Thread: Excavators

@XR500 what type of country are you on and how much experience?
Also what type of projects?
You can pm if you prefer

Its all Central North island pumice and ash. Easy digging but is hard on the grousers of my dozer. Welding grouser bar on this winter is not a job I am looking forward to.

Got a couple of 10 acre blocks to put roads into, building platforms on same, improve the topography to entice horsey people to buy. Another road at the top of the farm to improve access and improve the potential to lease the better parts of the farm , general recontouring work as required to improve resale value of the flatter parts of the farm, some access tracks into our forest in preparation for future harvest.

Have put 1200 hours on our dozer over the years, and rented diggers when necessary, but looking at making the jump to owning one that will enable us to do stuff in the timeframe we want

@XR500 if you can drive a dozer you should be sweat and will about running cost with older gear
I would rather own a smaller machine with less hours
Down this way if i was going to buy a farm machine would be 13t zero turn machine with a blade and 500 wide tracks, lots of farms down here there farm tracks want take a 20t and wont fit through gate ways
Yes a 20t will move more bulk material and has a longer reach. Also transport cost to move a 20t is a lot more
Lots of farmers brought machines after the cyclone down here then come to realize they didn't have the time to use them, had no idea and excavators cost money to maintain.

Yep I fix them, I would check for parts support, sum of the odd ball or uncommon machines, are difficult to source parts in a timely manner,
In the 35 years, I have been fixing earthmoving machines, Hitachi and cat, have been the best for literature and support.
A backhoe, might be something, you should consider, For ditching, and road able for between blocks.
Smell the Hydraulic oil, if it smells burnt, stay away,
Piston Hydraulic pump failures, and undercarriage, are the two biggest costs on a Digger.

I’ve got a 312 Cat for all our farm maintenance.12 ton,has been a great machine clocked up some hours in her now.We had a 20 ton before this but found it an over kill,but that’s just my opinion.

Yip, thanks for all that. I'm going to go measure my gateways after some of the comments, as replacing 30 gateways 'cause I bought a digger that won't fit through would really rip my undies!

It will fit. I can guarantee it 100%. It's a digger after all.

Now please note that as a result of that comment I am not volunteering my time as a fence and gate repairer!

I have to walk the dozer through very slowly as it is: approach at an angle, get one blade cutting tip through then slew slightly and get the other side through. The last thing I need to be doing is fixing gates and fences

Mate with a 20 ton you can just pull out the gate posts and move them over a meter and push them back in
Ok that might not make your gates any wider but then you can just convert to Taranaki gates instead

Originally Posted by XR500

Its all Central North island pumice and ash. Easy digging but is hard on the grousers of my dozer. Welding grouser bar on this winter is not a job I am looking forward to.

Got a couple of 10 acre blocks to put roads into, building platforms on same, improve the topography to entice horsey people to buy. Another road at the top of the farm to improve access and improve the potential to lease the better parts of the farm , general recontouring work as required to improve resale value of the flatter parts of the farm, some access tracks into our forest in preparation for future harvest.

Have put 1200 hours on our dozer over the years, and rented diggers when necessary, but looking at making the jump to owning one that will enable us to do stuff in the timeframe we want

Ok, I'm going to be the nay-sayer, here goes.

I think this is over all a terrible idea. Most of what you have described above looks like capital works, which in general is tax deductible. Repairs and maintenance on heavy machinery in general can be very expensive, even if doing the work yourself. Try pricing up a new main hydraulic pump or track motor for whatever you get keen on.
It's amazing what an experienced operator can achieve. Most of us bumble around clocking up the hours on the machine taking at least 4 times as long as what a professional operator can do. Factor in all the time it sits around rusting away and falling apart just from lack of use and 50 to 60k buys a lot of machine hours. Which you're not spending all at once and have the use of the balance to invest etc.

We all like to play in the sand box. I get it, me included. But I have seen a shit ton of money wasted on worn out gear that looked pretty good at first glance. You have the dozer to satisfy that itch. For the balance that you need a digger for just pay someone.

Regarding gateways, mine is on 500-600 mm tracks and fits through a twelve foot gateway comfortably.
Sitting on your own digger is also great for your "mental health".
And you can do things when it suits you. Not when a contractor has time to fit you in.
I actually need a seven or eight ton as well. So I can get in to swamps to let most of the water away prior to getting in there with my 20.
Breaking through the crust of a swamp and sinking a 20 ton digger is not much fun.
Hence I now own a PTO winch as well.

We've got a 14t zero swing komatsu on the farm and couldn't be without it now. Wouldn't want anything bigger as it's thirsty enough as it is, but any smaller and it wouldn't be capable of lifting larger logs etc. even did some logging with it and it'll lift a trailer off a truck with a lifting point welded on closer to the cab. Can move it around the place on an old 8 wheeler we've got. Would have to walk a 20t everywhere it all adds up. Plus it can dig a narrower track if you don't need a highway

Originally Posted by Got-ya

Ok, I'm going to be the nay-sayer, here goes.

I think this is over all a terrible idea. Most of what you have described above looks like capital works, which in general is tax deductible. Repairs and maintenance on heavy machinery in general can be very expensive, even if doing the work yourself. Try pricing up a new main hydraulic pump or track motor for whatever you get keen on.
It's amazing what an experienced operator can achieve. Most of us bumble around clocking up the hours on the machine taking at least 4 times as long as what a professional operator can do. Factor in all the time it sits around rusting away and falling apart just from lack of use and 50 to 60k buys a lot of machine hours. Which you're not spending all at once and have the use of the balance to invest etc.

We all like to play in the sand box. I get it, me included. But I have seen a shit ton of money wasted on worn out gear that looked pretty good at first glance. You have the dozer to satisfy that itch. For the balance that you need a digger for just pay someone.

I know exactly where you are coming from, the accountant (my wife) and I have discussed this in detail for quite some time.

But at a conservative charge out rate (90/hr) our $22K dozer plus 5K of track splitting, rebuilt starter motor, new batteries, oils filters, plus 14 grand of diesel over the last 10 years has saved us 67 grand. Yes, we value our time at nil$, cause that's what farmers just have to do.

And as others have said, getting jobs done when you want to do them, making something yourself from scratch (that's not just me, my wife gets almost more satisfaction out of doing development work on the dozer.

Some people shout themselves a new car every 10 years, something I couldn't bring myself to do. We'll buy ourselves a digger instead

So as long as we get the 'right' digger, we should be winners all round

In the central North island anyway ~ 20 ton machines in forestry will have been mostly used for land preparation, and to a lesser extent roading. Logging crews typically don't use machines much smaller than 25 t (and commonly 30+) in my experience.

Ex land prep machines will have had a reasonably hard life trundling over cutover, but will ( should!) have comprehensive guarding required for bush work.

If cost is a real issue you could try importing a used one from Japan, only issue is most are fixed buckets, no quick hitch.
I have imported 2 x dozers from Japan and have been quite impressed with the quality. The first one was a Komatsu, bought it to do one job, used it for 6 months or so then sold it for more than I bought it for. Bugger me a year later I landed another job where we needed one so did it again, the 2nd one was a Cat, sold that at the end of the job for another gain as well. Was impressed with both buys having just looked at photo's on web pages. The Japs would fall on there sword if they sold you shit gear. The current NZ$ to Yen rate is bloody good at the moment.
Do not buy any 2nd hand machinery from China