price for moving dirt

[alwaysbusted]

Whoa guys back off, don"t blame me for the technology, I didn't design the machine, I just make a living with it. I don't owe a dime on any of my equipment because I spent years running old equipment so I could afford newer machines. As far as hourly jobs vs contract by the acre, the landowner makes that choice in my business, I regularly do it both ways. Some contractors can't be trusted doing hourly work. I rely on my work reputation which served me well in that regard for the past 26+ years, others don't fare as well. If you run good equipment and good operators you earn a reputation that speaks for you. I don't advertize but have never had less than 6 months of future work on the schedule, a large part being repeat work for the landowners.
As far as the equipment overheating while plowing, I was able to work while Komatsu, New Holland, and lots of Cat equipment (some new some not so new) sat idle during the heat while doing relatively light duty backfilling on a pipeline project on the same ranch. And yes, the direct drives were shut down too. It doesn't sound like you are currently running a plow tractor in this drought so like I said you had to be there to know what it is like. While you would have loved to have seen a D8 plowing, well that wasn't the case, they were working the same hours as me, if at all. Clearly you have a real lifetime connection with them, I respect that. I happen to like my machines, and despite the trivial criticism, they are far superior to machines not having so much as a tier level 0 ratings--their days are numbered regardless how great they were back in the day, the EPA will see to that.

[1970Cat16]

Just for grins how fast can you pull that 8 foot plow with the JD???? Whats the going rate for straight root plowing????

[alwaysbusted]

The plow I have is a 9 foot and the tractor is a Deere 750C. At normal depth, (must be at least 16 inch minimum depth, NRCS required), I plow in 8th or 9th gear which is 3.06 mph, for what that may mean. I use NRCS rates as a guide, sometimes more sometimes less depending on tree canopy, erosion washouts, fenceline shapes, etc.

[1970Cat16]

How much does the nrcs pay for root plowing these days?? Is that below the going rate for root plowing on contract root plowing jobs???

[alwaysbusted]

Several years ago the individual county rates were discontinued and changed to a single rate structure for the entire state with a wide range of values. The range has variables for percent of tree canopy, heavy tree doze vs average, etc. Payment can match up to 50% actual cost within the range. Sorry for the lengthy description, but the short answer is that there no longer is a NRCS standard rate.

[Greg]

So what does it turn out per hour for the machine when it is all over and done with?

[diggingfish]

Greg I am new here and in the dirt world.....kinda.....but I have agreed with you an almost everything so far. Good knowledge (not that I know a thing). I know that I grew up around my dad running a 2U building fish ponds. He could pull the cable blade off of that U and be dragging that overhead scrapper in 2 hours by himself. I have an open ear to the man that does not have to call the mechanic to know which pin to pull. Less stuff would get screwed up if more people knew more than forward, reverse, right and left......just an opinion.

[diggingfish]

Ya sure alwaysbusted. Sounds real good when you say it fast. Computers on current day macines cause more problems than they cure. Software engineers who know nothing about machinery and operating it write programs for things that they think would be neat which makes no sense. Case in point, Cat dozers have a feature that allow each operator to store his preferred settings for blade response and type of work being done. One of two things happens. One operator will never touch it, the next will spend all day long playing with the damn thing. Any time he is supposed to have saved is gone in playing with the computer.

As far as the principals of any of the various engineering diciplines go that has not changed. The laws of Physics don't lend themselves to being changed.

I too would love to see an early Cat D8 run rings around you and your high tech deere's while you sit in the shade waiting for it to cool down so you can get back at it.

As far as operators go, there are getting to be more and more inexperienced machine drivers, not operators, around who don't know a damn thing and further more don't want to learn anything either. The machine computer and GPS is supposed to do it all for them.

should have quoted this on my last post there sorry....still learning the ropes and gathering up all the knowledge.

[1970Cat16]

I hate to say this but I must, d8 2u 8s blade takes 15 minutes, pull the 4 cap bolts and the sheive on the blade, maybe 30 minutes to string up the 2 cables and back up the tractor to pin the drawbar pin for a real cat skinner, 2 hours is too much time, takes a 1 3/4 inch socket and combo wrench and a 2 pound shop hanger, string up the scraper with the 25 or 29 ccu, back up to the drawbar and drop in a 1 7/8 drawbar pin and start digging, we always ran 9/16 cable to get better wear but it was hard to string up scrapers and when we had a dirt job we went back to a 1/2 iwrc right hand lay cable, most operators today dont know how to string up a scraper or adjust a clutch, just get in the cab and turn up the radio so it drowns out the alarms!!! If your dad was digging fish ponds back them was prob working by the yard so no dirt no pay unless it was a Nrsc job where they get paid to sit under a tree ecause its too hot!!!

[1970Cat16]

Just for the record, in my county in south texas where we cleared land by the contract acre we bid the jobs to where we were figuring it was taking a d8h cat 1 hour and 45 minutes with a agressive operator to put one acre of land into farmland
First job was chaining the brush 2 ways to the ground, then pick up a 21 foot stacker and windrow the brush into piles, then burn the piles, round them up some, drop the 21 foot stacker, pick up the 8s straight blade and hook up the 11 foot root plow and start plowing in 3 gear at 2 65 miles per hour, after plowing out drop root plow and rig up the 21 or 24 foot holt wheel rake or stanley brown wheel rake or even a jack arnold wheel rake and get the firt raking done before it rained and the plowed roots settled back down, the wide root rake windrows were piled and burned off and them root raked the oppisite way and piled again and burned off, if it need a 3nrd raking it was done depending on the land, soon as we were done the rancher or farmer usually had a spring tooth rake mounted on the rear of a farm tracotr so he could try to get all of the small wood that passed thru the 3 rakings with the 21 foot wheel rake, nobody ever set in the shade because you got paid by the cleared acre, we always watched the hourmeter during the job to see how much we were under or over on our bid because it you did not run you lost money in fuel and labor and interest, there was no excuses, there were 4 or 5 people waiting to steal your job if you stumbled, ranchers knew if you were padding hours or taking shortcuts and wood watch you like a hawk and gripe about every root ball or ruff spot in the land job to try to make another week without paying for a 1000 acre job at $150 a cleared acrelol

[CDUB]

Whoa guys back off, don"t blame me for the technology, I didn't design the machine, I just make a living with it. I don't owe a dime on any of my equipment because I spent years running old equipment so I could afford newer machines. As far as hourly jobs vs contract by the acre, the landowner makes that choice in my business, I regularly do it both ways. Some contractors can't be trusted doing hourly work. I rely on my work reputation which served me well in that regard for the past 26+ years, others don't fare as well. If you run good equipment and good operators you earn a reputation that speaks for you. I don't advertize but have never had less than 6 months of future work on the schedule, a large part being repeat work for the landowners.
As far as the equipment overheating while plowing, I was able to work while Komatsu, New Holland, and lots of Cat equipment (some new some not so new) sat idle during the heat while doing relatively light duty backfilling on a pipeline project on the same ranch. And yes, the direct drives were shut down too. It doesn't sound like you are currently running a plow tractor in this drought so like I said you had to be there to know what it is like. While you would have loved to have seen a D8 plowing, well that wasn't the case, they were working the same hours as me, if at all. Clearly you have a real lifetime connection with them, I respect that. I happen to like my machines, and despite the trivial criticism, they are far superior to machines not having so much as a tier level 0 ratings--their days are numbered regardless how great they were back in the day, the EPA will see to that.

Perhaps if we're not careful, the EPA will put an end to your brush clearing along with some of our tier 0 tractors that seem to do the same work and burn the same amount of fuel. The environmental advantage of your tier 4 or even interim 5.5 EU 9.6 B is such a crock. I dare you to even try to convince me that a machine that burns the same amount of fuel to do the same amount of work will produce less emmissions. Maybe they could pipe the exhaust into the cab, or maybe they already have.

[Dirt Shifter]

Perhaps if we're not careful, the EPA will put an end to your brush clearing along with some of our tier 0 tractors that seem to do the same work and burn the same amount of fuel. The environmental advantage of your tier 4 or even interim 5.5 EU 9.6 B is such a crock. I dare you to even try to convince me that a machine that burns the same amount of fuel to do the same amount of work will produce less emmissions. Maybe they could pipe the exhaust into the cab, or maybe they already have.

Yep I agree,I know of a new 450 hp tractor burning 90 liters an hour and the old teir 0 450 hp he has burns 40 liters