been thinking about hiring one so I can level our small back garden (5m
9m) there's a 1.5m fall from end to end with a retaining wall at the lower end can anyone give me rough idea as to how much they cost for a day and what width is the narrowest digger ?
do pay for the driver as well. It can save a lot of time and damage in the long run.
It's just a case of "Do that there please" and go for a cup of tea, rather than "What does this knob do now, and will I stop before I go through the patio window?"
I get a 1.5 tonne mini for 45 quid + VAT + diesel per day, including a trailer. The weekly price is 250, you only get the trailer for the delivery/collection days. This is from a place in Denbigh - North Wales.
Delivery is expensive, so is insurance. This price above is no insurance, I took a 2 year policy out to cover all hir equipment. Insutnace is 25% of hire price.
HSS and the like do them, and they are *LOTS* more. If you shop arround you can get the price I state, but maybe not neer home.
The 750KG model is 2 foot 6 wide.
The weight relates to the weight of the machine, not what they will lift. Of cource the smaller the machine the less it will lift, but the less it will cost to run.
I get a 6 tonne machine for 15 quid an hour including driver, this is from a place in Yistby Ifan - North Wales. Delivery is 45 quid each way.
There is a HUGE skill to levelling with a digger, if you can play video games with 2 joystick you will get it very quickly, my 9 year old nephew took about an hour to learm, I was still struggeling after a day. Many have a "BLADE" which you can bulldoze with.
Finally I suggest you try a dry day, these things make a huge mess in wet mud, they sink in, and churm it all up, and it stick like glue to the bucket. You have to clean them when you return them, and in the mud this is really bad.
Final point, you want the tracks pointing up/down the hill and not accross. WIth A small space you will have to work out your attack plan, and a zero swing version will help you not crash stuff.
I have the space, The tractor tyres and weels for my Bobcat 553 arrive on Monday (I wanted to play this weeknd) May Day weekend, Iwill get a digger and start digging my house out of the bank. I need to decide how big a digger to go for ......... 1.5 tonne, so I can collect/deliver my self or a 3 tonne - I'll wait for a weather forcast.
The bit thats been done took the 6 tonne machine with driver about 3 hours, but did not clear away the spoil.
Its boyhood fantasy week mark-2. Last year I had the 6 tonne machine with driver for a week, and only got to drive the dumper.
It is ammazing just how gentle the good drivers can be with these things, just give the sheep a gentle tap and they get out the way.
Why are sheep scared of people, but think noting of eating the grass out of a digger bucket ?
Down here in rural Cornwall the sheep have good cause to scared of people! They don't like wellies. (All the good wimin move up to England as soon as they can.)
I hired a 1.5 tonne mini excavator for a week - cost approx a couple of hundred quid + fuel. My first experience of driving it was through our side gate which is 1.05m wide, the digger was exactly 1m wide! It was fine to use in a similar sized garden to yours - just be careful when close to solid objects.
The 1.5 tonne diggers are far more capable than the 750kg models - they seem much more like a "real" digger. Lots more power and control - much smother to drive. You can drive them reasonably well with only a few minutes practice I found, but it took at least a day to feel totally at home. Once you get to the stage where it feels like an extension of you, then it is really good fun to drive. The only real advantage to the smaller diggers is if you need to get them through a smaller space (the
750kg jobbies are designed to be able to go through normal width doors).
Fuel consumption was not that bad - got through perhaps 10 gallons in a week. If you can find a supplier of red diesel all the better. In which case also make sure you always send them back full and you won't get charged for fuel (and most hire shops will charge you for diesel at DERV prices).
I got one to dig the pond a couple of years ago. £99/3 days + diesel. I couldn't get the filler cap off, so they let me off the diesel. Although I wouldn't rely on that. :o)
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