I've been seeing more and more guys using an excavator for pads, flat work, stripping topsoil etc. Usually it's a mini or mid sized excavator and the jobs are your average prep for a garage slab, pole barn pad, boxing out a driveway, nothing huge. These are jobs that traditionally would have been done with a skid steer, track loader or dozer depending on the size. Many of these guys I know have other equipment, often on site.
I tried an experiment with this on a recent small pad I did for a 24x36 shed with my Kubota U35 mini vs Kubota SVL65 CTL (both ~8000lb machines.) I tried both my 24" digging bucket and 36" ditching bucket depending on how hard the digging was. CTL had a 74" long lip tooth bucket, about 3/4yd heaped. I didn't time anything or be real sceintific about it, but unless the digging was very hard (shale,) the CTL seemed to move volumes more dirt in a given amount of time. I feel like a dozer vs larger excavator (similarly sized) would be the same outcome. Do guys just like running an excavator better? What am I missing? I'll be interested to hear anyone's personal experience on one vs the other on the same job.
I tried an experiment with this on a recent small pad I did for a 24x36 shed with my Kubota U35 mini vs Kubota SVL65 CTL (both ~8000lb machines.) I tried both my 24" digging bucket and 36" ditching bucket depending on how hard the digging was. CTL had a 74" long lip tooth bucket, about 3/4yd heaped. I didn't time anything or be real sceintific about it, but unless the digging was very hard (shale,) the CTL seemed to move volumes more dirt in a given amount of time. I feel like a dozer vs larger excavator (similarly sized) would be the same outcome. Do guys just like running an excavator better? What am I missing? I'll be interested to hear anyone's personal experience on one vs the other on the same job.