School me up on buying a 4 to 6 ton excavator and mulching head

[noharleyyet]

@npaden

How's the game situation Nathan...you 'bout ready for a new best friend?

 

[Addicting]

That's like saying to save the money and rent a rifle instead of having your own.

Rifles don’t cost thousands and thousands to fix and for maintenance and insurance.

As a previous owner, I would only ever rent one or pay a professional now. Unless your doing production work for income you will most definitely loose money on it.

 

[Addicting]

How much will the insurance policy cost you a year?

 

[millerkiller77]

View attachment 283995
A friend did a print on his 3d printer of the property in Colorado for me. The color changes for each 100 feet of elevation. You can see the property line etched in as well. I think this helps show that the property is pretty steep. I own pretty much all the higher stuff, the low valley on the bottom right isn't mine.

I wouldn’t be using the excavator on the steep stuff but would be selectively picking out some of the flatter spots (mainly ridges and saddles) and doing the pinion/juniper abatement there to allow for more usable forage for wildlife.

Do you know if that was done through Terrain2 or Terrainator?
I like the way he did the election in colored increments, I'm going have to try this now

 

[geewhiz]

Just did an online quick quote at it was a little more expensive than I thought. $2,500 for 350 miles one way for a 20,000 pound load.

The trucks that I have hired recently have been around around $135-140/hr. If you figure a 700 mile round trip @ 60 mph thats 11.66 hrs X $140/hr =$1633 plus load and unload time. Doesnt seam too far out.

 

[Speeddmn]

I’m the manager of a Bobcat dealer here in Helena. Great rebates or financing terms till the end of August. I will say this though, I havent seen anyone come back and say they bought too big of a machine. If you like the specs and price of a E50, check out the differences for an E60. Cliff notes, huge jump in over the side weight, larger cab, and work lights. Price difference between a 50 and a 60 isnt very much.

Also if buying from a dealer, doesnt CO have sales tax? We dont in MT….

 

[npaden]

How much will the insurance policy cost you a year?

Hadn’t checked. I don’t carry insurance on my tractor or my travel trailer but those aren’t worth near as much as this would be. I checked on insurance for my tractor and I think as long as it is at my house it is covered by my homeowners insurance but not positive. For sure something to check out. Would for sure have to get insurance if we did any work for anyone else.

 

[npaden]

Do you know if that was done through Terrain2 or Terrainator?
I like the way he did the election in colored increments, I'm going have to try this now

Not sure. I gave him the htmz? from goggle earth and he printed it. I’ll ask him what he used.

 

[npaden]

I’m the manager of a Bobcat dealer here in Helena. Great rebates or financing terms till the end of August. I will say this though, I havent seen anyone come back and say they bought too big of a machine. If you like the specs and price of a E50, check out the differences for an E60. Cliff notes, huge jump in over the side weight, larger cab, and work lights. Price difference between a 50 and a 60 isnt very much.

Also if buying from a dealer, doesnt CO have sales tax? We dont in MT….

I would be buying in Texas. I have an agriculture use exemption for sales tax that I can use. Thanks for the tip on the E60, I’ve seen a few of those around, the only negative is that even with the jump in everything else I think the auxiliary hydraulic flow is still only 20 gpm on it.

 

[Addicting]

I would also spend some time on the phone with the mulcher head company. If that is this machines main function then build the machine around the head.

What is the recovery rate on head, hi verses low flow? How does the head handle willow and vines? (Some heads wrap instead of cut and it kills recovery). Minimum HP verses recommend for your ground?

What is the knife life expectancy with rocky ground?

That conversation can save you a lot of future frustration.


I had to have a rider on the homeowners policy to cover my machine.

The contents of the barn didn’t have enough to cover replacement of it and everything else. So I had to up that dollar amount for appropriate coverage.

Out of the barn is where I had to have the rider for any damage. Either damage I caused or Mother Nature.

 

[gonhunting247]

If you use a machine a lot and get it for a good price it can pay for itself in a hurry. I bought my Bobcat broke down, but knew what I needed to replace. By the time I was done I had about 12 grand in it. If I had been renting a machine I would have burnt through that in a couple months. I guess it depends on how much you will need it. Before I bought mine, I traded use of the Kubota or the CAT from a couple different friends, for work/goods etc. and that was great, but I was always hauling them back and forth and the machine was never there when I needed it. If you are renting and you are fairly remote, you will pay for hauling also.
If you can do all your work at once renting seems good, but if you need it off and on and only use it; say in the evening and on the weekends, for example, like I did. IMO purchasing one was a much better option.
I guess it really depends on the situation.
I do know all this conversation makes me want to get one of those mulching heads

 

[Speeddmn]

Can check out Diamond Mowers out of SD, 2 year warranty vs industry, standard of one year. The head will need to be “tuned” to the machine for optimal performance. Usually takes maybe an hour. Instead of the usual high flow or stand flow. The drums turns in relation to the output of the machine.

EX 4.5-10MT Drum Mulcher DC Pro X - Diamond Mowers® Attachments

Versatility and maximum cut width relative to weight for more productivity per pass. Learn more & get a quote from our team today!

diamondmowers.com

 

[Adamhuntingstuff]

Okay. I'm looking hard at buying a 4 to 6 ton excavator and a mulching head for it. I had been looking at a skid steer setup with a mulching head but I already have a 55hp tractor and think an excavator would be way more useful for other things around than a skid steer would be. Also on my property in Colorado I think an excavator would get around on the steeper slopes better than a skid steer would.

I'm looking at a setup like this -

or this -

I've been looking at a lot of brands of excavators and mulching heads and seems like really most of them are pretty good. If I went out and bought new right now I think I would get a Takeuchi TB260 and a Fecon FMX36 mulcher head. The Takeuchi seems to do really well in most other areas but it has the best auxiliary hydraulic flow out of that range of machines. I am looking to limit myself to a 5.5 ton excavator because that would be about the biggest I could haul with my 3/4 ton pickup and I would like to be able to move it between properties by myself without having to hire it out every time I wanted to move it. I like a lot of the features of the bobcat E50 but it's auxiliary hydraulic flow is only 20 gpm compared to 27 gpm on the Takeuchi.

Of course I would be looking to find a gently used 5 or 6 year old machine with under 2,000 hours on it instead of buying new so I might have to alter my wish list a little. I think I would probably end up buying the mulcher head new, they run right around $20,000 for most of the brands in that size range.

This is something that is most likely going to be a year+ long process on making this decision but I've been looking around and if the perfect machine dropped in my lap at a great price I would probably pull the trigger earlier.

For sure would end up with a thumb on the excavator and a couple different buckets and I think I could find a lot of different things to use it for.

One other thing that I've been looking at that seems to be a variable on the different machines is the blade. Some of them the blade is strictly and up and down and that is it, several add a angle feature and there are a few that go all the way with the full 6 way dozer blade with the angle and tilt. That seems like it would be nice, but I think the 4 way blade would probably be good enough.

I figured there are probably some folks on here with a lot more experience with equipment like that than me and might have some good insights. It seems like the gently used market is pretty good right now for a buyer, I've been reading that it might drop a little more in 2024 but that's all speculation.

Oh well, I've been looking around for a while now and thought I would throw this out there to see where the hunttalk world might steer me.

I am the General Manager at Mongo Attachments. We sell mulching heads for machines in that size class. Shoot me a message if you want some more info or to discuss.

 

[npaden]

Sneak peak at 5.5 hours of mulching work done by a high flow skid steer mulcher. Got some good drone video of it working but here are some before and after pictures. Of course I didn’t think to get the before pictures but had a few that were pretty close from last summer.

Looking toward my blind up on the hill.



My pond.


Pictures of the skid steer working on the pond area to give some perspective.


It was pretty cool and seemed to do a pretty good job. I had planned on spraying all the stumps with Remedy and did make an attempt but it was a lot harder to find the stumps to spray than I expected. I will go back in a month or so and spray any sprouts.

The main part that I hired the mulcher for was even thicker than I thought. They had never mulched anything that thick and it kept clogging the mulcher. The drone videos really show how thick it was, the skid steer is just swamped in there.

It did make me want an excavator mulcher even more, I would have been able to do it exactly how I wanted it, communicating with a guy in a skid steer throwing debris 100 yards out in front is tricky and I didn’t get all the paths exactly the way I wanted them. Still think it was a good project thiugh.

 

[npaden]

Okay. May have hit a snag on buying and owning my own mini excavator.

My 3/4 ton diesel weighs just over 10,000lbs. The excavators I'm looking at weigh in around 12,000lbs. Add a 4,000lb trailer and then forget to go pee and you end up over the 26,000lb CDL limit. I was actually looking at a 18,000lb GVWR trailer so I could haul the excavator and the mulching head and maybe some other tools but that for sure would put me over 26,000lbs. Maybe I could throw some super thin fake walls on the trailer and license it as an RV Trailer because evidently if you are pulling an RV trailer all the rules go away.

I have my current flatbed trailer registered as a farm trailer and I think that works in Texas but pulling it to Colorado is going to be pushing things based on my reading. Sounds like a lot of folks just operate on the "I'll just play dumb if I get stopped" thought process but I'm not sure I want to try that option.

A 14,000lb GVWR trailer would keep me under 26,000lbs but even that sounds like it isn't really correct as somewhere in the fine print is says you can't go over a 10,000lb trailer. I've been messing that up already without knowing but I don't remember ever hauling out of state with it. The 14,000lb GVWR trailer would pretty much limit me to a 4 ton excavator.

Reading a few equipment and hauling forums it sounds like this is a big mess especially if you are using it for personal use on your own property but you are crossing state lines.

 

[npaden]

Okay. It looks like I read that wrong. As long as I keep the GVWR of the truck and trailer is under 26,000lbs then I'm good.

So maybe I should switch my thinking more toward a 4 ton excavator and a 14,000lb GVWR trailer. I think I would be good then.

 

[WTFJohn]

Okay. It looks like I read that wrong. As long as I keep the GVWR of the truck and trailer is under 26,000lbs then I'm good.

So maybe I should switch my thinking more toward a 4 ton excavator and a 14,000lb GVWR trailer. I think I would be good then.

I haul a 4 ton mini (Cat 304E2) on a 15900 GVWR trailer, puts me at 25,900 lb rated capacity with the truck.

I do this/similar work in CO, if it's not going to end up doing any work in your yard or on grass that you care about I would switch to steel tracks. The increase in traction on slopes and durability is hard to overstate, plus it's additional weight in the best place to allow you to work better over the side of the machine.

 

[npaden]

I haul a 4 ton mini (Cat 304E2) on a 15900 GVWR trailer, puts me at 25,900 lb rated capacity with the truck.

I do this/similar work in CO, if it's not going to end up doing any work in your yard or on grass that you care about I would switch to steel tracks. The increase in traction on slopes and durability is hard to overstate, plus it's additional weight in the best place to allow you to work better over the side of the machine.

Thanks. The sticker on my door with the diesel shows the truck at 10,850 GVWR so that would limit me to a 15,000 GVWR trailer. I couldn't remember ever seeing any 15,000 GVWR trailers but there actually are a few out there according to the Google machine. Not sure how a trailer with 2 - 7,000lb axles can be 15,000 GVWR but that's what they are showing on the rating. Most of them look to weigh in the 3,000lb range empty so that would actually give me a tiny bit of breathing room with a 4 ton machine (since most of the 4 ton machines actually weigh closer to 4.5 tons).

 

[WTFJohn]

Thanks. The sticker on my door with the diesel shows the truck at 10,850 GVWR so that would limit me to a 15,000 GVWR trailer. I couldn't remember ever seeing any 15,000 GVWR trailers but there actually are a few out there according to the Google machine. Not sure how a trailer with 2 - 7,000lb axles can be 15,000 GVWR but that's what they are showing on the rating. Most of them look to weigh in the 3,000lb range empty so that would actually give me a tiny bit of breathing room with a 4 ton machine (since most of the 4 ton machines actually weigh closer to 4.5 tons).

Pin/tongue weight is on the truck, not on the trailer axles.

 

[Scott85]

Get the biggest machine you can move on your own.