Should i pursue this Excavator.

[BTDT]

I'm jealous. You're going to have a blast with that. Post lot's of pics.

 

[magnets]

Is it New England or am I being treated like a rube?

I do not know. I'm new to the excavator business.

What are the best websites for price comparison? I started up the aviongoo.com website to provide an index that crosses vendor listings for aircraft.

And, I'm working on a similar aggregate index listing excavators at http://www.excavargoo.com

So far it looks like similar companies are involved. But, it also looks like catused.com might be another aspect of the price comparison arena.

Any suggestions?

 

[mike69440]

Stuff is just more expensive in the NE.

Labor is way more expensive as labor is overtaxed and over regulated. There is also the hack factor. Too much grease is applied to everything to get anything done. Medical and insurance costs are stupid.

The type of soil and the winter take their toll on equipment, and not being able to work year round means the businessmen have to charge more per hour.

So All in all I think I made out well and paid a fair price.

RC Hazelton in Montpelier VT treated me quite well on servicing the machine and the thumb install.

I'll be getting a ready to work machine on site for $26 k or so. I am not complaining.

The machine is scheduled for delivery Tuesday.

PS Good luck with the website.

 

[av8or]

Is this excavator about the size of a Cat 305? Would this size excavator dig up a tree stump? Somebody mentioned getting one for that purpose. Looking to dig up pine stumps up to 20 inches. Just need some excavator education--thanks.

 

[mike69440]

Yes and no.

PC-75 is size of Cat 307. The PC-50 = Cat 305 = KX-161 (approx)

You should be able to pluck a 6" or maybe 8" stump but fiqure an hour of hard work to pull a +20" stump. Do that often you will kill the 305.

To pluck a 20" stump you need a Cat 315!

My little Kubota L39 continues to amaze me that it is almost as strong but much slower than say a Cat 304!

 

[mike69440]

Well my $22K excavator is up to near $29,000 and counting. This time hopefully everything is fixed. The spool valve remote for the thumb casting cracked. and there was an internal problem with the valving on the right drive. I believe this was just bad luck, as my demo of the machine and the dealers check out did not uncover the problems. It does not take much to run up a bill.

I guess this is the chance you take buying used. Of the $7 grand difference about $4,500 is the new thumb and bucket, including installation.

I was figuring about $26,500 to get it on site. I'm overbudget at this point. I sure hope it earns finally it's keep!

Additionally I own a L39, additionly beefed, weighted, and reinforced to do as much as can be asked of a wheeled +8,000 lb 37 net BHP beefed up farm tractor can be expected.

If I were doing medium landscape projects, I would be all set. I bought the 18,000 Lb used Komatsu PC-75 excavator to help the L39, but all this seems to acomplish so far is overload the L39 as a rock/dirt transporter. As the excavator has broken down twice, I have yet to determine it's full capabilities. It is basically a good machine and I expect not to get rid of it anytime soon. My project list is very long.

With just the L39 on hand, I hired out having the 1/4 mile road roughed in. The road bed has is 5 feet of material in spots, about 1800-2000 yards total material being moved from the house site blast area. I did at least 25% of the material moving and just about all of the fine work with the L39. Between clearing, blasting, Wetland Studies & permits, excvator, dozer, Loader, and Dump truck hireouts, and many Tri axale loads of processed material used in the upper layers, this road has run about $40K. It is a heck of a road.
Add another $15,000 for other hired site work and you can hopefully understand the excavator purchase.

I still have work to appease the wetland people and I want to line the length of both sides of the road with boulders. The PC75 will help.

The house plans are just as grand. I have about 800 yds of additional blast spoils to move, plus about 100 yds. of organic material. Then to have a "backyard" I want to level a 100 x 150' area to have a walkout basement and a real backyard. This involves maybe 1000-1500 yards of material.

The blasted area for the house served as a gravel pit for the road, and a basement hole is started. The hole is about 40% completed so far as total regarding material left to move.

I started digging with the Excavator and L39.
I fiqure with 1500 L39 bucket loads, my wife and I could do the foundation hole in about 120 hours. We would place the material to build up an area for a fuel depot and metal building for the L39 and PC75, B7200, boat, camper etc. next to a curently unused unfenced outdoor riding rink.

I have decided I either need a 5-8 yard dump truck and lots of time or I'm going to hire the bsement out, at least to the extent I did the road.
Hire out wins! I also have hundreds of stumps and want to make a pasture, so along with hiring the roughing of the house site, hiring cleaning up and grading the cleared 5 acres will cost me about $20,000.

Even so, I will keep the PC-75 and L39 well excercised. (Septic, back fill foundation, grading, trenching for electric to the home site and existing barn, well pipe line trenches , drainage and culverts, a +1/4 Acre pond, trail, and wall building.)

I am using my retirement equity to build property equity. At least I will get to enjoy the place till the nursing home time comes many years from now I hope. Property may not be a liquid asset, but I will take the chance.

When i finally retire, I may very well get into earth work as a business hobby.

 

[Ductape]

Mike,
Perhaps you could have picked an easier piece of property to build on ???

Nah ! What fun would that be !

 

[mike69440]

Mike,
Perhaps you could have picked an easier piece of property to build on ???

Nah ! What fun would that be !

Sometimes I wonder.

For half a million, we could have gotten a decent farm. I was just over someone remodeling an older home. Man, that is some demolition project that they are living in!
I would not want to do that either, as any farm house would most likely be in need of a lot of work.
I will build from scratch and hope I plan it well.

 

[mike69440]

Bigger machine, bigger rocks.

Rather than try to stuff a near 4000 Lb rock in the bucket of the L39, this is how I've been carrying them. To gauge the size of the rock, the blade is 91" wide x 19 tall, the thumb pin to tip is 42" The Rock was about 8' long by 3' wided x 16" thick on average.

 

[Ductape]

Luckily, you have a helper with you !

 

[mike69440]

I still have a sticky travel spool, but at least the machine moves, and I 've been using it like a little dozer. It has just enough oomph to spin its tracks.
A winter project is to remove the $3,000 3 function spool valve and very carefully disassemble it completely so I can lap the spool and flush out the internals.

I smashed the light on the boom into a tree today. Minor all things considering, but there goes at least another C-note.

Some things I learned about excavators. You need at least a 12-15 ton machine to do any real work, and even those machines struggle with any tree worth its bark. 18,000 lbs is not enough. It will pick up a rock the size that barely can be grabbed with the bucket and thumb, but doing such heavy work with a small machine, is tough on the mechanicals.

The near zero turn radius machines are nice to get into tight areas, but if not for the front blade, not that stable. Also the machine is difficult to access components for service. The older Komatsu's are rear tough to work on. 10 Lbs of stuff in a 5 pound bag. Not real well laid out and very cramped.

The receiver on the hitch is sure handy.
Handy as duct tape.

 

[mike69440]

Should I pursue this Excavator?

I have just less than 100 hrs on the PC75UU-2E since I became its owner. Total hours are just under 4700.
Buying a machine like this is like buying a yacht you think you got a decent deal on. Then every time you take it out you hit a storm and damage or break something. You find out just how much it takes to keep it afloat.

This month I burned $94 in diesel. Broke my watch cleaning up the undercarriage, ($35), I got too aggressive crowding the bucket against the thumb while the oil was cold and broke a relief valve ($200).

This machine is not for the faint of heart.

I did not even notice when I must have either hit something or swung something into the lower bodywork tin and mangled the front right corner.

I now understand why it cost so much to hire out work.

I guess what bothers me the most is that I still am hiring out. It came down to both not having the variety of equipment necessary to be productive and not having the time.
The L39 and PC75UU2-E can do a lot, but to move the dirt and rock that was moved this year required 2 addtional excavators, a Terex off road articulated truck, 2 site dump trucks, 2 weeks of dozer work, an ASV RC60 to run circles around the L39, a CAT vibrating roller and a Michigan loader and my little Kubota B7200 and neighbors L3400 for clean up.

Depending on my cash situation after the house is built, I may have to sell the excavator, but not until I get the heavy duty landscaping 90% done. The PC75UU2-E is twice as strong as the hoe on the L39, 4X as fast, with more reach. I would miss it and the dozer blade also.

A 7.5 metric ton excavator ( 18,000 lbs) kills itself trying to do stuff a 12-15 metric ton machine should be doing. In hindsight, I should have gotten a small 12-15 metric ton machine excavator with the intention of selling it after doing the heavy work vs. the giant mini I bought.

I've attached some shot of widening the exit from our 1000' road built thru swamp and woods. (I kept clear of the wetland flags.)

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks for the update. It's always very informative to hear first hand how owning a piece of equipment works out.

Eddie

 

[mike69440]

Some more Photo's of the road widening. By the end of the day, I had the road a lot nicer than these morning pictures.

 

[mike69440]

Last of the road widening picture and a few pictures to where the road leads, & my wife playing with her horsy.

I parked the excavator last week where one track settled into slightly soft ground, then froze. The machine had a tough time pulling the track off the frozen ground.

I think parking on some 1-1/2" crushed stone is the best place to leave it in this freezing weather. It is supposed to drop to 5-10 F tonight.

3 days without breaking something, I guess I am loosing my touch?

 

[mike69440]

It is nice on a cold day to have heat and a cab. I'm getting old. After 4-5 hours, I'm tired.

Here is a shot of where I quit on the driveway widening and another at the drive entrance where I finally got around to picking up an old rock wall and moving it to the edge of the road. I made a drainage ditch also. I'm not finished with this.

Note the offest boom feature. It is handy.

My wife says she builds nicer walls with the Kubota. Ok, she is right, but I helped build her wall and she was playing with her horse while I was building this.

Another $75 in fuel this weekend.