Micro Back Hoe?

[BroncoHauler]

I kept thinking to myself, why would Jage want a backhoe? Bury a body? Build a doomsday bunker? Build a septic vault for those pesky SMB visitors? Geothermal energy? Then it hit me. Jage wants a backhoe to bury the SMB Forum magnets.

[Ford_6L_E350]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

I kept thinking to myself, why would Jage want a backhoe? Bury a body? Build a doomsday bunker? Build a septic vault for those pesky SMB visitors? Geothermal energy? Then it hit me. Jage wants a backhoe to bury the SMB Forum magnets.

Or maybe the salesman for the magnets?

Mike

[Gnarvan]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

I kept thinking to myself, why would Jage want a backhoe? Bury a body? Build a doomsday bunker? Build a septic vault for those pesky SMB visitors? Geothermal energy? Then it hit me. Jage wants a backhoe to bury the SMB Forum magnets.

That's just plain ole mean. And that's probably why I got a good chuckle out of the post.

[larrie]

Originally Posted by witoke

The little bobcat backhoes are easy to learn to use and literally you can be digging away after just a few minutes of practice, so don't let that worry stop you renting one.

And remember, I don't know where you are planning on digging but coincidentally my street is completely flooded this morning after someone with a backhoe went to work without doing the utility line check. A few minutes after the road started to flood, along comes a local city utility truck and a locater service right behind.... ooops.

Digging without locates is asking for expensive trouble. Without calling for locates the digger is responsible for the cost of the repair.

[Pntyrmvr]

Hi;

I agree with renting whatever you choose.

I have rented a mini excavator with rubber tracks and a small blade on the front end. Diesel powered weighing about 4500 lbs. It was very capable and came with an 8" and a 12" bucket. Total depth straight down was around 7 feet.

It was also very easy to learn how to operate. My friend's wife jumped on it and figured out how to get it digging in 45 seconds.

Have it delivered too!

Regards,

Gavin

[Roonie]

Originally Posted by larrie

Digging without locates is asking for expensive trouble. Without calling for locates the digger is responsible for the cost of the repair.

YES!!! Just got back from using my backhoe on the tractor to clear away dirt around a septic cleanout yesterday. Didn't realize the septic line was so shallow and I dug right through my septic line. Spent the rest of the morning fixing the septic line (splicing in new piece). I even knew it was there! Just not that shallow. Also barely clipped my propane line so I had it tested to be sure no damage which I knew there wasn't but you never want to be to sure with propane.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by larrie

Digging without locates is asking for expensive trouble.

Or Death! Some people don't know where the easement for power or gas is located and they can be anywhere on your property even if you don't have an underground service. I had one guy dig into a conduit. When he saw water comming out he jumped down into the trench and felt inside the conduit but as soon as he felt wire, he pulled his hand out quickly. Asking what voltage was in there, he turned white when I told him 12,000 volts. I told him to go buy a lotto ticket cause the last guy who did this was blown out of the trench. That guy was burnt but not too bad...if he didn't have safety glasses on he'd be blind. It took several minutes for the wire to fault and caught him by surprise. If you hit a transmission line, you'll probably be dead even while sitting on the backhoe. Always get a USA locate alert...it's free.

[Ultrasport12]

Now that Daveb mentioned it I can tell you two stories of the same thing happening that I had forgotten about.

One was when I was living in Georgia and the US Customs was building a new building right next to our building. The Track Hoe operator hit the main underground power line and our lights dimmed and there was a loud bang by the machine, then just to be sure he did it again and all the lights went out for blocks. He was not killed but they did take him away in an ambulance.The machine had to be trucked away for repairs as well.

The other was when I was much younger, I guy I used to go racing with worked for a big utility company in our area. He was doing some emergency digging for something and hit a high powered line. The back hoe (tractor mounted) got so much electricity that the hydraulic hoses near the controls burst and sent high pressure and now hot hydraulic oil into his wrists, luckily blowing him off the machine before he was killed by the voltage but not before he got a bunch of fluid into his body. He could never work again as he has to have constant blood transfusions to clean the oil out of his system.

So always call before you dig and dig with care...

...Jamie

[Scalf77]

I worked for a natural gas company in New York State for summer work while going to school. One of the task was to locate lines, you would be surprised to see how many people didn't think to call, thought they were saving money. We of course would tell them it did not cost any money. Locating service lines could be a real treat in some of the older neighborhoods. You would be looking at an old documents that said the line was x amount of feet from NW corner of the garage, but there was no longer a garage. One of my favorite tasks was locating curbbox valves. Back then a lot of gas meters were still in the basements, so we needed a valve between the meter and the street. These were many times located in drives ways or in front yards. Many people took delight in covering as they thought they were a eyesore. I ran into a few upset people when we dug up their yard to make it visible . or worse a brand new blacktopped driveway. Again, they would be amazed when we told them we would have come out for free and made sure it was level with the drive way. instead they would end up with a sakrete patch in their new driveway . For new plastic gas lines (they were relatively new then) we had to run a tracer wire on top of the line, actually I think we had a foot of backfill before running wire on top, you could not wrap it around the plastic pipe. Another part of the job was locating leaks, the gas company had various surveys that would be looking for leeks. Our part of that was to take their data and then try to pinpoint the leak to a reasonable area, it was never good to have twenty feet of trench opened up, and no leak.
We did have a tragedy where the electric company located their buried line on the wrong side of the street, unfortunately the water guys found it. One winter one of the guys I worked with pulled three people out of a burning house (he was on a leak call), nothing worse than a gas leak and frozen ground above it .
I apologize for rambling, just taking a trip down memory lane.
-greg

[jage]

My only story is that my buddy calls the locate service and Comcast comes out and paints the cable line red on the grass. He's red/green colorblind so happily dug right through it without a second thought. Now he has his wife remark with white over anything he can't see.

Still no decision on the backhoe. I have no idea what I'm looking at Yanmar vs Kubota vs 315 hours vs 2500 hours. Good times.