Digging up my front yard and unexpectedly had to dig down about 8" because the now rotted grass/sod (which was placed a few weeks before we bought our house) was laid over boulders, rock and sand.

We're throwing in a fresh 8" layer of top soil mixed with leaf compost and gonna top it off with Marathon III sod.

In any case, I need to rent or find a GD connection to someone who owns/operates one to help us move all the dirt about 50 yards into a private park across my street.

Thanks in advance for the help!

I'm in Sylmar (San Fernando Valley).

Dude,
Rent one.. Its the most fun you will ever have!!!!!!

My kid neighbor has been operating them since he was 13 but when we called around, all, except one place would only rent them to licensed contractors. The one place that would, wanted $180 for 24 hours (not bad at all) but also wanted $120 to deliver and pick up (even though they're only 5 miles away)! My neighbor said that was outrageous! I'd pick it up myself but my trailer can only carry 1,500 pounds or so. I was told they weigh ~ 6,000.

not sure where you are at, but hit up elitejz, he is in ramona and has one, and a mini excavator as well.

Thank you sir.

I'm North of LA. About 20 minutes West of Pasadena and 15 minutes south of Magic Mountain. I'm off the 210 between the 118 and 5.

Dang.. I rented one here in SD for the whole weekend and only paid a single day price.
They delivered (free) and gave me a 1 hour class on how to operate it. It was the small one, but it was no problem.

It was a small rental place, so maybe thats why..

See, that would be awesome...I'd pay $180 a day (24 hours) no problem. The trouble is finding one. Couldn't find anything local on Craigslist.

Open the YELLER Pages and look up Equipment rentals..

not sure if he would go that far, but orth a shot

I PMd you a buddies number. Hopefully he can take care of you.

$120 for delivery AND pickup?!?!?! Outrageous?!?!?!
Sorry, but your neighbor is 100% clueless.
You'll have fun driving one like said above. I'm getting ready to buy a brand new Caterpillar skid steer. (bobcat)

If you rent one to use, I'll bring the beers.

Ahern rentals has them here, not sure if you have Ahern near you .........

Call Bonners Equipment Rentals in Tujunga 818-951-9117. You aren't too far from them and they deliver. Last time I got one it was $125 per day. You get it for two days but it can't have more then 8 hours on the meter.

I only know of Cougar Rentals no Bobcats sorry

Cougar rentals can also come in handy...

If youre going to rent a cougar better spring for the additional insurance....they usually have a TON of hours on them and will breakdown at some point

What is your rental rate?

thats freaking GREAT!!!!

they are heavy little suckers. if you dont know how to run one, you will tear your yard up good. a caterpillar skid steer is easier to drive than a bobcat. bobcats run on foot pedals, caterpillar runs on all joystick. at least they did when i was an operator/driver.

have you figured out what you are doing with the dirt yet? you will be surprised at how much you will have once you over ex the front yard. i can give you a name of a company that will show up and do it all, but they are not free.



West Coast Backhoe

tell them kevin s. sent you. i used to work for them 11 or so years ago. they have backhoes, excavators, dump trucks, bobcats, etc. one stop shop. like i said, not free though.

Still correct. The Cat is way easier to operate. I looked at them all and chose to go Cat.....

I didn't know Bonners was still in business, had friends that worked there in the eighties.

you wont be disappointed. they are awesome.

You might want to get some advice from some equipment operators. A Bobcat is a "VERY" lightweight piece of machinery. Digging 8" deep might take forever with a Bobcat (depending on the soil). I recently helped a friend try to prepare the ground for a concrete slab pour with a Bobcat and the soil was so hard the Bobcat hardly did anything. But, who knows, if your soil is soft it may work well.

Me? I would prefer a full-size Backhoe. It may cost double per day but will get the work done 4 times faster. I used to operate a Backhoe and when I saw how lame a Bobcat is in comparison, to me, it's a no-brainer.

bobcats can have hand controls too, my S-150 has them. they are called joysticks. no foot controls. hate them.

i just gave it to him. its kinda what i used to do for a paycheck.

nuttin wrong with a b-cat. 8" of front yard wont take anytime to dig up. i agree a hoe is faster, but overkill. sounds to me like its dead sod and rock is all he needs to pickup. bobcat is perfect for that.

thats cool. i hated foot controls. the cats came out with the joystick controls, and it was so much easier for me. im sure for a well seasoned guy on a bobcat it was no issue, but i hated them. the company i worked for got the first 430d backhoe when they came out. what a blast that thing was. ride control was the cats meow. nothing like cruising across a job site first thing in the am with a cup of coffee in one hand, steering wheel in other, and not spill a drop. enclosed cab, ac and a cd player i put in. it was awesome...

I'm not going to say you are wrong, I have only run a Bobcat once. But he said he had BOULDERS and to me a Bobcat is a little light weight to deal with boulders. Yes/No???

All depends on the size of the skid steer. I have 753 bobcat (decent size one) and it does very well in the hard stuff out here, moving boulders etc. They take some time to learn how to use them in order to be efficient with them

Started landscape work at home on Tuesday and it's going to be a bigger project than I planned. It's just my kid neighbor and I doing the work so it's going to take some time. My son helped us while he was on Spring Break.

When we bought our house, they had only just recently laid sod. About a year after moving in, the grass started turning yellow, weeds started popping up and no matter how much I watered it, it just wouldn't bloom like my yard in Long Beach. I gave up last year and stopped watering it altogether.

Well, on Tuesday, when we started rotor tilling the first section of the yard (26' x 13'), we quickly found out why the grass was not growing. Right underneath the sod netting was sand and rocks...very big rocks in some cases (10-15lbs). We manually dug and excavated about 8" of the sand/rock mix from the concrete down. We redid the sprinklers for the section and plan on laying 6-7" of compost + top soil mix and new sod. This should yield the results I want.

Today we started on the second section (still front yard) which is about 2.5x as big as the first section and at a slight slope. Well, in this area, we ran into the same riverbed type sand/rock mix...but here we dug up rocks as heavy as 80lbs! They were boulders actually. Some were only 3" under the sod! We spent all day Wednesday and Thursday rotor tilling and manually digging and removing dirt but it got the best of us. We're picking up a Bobcat tomorrow am to finish things up and grade the area. This area will be filled with 6-7" of the compost + top soil as well.

Since we'll already have the Bobcat, we're going to hit the backyard as well. I'm hoping the backyard isn't as bad as the 2nd section so we don't have to remove as much dirt but the plan is to start by skimming 2-3" from the top at a time. I really can't wait until we're done.

So far, I'm in $135 for the rental of the rotor till and about $50 in PVC plumbing. My kid neighbor is the know-it-all (the kid worked with his uncle who owns a top construction company for 8 years [started when he was 13]) and being the cool neighbor that he his, he's only going to charge me a couple of bucks for labor but he's doing all the planning, design, etc. I'm just helping. He already upgraded my electrical panel, switched out light switches and installed ceiling fans. I didn't set a budget but I think I may get the front done for $1,500 or so after materials, labor and equipment rental. I think the backyard may be closer to $2,500 but it'll all be worth it!

A big plus is that we can dump the dirt in the private property lot across the street from my house where the hang gliders land (they're continuously expanding the landing strip which they want to maintain at about 15-20' above the stream/creek that flows through the area.

Time to rest!

Oh, Contractor's Warehouse is renting us the Bobcat. $180 per day with trailer for me to tow it to and from their store! I think one day (8 hours will suffice).

Bobcats have there place.

http://desertpropertyservices.com/dpsgalle...&theme=dark

Nice meng! Very nice!!!!!!!!!

Our next project is going to be a patio cover but that's going to be challenging because we're going to have to take it out from the rafters and the slab that's it's going to cover meets the house at a 90* angle so sloping it a bit from two different roof lines may be too much for us.

TLL see if the rental place has a sod cutter for the bobcat bucket. I made one that hangs off the bottom of the bucket to cut the top 3-4" of sod. I got the idea from a rental place out by me. Would make really quick work of the back yard.

Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to ask them when we show up to pick it up!

Bobcats aren't "lame"......

Here's one doing some serious work!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzSW0cEfcIw...feature=related

You linked the wrong video OB.

Here's a Bobcat doing work...oh yeah! Can't wait to get my hands on it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0...597876E8DF8EBA1

Take notes.

don't take notes!

The newer bobcats (within the last few years or so? )with an S in front of them are dual control, you can use either foot controls or hand controls. (s150, s175, s220 etc)

I dont know anything about the rental place you are getting it from, but think you should try and wheel and deal. Rental business is hurting just as bad as any other and there are deals to be made. I know there are large construction companies getting them for $100 a day so I would think you could get it down to atleast $140 or $150. My company is one of the more expensive ones and our book rate (which no one pays) is $195 per day.

If they have 5+ bobcats sitting in their yard then they will lower their rate for sure. You want to look in the neigborhood of 20% off their regular price. Also make sure you top it off with diesel before returning it, most companies are charging over $7 a gallon

We own 3 cat skid steers, 2 262c's and a 272c. We'll do dirt work in winter when it's slow for asphalt grinding. The 272 weighs 10k lbs and does dirt work with ease.