Need to dig out our driveway so need a mini digger.
But…..do I need a man with a mini digger, or do I need to man up and just have a go?
I mean…how hard can it be??

… followed by…

What could possibly go wrong ? …

Me … I would get a good scanner for services in the ground then give it a shot…

I mean…how hard can it be??

Dead easy!…

…until you dig through a water main / gas pipe / electric cable / sewer (delete as applicable!)

😀

Especially when you’re as useless as me.
I can’t even post in the right forum.

When I considered it basically people (who do it for a living) said get some one in as I will take them a fraction of the time.

If you have never driven one before they can be quite a handful, even the little ones, I hired a 0.8ton one a few months ago to dig out for a shed, overall I think it cost me about about £160 for the weekend. I drive diggers as part of my job though, so I have an advantage, my job:

Whether you do it yourself or get someone else in will depend on how tidy the job needs to be.

If you’ve ever used anything like a back hoe or telehandler, then you can probably pick it up pretty quick, if not (as has been said!), get someone in… A decent operator will make good use of time and probably be easier to tidy up after!!

See if they deliver it on one of these:

http://youtu.be/D-5jsnZ79Rk

My brother in law hired one, apart from nearly demolishing the bay window, taking my other brother in laws head off and creating something like the Somme and getting the excavator stuck – nothing went wrong

http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/i/31261/ the operator got off the machine and caught a lever which swung the jib into the chap killing him which was reported later.

much harder than you think, get someone in, load the dirt you dont need straight onto a lorry, money well spent 🙂

They’re not difficult to drive, but if you **** up, it can be spectacular.
Pics if it goes wrong. 😀

I’ve borrowed one a couple of times from a neighbour. Big boys toys!

But it took me a long time to do the job. The family laughed while I tried to fill a wheelbarrow with earth. Took about 5 buckets and then knocked the wheelbarrow over. Saved a lot of backbreaking digging though!

Pics if it goes wrong

No no. Please time-lapse record the whole thing.

Smaller they are the harder they bite. Little micro diggers will have you out of the seat or on its a side with one wrong move. I can ice cakes with my 3.5 tonner 8)

My dad hired one over christmas a few years back.

Best. Christmas. Ever. Despite the squabbling over whose turn it was.

Although not an excavator driver, I’ve worked around them and have gained an understanding….

I hired one for a weekend a few years back. The only thing I underestimated was the total lack of power of a 1 tonne machine compared to the 20 +tonne ones I’m more used to being around.

Put about 2 cube of topsoil into me 8 yard skip from the front with the intention of dragging it around the side but the excavator simply wasn’t man enough. Only option was empty it or drag everything from the back to the skip at the front.

I chose to drag about 4 cube of soil to the front, after I’d dug it up.

There’s no way I’d have taken on an excavator without a knowledge of how they move, operate, behave etc. or you will spend the first few hours working out how they move.

A good driver with the correct machine for the job will have the job done in about a 20th of the time you could and at about a 10th of the cost of hiring the machine to do it yourself. Depends on whether you relish the challenge and enjoy playing with big boys toys! Having just spent all day on my 3 tonne machine mucking out a low shed, where 1 false move could mean a new roof or wall, I would definitely recommend paying a man to do it! 🙂

We got one whilst we did our back garden, I’d never used one before but it was great fun and I had no disasters, I was too careful if anything. As said above though, ou May as well pay someone to do it for you, after watching me acheive very little in the 2 hours I was ‘working’, the FIL had it done in about 15mins! Ours was only a little bobcat thing, but as wrightyson said they can seem very unstable!

Go for a practice at Diggerland.

I’ve got to say, you’ve all filled me with confidence.
Not sure I feel like killing myself (or anyone else).
Shame…I fancied a play.

Hire someone with a machine to do it for you. You’ll end up paying for a few hours instead of a few days.

Anyway, what are you actually doing, putting in a drive where there wasn’t one already, or digging an old one up? If the latter, you’d be better off with a jackhammer and not using a digger.

I hired one to renew two soak-aways and dig a garden drain. After 5 minutes I named it “Tippy” as it had a bad wobble whilst trying to unload the bucket into a wheel barrow.

I had to use a shovel to lever the clay out of the bucket.

It destroyed the lawn.

I can ride a motor bike reasonably briskly on track days, I’ve got a few MTB KOM’s as well as fly virtual jet fighters, starships capable of destroying planets and am not too bad at Grand Turismo BUT I am shit at driving mini diggers.

In all seriousness we had no problems we dug loads of trenches for a new soak away, just take your time familiarise yourself and don’t try to fill the bucket.

We were in the middle of a field with no services. Big enoughto. Swing a cat or possibly a JCB.

Its fun and we had a reduced rate as he was never going to hire it out over christmas

My mate hired one to lay 20t of crushed brick onto his driveway and move some massive coping stones that became stair treads.

His drive is a j shape, raised above the lawn by 2-3 feet so needed some care. He asked us if we wanted a go and were round like a shot, endless free labour for him. Concentrated so hard my head hurt to start with but ended up scooping a load, backing up in a j and swivelling the cab on the tracks (forward became reverse half way round from what I remember!) before dumping the load and smoothing.

Great fun!