Swiss Army Knives for Small Farm

In getting back to the Wallenstein Log Trailer, while taking the kids camping up to Lily Bay State Park (Moosehead Lake) we happened upon some people who showed us their camper. I got looking on youtube and there are many homemade campers. I already got a start with this chassis so I am thinking the next addition for this trailer is to make it a off-road pop up camper. Not exactly sure on the size yet; maybe 6 x 10 feet? It can hold 5000 pounds so it is rugged enough.

Just an idea for now, but it would be an interesting use for it.

Rob R. wrote:How many hours are on that 850C? Last I knew the hydro's like to eat themselves around 7000 hours. I like most Deere equipment, but not their 750/850 series dozers.

I know you are a Fiat-Allis guy and a few months ago I saw an excavator in New Hampshire that you would have liked. It was huge, 190,000 pound class, 4 cubic yard bucket, and not a lot of hours...5500 or something. The thing had Rexroth pumps and everything, and only wanted $31,000 for it. I guess it was just too big to move all the time so no one wanted it. he was motivated to sell it.

That got me to thinking though that my work is all on farm for the most part, some contract land clearing, but I am trying to stay away from it. Bring a machine like that here and just work it. I did a lot of researching and I think now a 245 Cat Excavator in excavator configuration would be best for me. 3208 Cat engine where parts can be found anywhere, no electronics, 4 yard bucket. I think it would be a good fit for me. Sadly my gravel pit/barrow pit has 32 feet of it under the water table. A front loader configuration isn't going to work for me, but the 245 can go that deep. Now to find one fairly close by. Florida was a little far

My biggest problem with cat is that they are set up in "French" as I call it...backwards, as I grew up on John Deere equipment; Kobelco, and Hitachi being some of their makes as well. Some have valves so you can switch them over, but some do not. I am pretty sure a 245 Cat does not.

Overall I am NOT a Caterpillar guy, I always thought they were cheap and you get what you pay for. John Deere is just plain out of control on their parts prices though, making caterpillar part prices look like a steal. But a 3206 Cat engine is pretty easy to find parts for since they were in every 3rd truck out there back in their day. The bigger the machine the more the repair bills cost for sure, but those quarry machines did not move far either, they couldn't at 145,000 pounds. My ex-wife was pretty heavy on the hoof, but there is still a whole lot of hers in that scenario. Depending on where the machine comes from, it will have a lot of hours, but not a lot of track wear as they tended to stay in one spot...kind of had too when trucking that much weight around. That is why here at least, the small excavators go for as much, if not more then excavators twice their size; the landscapers and small job earth movers just cannot move them around. I understand it, but jeesh I know what pulling a stump with a 35,000 machine is like too. It gets the job done, but three times as long as a 90,000 pound machine.

As for Volvo, yes they make good equipment. I knew a guy that has an excavator and loves it.

I do kind of differ with your opinion on computers though. I knew a guy that had a rental agency and had one big one and rented it out with a hammer on it. It blew out every circuit board there was on it. I can't remember the name of the machine now but it was a 60,000 pound class machine and honestly should have taken the pounding. I would be fearful of that as stumping is horrendous in terms of thrashing. Of course I am not sure how much 90,000 pound machine would thrash.

Who knows what I will end up getting, and probably it will be something close after all, but I did quite a bit of researching before I settled on a 245 Cat. Surprisingly my wife was all for it, she knows I need another excavator. I'd sell off a bulldozer and buy something really good, but really an excavator and bulldozer is a dream combination in land clearing; I kind of need them both.

Okay another word for Caterpillar might be overrated!

Myself I dislike their yellow color, among a host of other things. To me it just has this dingy color to it, like they painted every machine a nice yellow and for some reason an overspray of brown got mixed in making the machine look dirty even brand new.

Around here a lot of people are starting to clear land. We had 3 paper mills close all in the same week and where as we had 145 paper mills in 1947, today there are 6 paper mills left. Of those, two do not take wood, but rather get their fiber processed from other mills. Two of the remaining four are in bankruptcy proceedings and in the midst of laying off workers so it is well known in the industry that they will soon be closing down. That does not leave all of Maine to funnel wood through, so while it can be gotten rid of, people are clearing land. With the Amish and farming on the rise, tillable land has so much more value now. It is even higher than house lots. It is not cheap to make the conversion for sure though as I figure it costs me around $201 an acre to go from forest to field, with State and Federal laws being against me in some places, but I am not the only one putting some daylight on the swamp. Hundreds of acres are being cleared every year in the county that I live. It is just inevitable, forest pays on average $25 an acre, and property taxes are $28 an acre...you do the math. With sheep, I can put 10 sheep per acre on a field, and they do not take 30 years to reach enough size to sell. I feel bad about it, clear cutting so many acres, but logging is dead here and is not coming back in my lifetime.

This has been the writing on the wall for some years now....we were called fools when we said it in the past. All wood harvesting in the future will be done by a few big operators, illegals or Canadians will run the machines, and the processing(mills) will be in Canada. Energy is just that much cheaper and they don't have unions....NAFTA anyone? You are also seeing an uptick in small mills as there is a market for sawn lumber and no big mills to do it.

Kevin