Latest dilemma moving dirt a short distance.

[fastline]

Met with someone on a minor pond job to repair a blown out dam. In the middle of no where, no big risk here, but the roads in are tiny, not improved, and 1/4mi in! The owner would like the good clay soil he identified used for the repair, which is about 500-1000ft away. I will have to run the excavator there to loosen or even load off the clay pile, and do repairs on the dam. However, I am really trying to figure out the best way to move clay between pile and dam. I don't think any dump truck has business in there. A tandem will certainly get buried. I was leaning towards a loader, backhoe, or maybe only a large skidsteer like a 289D, but I really need to move some volume to get this done!

I started thinking about a backhoe as a "do all" machine, but I think if I show up without steel tracks on something, I will regret that. It's hard to get a backhoe stuck, but if it can't be productive, I will be pissed and this is 40mi into the wilderness to the job.

Really not much difference with the loader other than volume should be much higher. I would say 5-7yd cap might be max for this area. There is a road going around the pond and it is close so too much weight and things could get interesting. I was going to level the area with the hoe so we are operating level.

 

[KSSS]

Why not a 4-5 yard wheel loader?

 

[AzIron]

Second the wheel loader even a 3yrd would do ok at that distance just depends on conditions

 

[Mother Deuce]

Split your tracks and where you have to go repeatedly throw a little fabric down. We have gotten away with some ridiculous accesses with fabric. Bring a small loader with huge rubber.

 

[Jonas302]

Rent a marooka

 

[CM1995]

Rent a marooka

Or see if your Cat Rental store has one of these -



This dumper had the rotating/side dumping bed. IIRC it was $1800 a week to rent.

 

[mowingman]

WE just finished a project similar to that. Although we had to fill in an old stock tank/pond. We used a 30,000# size excavator and a large tracked skid steer loader. We dug the dirt and placed the pile toward the pond. Then carried dirt to pond with loader. Meanwhile, the excavator rehandled the pile and again moved it closer to the pond, while the loader moved what it could out to the far reaches of the pond. We rehandled the dirt piles sometimes up to 4 times, but the loader kept whittling down each pile as we moved it closer to pond. It took a lot of dirt moving, but in 6 days we filled in a fairly large pond. There is no way the ground would have supported anything with rubber tires.
Jeff

 

[Tyler d4c]

This sounds like a track loader job little bit of load and carry action

 

[skyking1]

I second the Marooka rental. It takes all the drama out of it.

 

[Nige]

A wheel loader on any sort of dodgy underfoot conditions is a recipe for disaster in my experience.

 

[Delmer]

If you don't want to take a wheel loader in there, how about a tractor and small pull pan/scraper? only you have seen the layout obviously.

 

[Tinkerer]

Can the pond be de-watered and expose enough decent clay to repair the dam ?
Maybe you could get some bonus work cleaning the pond to.

 

[NepeanGC]

I think I'd be looking an excavator and track loader combo. Track loader works well in soft ground. If it's soft, I wouldn't be bringing anything on tires in.

 

[terex herder]

The trouble with a wheel loader is once the bucket is full almost all the weight is on the front axle. And unless its something like a Fiat the bucket won't curl far enough to walk yourself out. Are you a one man band? If so you can't afford to get stuck, so you have to play it safe.

 

[Volvomad]

If a back hoe would work , a wheel loader should work too and be more productive ,especially if you can get one on big ag tyres.
Sometimes dodgy ground work is not all about weight or ground pressure but the amount of passes also if you are confined and tare weight .

 

[treemuncher]

Tracked dumpers are the way to go. I was running 5-6 ton loads almost 3 miles in to the furthest water crossing on this job and the Feds would not allow the prime contractor to drain the beaver dams. Even though the dams could have been drained into the de-watering creek within 200-300 feet of some of the dams, everything was done with existing conditions. I had a few sections of long puddles to cross like this area.

Worst parts of the job were where the side by sides caused a lot of rutting through the deep mud. You can't see it in the pic below but the machine derailed a track on the other side because of the deep rutting. I was waiting for the contractor's mini ex to help me get the track back on without losing the load. I was already over 1.25 miles in at this point. We got the track back on without losing a rock and continued on.

Many places on this job became over 2' deep with mud/water mix. Pretty easy job for the C60R. I've dumped 1/2 loads on 30 degree side slopes with this machine - pucker factor jobs - but it feels as solid as it does on flat ground when working those conditions.

 

[fastline]

I really wish I would have grabbed a couple pics for you guys. No standing water (right now) and the little haul road would be about 100ft from the edge of the pond. We drove on it with a small pickup, but I can see that unless a dedicated road is done, my gut tells me only tracks should be on that. To make it worse, I will be many miles from help so getting it right is important.

I honestly think a large track skidsteer like the 289 would run this perfectly but the job would drag on forever! Like a tracked wheel loader is what I am dreaming for but I have to think logically in what is around that I could even rent! A 289 can only move like .5yd/bucket.

I need to run something small enough that my excavator can get it out if things go bad. How much weight the ground will take is anyone's guess but we all know tracks will always do it better!

 

[fastline]

Treemuncher, that buggy would probably work but moving dirt, it looks like the hopper capacity would be light? I am sure I can't even rent one around here though.

 

[lantraxco]

Morooka 1500 or the same size in a competing brand. They'll handle about 7 ton and they're lighter on the ground and obviously more nimble than anything larger. If 5 ton per round sounds adequate the 800 is smaller and cheaper, a little bit faster, or should be. 1100 is an 800 on steroids, also a good choice. Challenger Services in Tulsa 918-447-0055 may have machines available, if not Bottomline in Texas are good people.

 

[lantraxco]

Pretty easy job for the C60R. I've dumped 1/2 loads on 30 degree side slopes with this machine - pucker factor jobs - but it feels as solid as it does on flat ground when working those conditions.

These machines are designed for 30 degrees in any direction, and they'll hang on past that if you're brave enough, to the point the engine stops picking up oil. I watched a guy back a brand new machine up a set of steep ramps onto a flatbed truck, I'm pretty sure it saw 40 degrees before it eased on over, neither the machine nor the driver seemed the least perturbed, but I was! By the way, they don't break over like a dozer or excavator, those rubber tracks and swinging bogies make it act more like all those legs on a caterpillar, they kind of slowly bend over the break point and ease down.