front loader or mini excavator

[finnercy]

Hi

Newish operator, I need to move 75+ton of dirt in piles of about 10ft high. Its been sitting 10 years so is very well compacted. I attacked it with my Front loader (Kubota B2230 HST) but was strugging to break into it and get a full bucket.
I need to move this dirt about 100 yards for distributing and leveling out so wondering what my best option is.

1. Hire a mini excavator and use it to load my dump trailer which Ill pull with the tractor - probably set me back a couple hundred for a few days hire. Used to have a mini Excavator so can run one.

2. Forget the mini excavator and use the Front loader to load the trailer then hitch it up and dump.

Option 2 is cheap but Im having difficulty breaking into the pile, also wondering if the dettaching/reattaching the 2 ton trailer repeatedly will be a headache. Would a tooth bar on the bucket help breakout?

Any suggestions would be great

Cheers Rob

 

[Thomas]

Good owner operator could make short time of dirt pile...no headaches or weather to consider.

 

[ProjectKing]

How big is the dump trailer? I would rent a tracked skid steer and load the dump trailer if it has any kind of capacity. If it doesn’t I would just move the dirt in the bucket on the skid steer the 300’. You can move a lot of dirt like this in 8 hours if you are running a full size skid steer (10,000 to 12,000 lbs)

 

[Diggin It]

A loader is a loader. It's for loading loose material. It is NOT for digging in anything other than loose material.

Review this thread if you have any doubts: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...25328-broken-loader-mount-kl4030-ck2610h.html

 

[Industrial Toys]

Could also read the "I broke my loader mounts" or "my front axle turned into garbage" threads.

A large mini ex at the very least, as the production and reach of a small one is poor.

You won't break a tracked skid loader, but it won't have that much break out force either. Teeth would help quit a bit.

 

[MossRoad]

Hi

Newish operator, I need to move 75+ton of dirt in piles of about 10ft high. Its been sitting 10 years so is very well compacted. I attacked it with my Front loader (Kubota B2230 HST) but was strugging to break into it and get a full bucket.
I need to move this dirt about 100 yards for distributing and leveling out so wondering what my best option is.

1. Hire a mini excavator and use it to load my dump trailer which Ill pull with the tractor - probably set me back a couple hundred for a few days hire. Used to have a mini Excavator so can run one.

2. Forget the mini excavator and use the Front loader to load the trailer then hitch it up and dump.

Option 2 is cheap but Im having difficulty breaking into the pile, also wondering if the dettaching/reattaching the 2 ton trailer repeatedly will be a headache. Would a tooth bar on the bucket help breakout?

Any suggestions would be great

Cheers Rob

Yes, a tooth bar should help. Think about it. If your bucket is 48" wide, all of the force your tractor can generate is distributed across that 48". If you have 12 teeth 1" wide each, all of that force is now distributed across only 12". That's 4X the force. Teeth also help with loading loose material. It's a good investment.

How big is your dump trailer?

If you could tow that behind a 2nd vehicle, it would go much, much faster VS having to hook and un-hook the trailer with each load.

 

[kthompson]

Excavator and dump trailer...we used that setup to move dirt from a one acre pond about same distance. 5 ton excavator and 6 by 10 by 2 feet dump trailer. Hooked the hyd cylinder to the tractor's remotes for faster and easier dumping. Was loading, making the round trip with dumping as quick as 8 minutes. Two operators. Oil trailer bed, dump trailers don't raise anything like as much as dump trucks. No way you want to load the trailer and have to then hook it over and over.

 

[Ortimber]

A CTL (compact track loader) and a little time and that pile will be gone. You can move a lot of material with one of those in a day.

 

[WoodDuck]

Another vote for a large tracked skid steer with a large capacity tooth bucket. If you rent a unit with decent ground speed, it might be quicker to skip the dump trailer entirely and just shuttle it over to the dump site. Could try it both ways and see. I'm all about not handling anything more than I have to. If you load the trailer with an excavator, then pull the trailer over and dump it, then come back later yet again with your tractor to distribute and level after that, you've handled the same scoop of dirt several times with multiple pieces of equipment. Might be more efficient to run it over to the dump area with the skid steer, then dump/spread/rough level it as your backing away to return to the pickup pile. Can always finish smoothing things out with a tractor plane or blade after the bulk has been moved to the new location. My two cents anyway!

 

[4570Man]

How big is your dump trailer? Having a truck or trailer would definitely make the job go better but moving 75 tons of dirt with a CTL wouldn’t be that bad of a job. A toothed bucket on a CTL will easily break into hard packed dirt and load it. It’s a completely different animal compared to a small tractor. My recommendation would be just hire someone. Someone with a CTL and dump truck could have that job done in 2 hours.