Thread: Excavators

Originally Posted by XR500

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

Ok fair enough you are set on it.
My suggestion is to look for one with a blade on it. If doing any steep work, they really come into their own. I have seen fence lines cut that a digger without a blade could not look at. You may find it's good enough to sell the dozer and just have one machine.