Best way to haul out grindings/haul in dirt

[arbor pro]

I just landed a really easy stump job consisting of grinding 9 - 40" Canada Red Cherry clump stumps, cleaning them up and filling them with dirt. I bid it for the worst case scenario which is to use my mini skid steer to haul the grindings about 100 yards from the back yard to the street and then haul dirt back to the stump on the return trip. My mini skid has a 36" bucket and grapple so, while it works pretty good for this kind of thing when stumps are relatively close to the dump truck, this job is going to take a while due to the long distance involved. The HO want minimal lawn disturbance; thus, the reason I got the job with my sc252 grinder and mini skid.

I'm looking at options to speed up the cleanup and dirt fill without using heavier equipment. Getting a truck or large trailer into the back yard is out. I've come up with a couple of options and wondering what others would do?

1) buy larger material bucket for my mini skid to haul more chips and dirt
2) buy 3'x5' lawn & garden utility trailer (1000-1500# capacity) with tilt bed and floatation tires to be able to haul 4-6 times more than what the mini skid bucket would carry. I would load and move the trailer around with my mini skid.

I've got this job bid with a pretty decent profit even if I do it the slow way with the small mini skid bucket. Just figured I'd look at ways to minimize trips over the lawn to make the HO happy so I dont' wear on the grass any more than I have to. With the small bucket as-is, I would expect to make about 40-50 round-trip passes with the mini skid. That may passes loaded with chips one way and soil the other is likely to leave a wear path and is going to take awhile.

I've also considered plywood lined out across the lawn but that's a lot of plywood and I like the trailer or larger bucket idea better.

scott

 

[treemandan]

If I had to make a choice from what you said I would get a bigger bucket.

I find that if the ground is dry I can use a blower to stand the wear path in the lawn back up and its not so apparent.

 

[Dutch295]

Scott,
Have you considered something like the attached? A friend that owns a mulch plant gave me one to try after I told him about the stump job from hell I just did. 5 1/2 yards moved about 100 yards (one way). After one trip with the mini bucket I said no way and ended up using heavy duty rubber trash cans balanced on my bucket and it worked a little better but still way too time consuming. The bags seem well made and shouldn't take up much room on your truck. I would imagine the best way to load it would be with a 4 in 1. I am curious to see what Dave's #'s will be from Top Notch for his new clam attachment. Hopefully the bag idea (1 yard vs 1/9 yard for a mini bucket) will be nine times faster.

http://www.suncoastpkg.com/bulk.html

good luck, Mike

 

[Toddppm]

I've got a couple of those bags I had to buy material in and never used them again. You can get about1 yard in them I think but would be too heavy for a mini skid and then trying to unload them?

Bigger bucket if you're itching to buy more eqpt. or can you take down a fence somewhere and go through from another property for a few bucks? Or just plan on aerating, overseeding + fertilizing when done.


Or rent a bigger skidsteer on tracks?

 

[randyg]

You might fab up some temporary extensions for sides and back of bucket that would give you more volume for this job, would store easily for next time you need them. Bigger bucket might be good for moving snow as well?
The small trailer I think would be kinda time consuming. Unhook - fill - hook - transport - unhook/unload/transfer - return . . . kinda like a cat/dog chasing tail? Thirty eight sheets of plywood would be a pain, esp. once they start to bow up from the bottom drawing moisture from the grass. Now THAT would be something for youtube. I will be watching this one, hoping for better ideas cuz I know this place is full up with perfeshunls. Good luck.

 

[treemandan]

I would agree that it don't take much to make the load HEAVY for a Dingo but you can still drag a fair amount. Like if you put is on a tarp then dragged.

But, really, when they start in with " don't disturbed one blade of grass" I say find someone else. Come on now, I think these guys just want to see just how hard they can make it. #### em and #### em for real.
You want thousands of pounds of debris removed and are concerned about a little wear pattern?

 

[pdqdl]

:agree2:

A gas-powered wheelbarrow is hard to beat.

You might consider a slightly larger trailer. We have a 5' x 8' tilt trailer that would easily load and carry the mini-skid to the jobsite. Once there, it would make a decent site trailer to haul materials with the mini-skid.

Slight problem: you would need to modify the average tilt trailer with a hydraulic cylinder so that it would get high enough to dump materials off. Shoveling the end off would still be a problem.

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

move it

The utility trailers work well. The trailers with mesh bottom and side just cover with tarp. Pull side pins and dump. Use them like a wagon train. One hooked to the next. Take three in behind the mini each trip. Or more if work area relatively flat.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

perhaps a rather un PC and out there idea but how about a 44 gallon drum or two with a grate system and powered by a LPG burner? Get it going and "turbo" the fire with a blower.


Yeah its crazy, but you shouldnt expect sane ideas from a saturday night after chilli and bourbon.

 

[derwoodii]

Do you guys have what we in OZ know 240 litre wheelie bins for your street garbage collection?
If so, er borrow one mount it on an old wheel barrow frame "easy" and it will hold 200+ litres of mulch that's about double your average barrow.
Get a mulch fork "10 tynes" and start shoveling n pushin. Save your HO garden turf the wear n tear give the job to a needy newbie save your capital input for just this one off.
Gettin the top soil back hmm well hope its down hill to job.

 

[STLfirewood]

I have a DR cart as well. That thing works great. I paid $200 for mine of craigslist. It needed carb work. I would get a couple guy or kids with wheel barrows and have them at it. They should have most of it done by the time you get done grinding. When I go out and grind stumps the guy that works with me usually has everything cleaned up by the time I grind the stumps, load the machine,and deal with the customer.

Scott

 

[Dutch295]

Treemandan brings up a good point. If while speaking with the customer your little voice (Magnum PI moment) starts sending you warning signals, you better start padding that price or it might be wise to simply walk. I still like the bag idea and though it will be a few days before I can test it out. Our twins are two today and it's already starting to be a madhouse around here. Getting over the dump trailer sides might be a problem and I know I could easily get 'em on the back but that means a pulley system to move 'em forward. Like Todd mentioned the unloading might be an issue. I plan on putting two golf balls in bottom opposite corners and cinching them up and then wrapping a tag line and hopefully it will be a simple flip with the loader arms. I have no idea what grindings weigh (maybe 20% dirt & 80% chips... that's heavy) but even if I end up moving half a yard per trip then I think it would be worth it. I was told the bags cost $14 (may have to buy in bulk though).

 

[arbor pro]

Thanks for replies.

I'm thinking a bigger bucket is the way to go. It would be nice to have something bigger for snow removal and I'm sure I'll find a few uses for it other than this job.

I found a 9.9cu ft bulk material bucket for $610 delivered (see link below). Anyone know of a better deal on a mini skid bulk bucket or have experience with this one?

www.budgetforklift.com/smaller-machine-buckets.html.

 

[BlackenedTimber]

Just a thought: A lot of rental facilities rent powered material plaement carts for large concrete pours, like the DR on steroids. You can probably get a 1/2 yard of material in there, and it drives and dumps. I cant imagine they would be too expensive to rent for a day either.

I think you just want to buy a new bucket though

 

[arbor pro]

Just a thought: A lot of rental facilities rent powered material plaement carts for large concrete pours, like the DR on steroids. You can probably get a 1/2 yard of material in there, and it drives and dumps. I cant imagine they would be too expensive to rent for a day either.

I think you just want to buy a new bucket though

It's tough being an equipment junkie.

 

[BlackenedTimber]

It's tough being an equipment junkie.

haha tell me bout it... I have run everything from skidsteers to Cat 994 loaders, 385 Excavators, yukes, D8 dozers, JD skidders, vibratory cable plows, directional drills, Tesmec 62-ton trenchers, mobile mixers, batch plants... if it's yellow and made of iron I can probably run it. I have an equipment key ring with about 50+ different keys on it. I LOVE equipment.

If it was up to me, I would open a Cat dealership just to play with all the cool stuff.

 

[shmokinjoe]

I would agree that it don't take much to make the load HEAVY for a Dingo but you can still drag a fair amount. Like if you put is on a tarp then dragged.

But, really, when they start in with " don't disturbed one blade of grass" I say find someone else. Come on now, I think these guys just want to see just how hard they can make it. #### em and #### em for real.
You want thousands of pounds of debris removed and are concerned about a little wear pattern?

Well put!...I hate when that happens, I explain that it's a stump grinder with other associated heavy equipment, I can't make in hover above the ground. Of course there's gonna be alittle wear and tear, I always do my best to avoid it but it does happen, generally most clients understand that but if I strike the fussy one's then someone else is welcome to them.

 

[arborworks1]

Here is my solution to mulch and debris. That is the mulch bucket that TNT sells inside my mulch bucket.

 

[Charsha1]

As far as the grass goes I know when we use a bobcat for concrete we will put plywood or flakeboard down so it doesn't destroy the grass and when done all you need to do is to rake where the boards were with a soft rake and in a day or two it doesn't even look like you were there.

 

[kkottemann]

I wouldn't buy anything....use what you got and make more $$$ Maybe fill a really big garbage can and haul it out with the mini...I just fill garbage cans and we keep a guy going with the log dolly...