Using Mini-Ex in the rain

[HawkinsHollow]

The plan is to rent a mini-ex this week to do a project on my property. I am going to be creating a roadbed by removing material at the bottom of a slope to flatten an area to create the roadbed. There was rain in the forecast, then it went away for a couple of days, now it's back. The advantage of doing it now is the Bobcat dealer will rent me a mini-ex over the Thanksgiving holiday for the 1 day price, granted I only get "10 hours" but it makes the whole process less stress and I can take my time.

My question is, how much of a mess am I going to make if it rains for a couple days while I am doing this? Right now it does not look like a washout, just intermittent showers for a couple of days. I am hoping the dirt I will be taking out of this slope is mostly loose shale, but definitely some topsoil mixed in. I think I am going to be ok but I wanted to ask here about issues when working a machine like this in the rain. You guys always come up with stuff I don't think of.

 

[sea2summit]

Gonna be hard to say without seeing how wet the soil already is, type of soil, and ho much rain. But if it were me I’d probably still do it, just be prepared that you may be leaving a lot of scars/ruts with the machine that you may not have if it were dry.

 

[scootr]

On the other hand having a reasonable amount of moisture in the material will greatly aid compacting that material in the new location. Also you might ask the dealer about a rain-out refund if a gully washer hits and no work is possible.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Soils are not super wet right now, was very dry, but we had a little rain over the last couple of weeks. Probably perfect soil moisture at the moment. Just enough to make digging out trees/stumps easier, but not too wet. Like I said, I am hoping the bottom of this slope is weathered shale. Another consideration is that this work will be along the edge on my pond. There is a 10-20 foot flat edge along the pond at the bottom of the slope.

I agree though, might leave it a bit rutted but that is what the tractor is for, coming in to finish grade it once I am done with the mini-ex

 

[EddieWalker]

The smaller the bucket, the more it will plug up with wet soil. The wetter the soil, the more it will stick to the inside of the bucket. I personally will not do any dirt work if it's muddy out. The amount of mess you create is always worse then it's worth.

But if it doesn't rain, or the rain isn't very heavy, you missed out on a great deal. 10 hours is a lot of operating time. But isn't that what you get on any weekend rental?

 

[civilian]

Being close to your pond, any problems with new disturbed dirt entering pond from water runoff? Jon

 

[HawkinsHollow]

The smaller the bucket, the more it will plug up with wet soil. The wetter the soil, the more it will stick to the inside of the bucket. I personally will not do any dirt work if it's muddy out. The amount of mess you create is always worse then it's worth.

But if it doesn't rain, or the rain isn't very heavy, you missed out on a great deal. 10 hours is a lot of operating time. But isn't that what you get on any weekend rental?

Yes Eddie, same 10 hours you get on a weekend rental. In my experience Bobcat doesn't nickel and dime you on a few extra hours. This will be my 4th weekend rental from them, I had; 14 hours, 17 hours and 10 hours never got charged extra.

This is a tough one to call. Definitely going to rain Friday, Saturday and early Sunday. But I will have 2 days without rain Wednesday and Thursday(one of those being Thanksgiving). I do not think this is going to be TOO muddy, I am hoping it will be rocky soil. The steepest part of the slope is exposed highly weathers rock, so I am hoping there is some of that along the entire slope. I have about 1 hours to decide, need to call the guy today to cancel. Tough one!

 

[kevin37b]

Get some rock there before you start ? Kevin .

 

[dieselscout80]

If you have to move it any distance load it on a trailer rather use hours moving it.

 

[Fixastuff]

When working in the wet alot depends on how much tracking over the same area you'll be doing. Minimal tracking no problem, bunch of tracking will make a mess.