Such a good week. Life is good when you have a skid steer loader on hand.

[phill4paul]

So the road in, the drive-way and a swale on the back of the house was much in need of work.
I rented a skid steer for the week. Most know it as a "Bobcat."
I dug the road culverts deeper. Raked and floated the road. Filled in some 1.5' ruts in the driveway with the rocks I got out of the culvert. Then spread 10 tons of crush and run and 40 of wash stone.
At the back of the house I dug out a swale. Over time the hillside just brought water down straight to the foundation.
Made an 8" drop back towards the hillside. Will be putting a wall up the next coupla weeks.
In all I probably excavated and relocated 50 tons of earth and rocks. And put down another 50 in materials.
All in all in has been fulfilling. Haven't been on a skid steer in 15 yrs. and then I only worked one for about 40 hrs.
It has been cathartic and fulfilling. If I had went into the Navy as a Seabee instead of an Air Traffic Controller I probably would have retired with them.
Rental cost works out to $20/hr. plus fuel.
That's pretty damn cheap entertainment.

 

[oyarde]

Ya , its amazing how much quicker that is than me doing it with a shovel. Danke wont ever loan me any bobcat rental monies though.

 

[Anti Federalist]

So the road in, the drive-way and a swale on the back of the house was much in need of work.
I rented a skid steer for the week. Most know it as a "Bobcat."
I dug the road culverts deeper. Raked and floated the road. Filled in some 1.5' ruts in the driveway with the rocks I got out of the culvert. Then spread 10 tons of crush and run and 40 of wash stone.
At the back of the house I dug out a swale. Over time the hillside just brought water down straight to the foundation.
Made an 8" drop back towards the hillside. Will be putting a wall up the next coupla weeks.
In all I probably excavated and relocated 50 tons of earth and rocks. And put down another 50 in materials.
All in all in has been fulfilling. Haven't been on a skid steer in 15 yrs. and then I only worked one for about 40 hrs.
It has been cathartic and fulfilling. If I had went into the Navy as a Seabee instead of an Air Traffic Controller I probably would have retired with them.
Rental cost works out to $20/hr. plus fuel.
That's pretty damn cheap entertainment.

Playing in the dirt is the best fun there is.

I have one of these coming to the property next month, weather permitting.

 

[phill4paul]

Ya , its amazing how much quicker that is than me doing it with a shovel. Danke wont ever loan me any bobcat rental monies though.

Wasn't ever gonna happen with a shovel. I'd need at least 100 slaves for the week. Instead I rented a skid steer at $20/hr. Western Civilization sucks.

 

[phill4paul]

Playing in the dirt is the best fun there is.

I have one of these coming to the property next month, weather permitting.

Fook yeah! A friend that came over this weekend told me there's this place in Arizona that charges people, like, $100 per hour to operate serious heavy machinery.
$100 to dig a hole. $100 to fill it in.
WTF?

 

[oyarde]

I have holes I'll let arizonians dig for 2.00

 

[Anti Federalist]

Fook yeah! A friend that came over this weekend told me there's this place in Arizona that charges people, like, $100 per hour to operate serious heavy machinery.
$100 to dig a hole. $100 to fill it in.
WTF?

https://www.extremesandbox.com/contact/

These guys have full size machines.

Some of the best fun I ever had, was doing dredge work one summer, running an early sixties LinkBelt machine with air operated friction clutches and a dragline bucket.

Looked something like this:

 

[Anti Federalist]

Wasn't ever gonna happen with a shovel. I'd need at least 100 slaves for the week. Instead I rented a skid steer at $20/hr. Western Civilization sucks.

Was it a track-steer Bobcat or a wheeled skid steer Bobcat?

Obviously it did the work for you, it seems, from everything I've heard, the tracked units are much much better.

I think the operators cab would be too cramped for me...looks like a carnival ride.

How fast could you operate?

 

[Danke]

Playing in the dirt is the best fun there is.

I have one of these coming to the property next month, weather permitting.

Nice excavator, I think AF refers to them as backhoes, he is more familiar with those on his boats.

 

[Anti Federalist]

 

[Anti Federalist]

Nice excavator, I think AF refers to them as backhoes, he is more familiar with those on his boats.

Back Hoe

Front 'ho

 

[phill4paul]

Was it a track-steer Bobcat or a wheeled skid steer Bobcat?

Obviously it did the work for you, it seems, from everything I've heard, the tracked units are much much better.

I think the operators cab would be too cramped for me...looks like a carnival ride.

How fast could you operate?

I rented the tracked model. For the work I was doing it was the best choice. High end speed is about 10mph I'd guess.