tear up the ground. The last thing I'd want in your situation is a CTL, tears the living hell out of the ground and you're just wearing out expensive undercarriage.
I agree with all those points. I have a 721G and when its wheel loader time, nothing can touch it in what it does best, move material. However me being small enough to also realize, if I am side hussling topsoil at 30 yards an hour (basically just over one side dump load an hour}, I couldn't afford to own a wheel loader just for that purpose. So while a wheel loader is the best answer, the reality maybe that the ROI isn't high enough to justify the expense just for that purpose. Thats why whatever else he has in mind for the wheel loader or large CTL is important, at least in my mind.
so i know its not a big screening plant by any means but it was the budget would allow for we just finished up running approximately 2000 yds through it. Been loading with both the pc 50 and the 95xt and the tailings has been mainly done with the pc50 and clean product been loaded out with the 95xt into the pan to be carried and spread back out over the soccer field. I know it's not ideal setup but it's what I had to work with because using my 977l would have tore up to much of the other soccer fields. Then cutting it all back to grade with my 762a champion grader instead of my d7f. We're going to see if we can't find a payloader this winter to run with a plant and load trucks at the yard too.
I may be off base here since it's hard to tell from one pic and a description, but that material that you're screening looks like some pretty nice stuff already. Would it not be faster/more efficient to just spread it as is then go over it with a harley rake to get a nice clean, smooth finish?
Might be a line in the spec's requiring the re-spread be screened with only a certain size of rock or other debris allowed. See it often.
An industrial tractor loader wouldn't be a bad option. You could probably find one in decent shape in the $10K range, maybe less. You want an industrial tractor with a transmission that allows fast direction changes.
I agree. A lot of the time screening is required to remove all the rocks, sticks and other debris. Sometimes just 1 rock or bit of a root can drive you crazy when your trying to level something. Big hard lumps too. Screening cleans the soil and makes it very consistent for leveling and also for growing grass or sod.
That was the only thing I could figure. I don't prep/seed golf courses or ball fields, but have done quite a few very nice yards that are just about smooth enough to roll marbles on. As long as there is no roots/organic material that is going to rot: slick it off with a pull type box blade, a few passes in different directions with a Harley rake, then seed it down with a Brillion cultipacker seeder (two passes at 1/2 the seeding rate, second pass 45* to the first). Makes for a very good, very smooth seed bed.
So I should have mentioned the topsoil on the soccer field had glass and bricks in it so we picked it up and ran it through the plant then the second pile one in the picture had a lot of tree roots, concrete chunks, rocks, tee posts, and old steel and plastic pipes The sad part is the second pile was sold too them as clean dirt.
I had a customer refuse screened topsoil because it had quack grass roots in it. The truck driver that came back to pick it up said it was too nice of dirt not to sell. Idiots should have sprayed it with Round Up before putting it through the screener. Screening won't kill quack grass roots.
Big skid steer/CTL would handle that size plant no problem. I have a small trommel, and a 50ft stacker that does about 100 yards an hour. I feed it with a Bobcat T870, and I can easily keep up. When I screened sand, I found T870 is good to feed about 200 yards an hour. The stacker keeps me from having to re-handle the screened material. I prefer the T870 over our compact wheel loader since it is almost like a small dozer. Wheel loader does have better visibility though.
That is the setup I had visioned when the OP asked the question Nepean. A big CTL is much more versatile than a small wheel loader for other tasks if one is in the topsoil business which usually involves landscaping of some sort.
Thats a really nice set up. Easy to see how a stacker pays for itself.
Likewise. After seeing the OP's setup honestly the 5 ton mini or skid steer he has is more than capable of feeding it. I think the screener itself is limiting production more than the material handling equipment.
If he also needs to clear the screened soil piles changes things somewhat. I guess it depends on if the screening is all day every day. If it is a skid steer or CTL is probably more fatiguing.
Get the benefit of running a 644 deere rubber tire or a 755 Deere or 963 series Cat track loader at the clay pits, hands down can load faster/cleaner on Rubber tire and far less spillage. Fatigue from climbing up and down gets a little old but nowhere to the whipping from hard rails. 644 G has a 4.5 yd heaped can make close to 6.5, buckets on Hilifts lucky to top 5yd.
see if you can buy a couple of small conveyors at an auction to take away the 2 products.
I see the equipment you are using to screen, to me this does not make any money logic. I see over $300 per hour equipment labor cost in photo for 30 yards per hour or $10 per yard finished product in a pile. Can you not just drive over to the local gravel pit and load up the truck with screen material cheaper?
Here where I'm at in southern Illinois what they sell as topsoil is sand with clay mixed into it and they don't screen it they just pick it up from the bottoms after a flood so that not in the picture to do. And your not wrong I charge 100 per hr for the skid steer and mini hoe each and 250 for the tractor and pan. It don't make much sense to run like that but that what I had to do to get this job done. I normally to field tiling and big excavation jobs and land clearing so I'm not setup to run topsoil like a lot of guys. But it's something I'm wanting to get into in the next few years
Yes an the small screen plant either own it or rented and your nicely equipped service truck, which I wish I had increase the cost. Plug alone the job will get done and then reflect on what happened and think how you can improve the operation. Experience counts for something.