digging a pond

[cutbetterthanyou]

clay no rocks

[jd270]

id go with a trackloader with a 4in 1 bucket

[Scag48]

A D8 with a couple days worth of time and fuel.

[P.Services]

some of you guys i swear....

a tractor and 2 pans will be as long as the pond hes trying to dig. what a stupid idea. two swipes wide, i would guess its in a tight location because its such a small pond, and could be wet to. NEXT

why are we suggesting a 4 in 1 bucket again?

by the time your said and done i bet you will be very close to 2,000 yards. Thats not alot of dirt to move in all reality. Do you have a dump truck you can use along with a mini if you buy one?

remember renting is making some one else rich. (unless you have a dealer like mine who gives machines away)

[P.Services]

Originally Posted by scag48

a d8 with a couple days worth of time and fuel.

coooooommmmeeeee onnnnnn

[swim]

I just finished my first pond. I recently bought a used skid steer with a backhoe attachment. Spent about $9000. Used and older, but a starting point anyway.

My soil is clay with small rocks.
My pond is in the shape of a triangle, with the sides about 100ft each. actually the work area is allot bigger, but I hope it is that size when it gets full. We will see.
I only went about 6 feet deep. I wanted to make it so animals could walk down the slope to drink and get back out.
I spent about 30 hours total.
If you have never used anything but a shovel, The amount of work you can do is incredible.
I will try to take a few pics tomorrow.
Its been raining for a couple days and the water is about two feet deep.

[cutbetterthanyou]

Originally Posted by P.Services

by the time your said and done i bet you will be very close to 2,000 yards. Thats not alot of dirt to move in all reality. Do you have a dump truck you can use along with a mini if you buy one?
)

is 2ooo yards pretical with something like a mini. i have a 86 chevy one ton dump.it don't hold alot of weigh but then again dot can't get me in a feild on my on proprety

[Scag48]

Originally Posted by P.Services

coooooommmmeeeee onnnnnn

You're right, 2,000 yards isn't much but use some common sense. With one operator loading and driving the truck, you could probably only move about 500 yards per day with a 5 ton mini and a 10 yard dump truck. If you stuffed a tandem axle truck with 15 yards of material, get out of the mini, drive the truck a minimal distance to dump, then drive back you're probably looking at maybe 6 cycles per hour. In 1 hour you moved 60 yards? By the time you figure your rental for a week with the mini and whatever you gotta figure to get a truck for a week, you could rent a D8 for 2 days, probably cost you $1500 before fuel and you could be done with the damn thing. Can you do it with a mini? Definately. I guess it depends on what your time is worth.

[cutbetterthanyou]

Originally Posted by swim

I just finished my first pond. I recently bought a used skid steer with a backhoe attachment. Spent about $9000. Used and older, but a starting point anyway.

My soil is clay with small rocks.
My pond is in the shape of a triangle, with the sides about 100ft each. actually the work area is allot bigger, but I hope it is that size when it gets full. We will see.
I only went about 6 feet deep. I wanted to make it so animals could walk down the slope to drink and get back out.
I spent about 30 hours total.
If you have never used anything but a shovel, The amount of work you can do is incredible.
I will try to take a few pics tomorrow.
Its been raining for a couple days and the water is about two feet deep.

that is kind of what i am going for but i want deep on one end for fish.30 hours don;t seem bad for a project of that size. ive used a backhoe a little and my compact tractor alot so im not in the dark.pics would be cool.thanks

[P.Services]

number one its going to cost you more then 1500 just to rent it. then figure trucking will be at least another 800 if not more.

and a d8 would have that done in no more then 5 hours anyways. dont you run big iron? you should know a machine like that is just sheer overkill. If you want to do it with a dozer a 450 deere or a d4 cat is plenty big and you can move it with your truck if you wana be a tad risky.

Back to HIS original idea..... he wants to BUY a machine that he can dig the pond with and also use for his biz. A mini is more then practical to dig such a little pond. especially when he has a little dump truck to run with it.

would i rent a mini to do it? NO would i buy a mini and do it? yes because i will keep using it for the biz.