Posts
5876
Joined
7/9/2008
Location
EGL, MN, USA
As a weekend warrior building a house on 3 acres, how do you guys feel about a JD 3033R for some grading work around my property? Pro's-Con's? It won't be for full on leveling/grading, more moving like 60 yards or so of good, clean fill so I can eliminate some low spots on our property and redirect rain run-off. The ground is a mixture of clay and black dirt.
Tractor with bucket and back blade rents for 900 a week, OR, should I go for a ASV VT80 skiddy (or equivalent) that's about 1500 for the week? I'd think the JD with a bucket and back blade would be more beneficial for the finish work I'm going for?
Also, as a living in the Minnesota woods newbie, tick season can fuck right off.
Dunno about which tractor is best…but, you truly have moved to mosquito and tick-central 🤣
I hear certain type of chickens are the play to keep the ticks at bay.
No kidding about the skeeters and ticks, it's like our place in the Tetons, but on steroids. 🤢
We have a 35x18 foot covered patio that we are spending 10 grand on to screen in with motorized openings so we don't get eaten alive.
I will definitely look into the chicken thing. With 3 dogs it's a constant battle.
I hear guineas are good with ticks.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
That's no small issue, we almost lost a dog to ticks. They carry diseases! It cost us thousands of $$s. The ticks inject stuff that prevents the blood for clotting. One day the dog sneezed and the blood just started running out his nose and would not stop. He lost so much blood we were on the cusp of blood transfusion. Back on topic, I find it pretty cool that we have so much knowledge on this board!
TM
For actual grading I would want a track skid 10 times out of 10. Skiddies are very easy to use the float feature on for grading and back blading is easy with them.
not to mention how much more maneuverable and easier to operate/multi task a skid over a tractor is.
Just make sure the ground is dry and hard enough that you won't make a bigger mess than you are trying to fix
This is another drawback to wheeled tractors or skids. They make a mess in loose or wet dirt.
a skid steer will also be way more efficient in my opinion for moving and grading. What you could do in 8 hours on a tractor you could do in 4-6 on a skid
Be careful with John Deere. Do a little research on the repair issue.
All good info, and I am leaning towards renting the skiddy. I'm not doing serious grading, more filling low spots and bringing down the high spots. My neighbor has an excavation company and might just do it for close to what renting the skiddy would cost.
I am going to have to agree with Soggy on the skid steer, you can do a lot with a skid steer. The tractor is going to take more finesse and more time to do the same task.
I don’t know your financials clearly, but I do know I wish I would loosen up and outsource more things. You can’t do it all, and it’s foolish to try, even if it is satisfying.
The time and money you spent doing it yourself in some things would have been better spent hiring the guy lol.
But with how much they charge it’s tough to hire them for anything: so you end up doing it all. And not getting to it all. And the cycle continues lol
I am very aware of the loop, but DAMMIT, the inner kid in me wants to move some dirt around with a tractor. hahaha
Eff it outsource something else, find a deal on a monster skiddy on marketplace and keep it around for a while !
I haven't got to play with my new tractor yet but I'm thinking it'll be hella fun! If you buy right, you should be able to sell for similar $$s
You can move dirt faster with a skid steer for sure, but I can do a way way better job of grading/leveling with a full size tractor with a loader. Its the same principle as a maintainer, the longer the wheelbase, the better job you can do. Of course, IMHO based on decades of experience.
I keep saying this but every time I outsource something and hire a “pro” I’m left wondering how they are in business. It’s almost always a 60-70% satisfactory job with 120-130% cost. I’m almost always having to go behind them and fix it. It’s really mind boggling. I don’t look for the cheap guy either, I usually research it and go with one of the more expensive quotes.
Wife wanted the cabinets painted. Hired a highly reviewed company and one of the more expensive ones, quoted $10k(this included stairs and baseboards/trim in another part of the house). They came out, removed all the doors and painted the cabinets and doors. The idiots didn’t label the hinges when they removed them so when they reinstalled the doors all the hinges were on different doors, causing all the doors to be misaligned. Stripped out several screws too. These were original solid wood cabinets, not the newer pressboard crap. I’m still pissed about that one. Wife said to call them and have them fix it. I said they weren’t smart enough to do it right in the first place, they’re definitely not smart enough to fix it.
EDIT: Back on topic, I’d go with the skidsteer. I think the additional productivity outweighs the additional cost. Get the grade close then hit it with a harley rake to really smooth everything out. Throw down some seed then walk it all in with the tracks to keep it from washing.
I scratch my head on this. I know I have people that follow me and down vote anything I post. But why would someone downvote someone expressing their experience in such a way that might be helpful to the OP?
We have some effed up people around here SMH
TM
Pit Row
Somehow I figured JAFO for a tractor man.
And make outstanding property alarms.
Don’t forget to call for locates.
Fortunately it's my build so I know where everything is and have all of that marked. The most it would be graded is a foot or so in some spots and built up 24-36 inches in a couple others. I'll go over there today and take some pics and do a couple mark-up's and see if you guys have some ideas.
I’ll apologize in advance, but I’m a grandpa and just think this way.
You more than likely do know where everything is, but probably everyone who has dug up a phone or gas line already thought knew where everything was.
Before I started flying, I was an excavation contractor. I’ve dug up things the locators didn’t even know about… on their dime, though.
And locates are free. Cheap insurance.
Edit:
As for the choice of equipment, I think either would work, just use whichever one you are more comfortable with.
If we're talking about finish grading what is going to become your yard, hire it out to a pro. If you don't you'll curse yourself every time you mow at half the speed you could be mowing at. Not my handy work but about an acre of our place had several trees taken down and someone did crap job finishing it all and it's infuriating.
If you're going to do it yourself, rent the skid steer. The JD you mention is way too light to move much dirt, you'll be spinning all over the place if you're trying to move much, and hard to grade anything well with something that light and short wheelbase. Every time your front wheel bounces over something you think you're about to grade your blade is magnifying that behind you. Floating a bucket and back dragging much easier on skid.
Before doing what I do now, I worked for a developer and did every step of building a house and road ( except for plumbing inside the houses). I cleared trees, cut roads in, framed, poured concrete, tiled ,painted,roofed, landscaped, etc. The bosses wife even got naked in the hot tub while we were cleaning the house before closing one time. But that's another story. The funny part was when her husband found out and she flipped it around and yelled at him, " what did You want me to do?? get my dress wet???" I'll never forget the look on his face .
I agree on this. About the location marking. Unless its a brand new house on a lot that's never been built on in a brand new subdivision, there could be some unmarked stuff and stuff You do not know about.
I hit a gas main and broke it because it wasn't properly marked out. Good thing is that we had digsafe come out and mark like we are required to in MA by law. So it wasn't a big deal and we didn't have to pay for it to be fixed.
One lot we built a house on had an easement for a waterline that went to a house behind it. It went right down what ended up the driveway of the house we built. It was a new subdivision and new house lot that You would have assumed wouldn't have anything underground yet. I wanna say there was an issue with the deed and it didn't show the easement so it was a surprise. I
That main was only an excavator tooth deep, about 8 inches . I had just scratched the loam and then took a bite of sub soil and thought it was a root until I saw the yellow line on it. Ended up evacuating a nursing home and court house for half the day.
They had the main marked as ending 10 feet away from where I was digging.
If You do not call and have them come out and mark everything and then You do hit something, its gonna cost you . Might be difficult or impossible to get insurance to cover it depending on what the laws are like .
I spent 1000's of hours in Skidsteers,excavators and dozers. And only a handful on a tractor. Most tractors are too light to do the same work of a similar or smaller track loader/skid steer. I think that the learning curve would be smaller with a skid steer too, definitely easier to grade with tracks VS tires. Easier to dig into a pile , much much easier to scrape up dirt to cut down an existing grade.
If You do it Yourself, skidsteer. get a basic bucket And then a soil prepper after of some kind ( harley rake /rockhound) and You will not have to hand rake at all. We used to cover the ground with straw after unless it had steep slopes. Then we used a mesh/netting that degrades over time but holds the soil together until grass grows.
All great info!
New build on previously undeveloped land. I have an overhead schematic with all lines, depths and distances plotted out. Skidsteer won't be near anything buried. The only place there is a utility line is where I'm adding fill.
Our concrete guy is my future in-law's Grandpa's company so I was chatting with him about it today and he is going to do it for $400. I countered with Tree Fiddy, but he didn't get the joke. 😂
I would let him do it and buy him a case of beer or give him a gift card for fuel too. $400 is what it costs for a day for a small track loader around here. And after all the taxes and insurance ( if You do not have a commercial policy that will work) it gets up there quickly and if You would have it delivered it could end up $1200 per day for a small machine . Fine grading isn't as fun to do as it might look if You have never done it. Somebody that is good in one will do it much faster than somebody who has no time running one. If it takes him a couple hours and looks super easy for him, it would likely have taken You a long day or two if You have no seat time in any type of equipment and do not pick it up quickly.
If You really want to scratch the itch of running it, ask him if You can give it a shot for a few minutes. Some guys don't let anybody run their stuff, but a lot will let you if they are right there and You know them well. I find grading the most fun part of running stuff now , but it can be very frustrating when You first start out.
They will already have the skiddy on-site for the concrete prep tomorrow, so it's just extra cash for his operator's time and fuel. Win win!
That sounds like a no brainer.
Ask if you can have a go at it first on his equipment for some fun and make it a hat trick, WIN, WIN, WIN!
TM
Post a reply to: Grading and Equipment Experts...