Best size machine for lake construction

[Boltthrower23]

Afternoon,

My name is Rob, I run a large garden and estate in the Cotswolds.

The last year has been taken up building new garden areas and major landscaping. I have found myself in a digger for the last 6 months and have loved every minute, especially as we had such a wet winter. My long term plan is to go self employed building large gardens as I have done for my employer ( estate owner) for the last 2 years.

This winter we are looking to build a lake in one of our fields as a focal point for the house.
I have a very good consultant to advise me on all aspects of the construction, I am however looking for some advice. I am very competent using machines and have had 3-5 and 8 ton machines on lon,g term hire for our last projects.

What would be the best size machine to buy for the construction of lakes, well large ponds really, the one we hope to build will be about 50m by 50m. I will hire in the machine this time but in the future will look to purchase a machine. Any specific machines anyone would recommend + a guide price for an old- medium and new machines. I have very good contacts so could potentially be very busy with this in the future.

any help great fully recieved


Thanks Rob

[Tech12]

Hi Rob & welcome to the forum.




Andy

[245dlc]

Hi Rob do you know how deep this pond will be at the deepest? Calculating the volume of material you have to move is one of the most important pieces of information needed on a project like this and what you plan on doing with the spoil? With a footprint of 100 square meters you'll likely need something to haul the spoil with like an articulated dump truck of one kind or another and if the soil is rocky or hard you'll likely want to go with a fairly large machine. I'm in Canada myself and a job like that we wouldn't hesitate to throw a 20 tonne or larger machine at it, I've dug some large storm water retention ponds in the past with an 80 tonne excavator, mid to large size dozer, and three or four 40 ton articulated dump trucks. With the little bit of information you've supplied here I'd say maybe try a 13 tonne tracked excavator and probably look at hiring in two 10-15 yard dump trucks/ dumpers with a small dozer like a Cat D4H LGP to push the spoil piles and help grade the pond bottom.

[Boltthrower23]

Thanks for welcome Andy,

Thanks for your thoughts 245dlc. The field has a natural bowl to one side so the plan was to excavate down to desired depth say 7-10ft and place spoil on the flat side of the bowl to make the desired shape. I am looking for a sort of oval shape the same width as the house it mirrors. The ground is very rocky and in the last project a used a breaker for nearly a month solid. The lay of the land should mean in theory i shouldn't need to excavate that much because of the natural contours. I will take a photo tomorrow so you guys can see the shape.

Does any one have much experience of the best company for dozers if needed. Access would probably mean a 13 ton machine may be biggest I could get on the site possibly 15, the 8 ton was no problem.

Thanks for help so far

Rob

[245dlc]

I don't know about rental outfits in your area, but Caterpillar is generally the best in the dozer department these days for places that don't see much John Deere construction equipment with probably Komatsu a close second. If dealing in rock of a sedmentary nature like sandstone and shale or even limestone (depending on what kind) get as heavy an excavator you can. The 20 tonners I'm accustomed to were Cat 320BL's and 320CL's they all had 32" wide tracks that were 10 1/2 feet wide by 12 feet long getting one with a hydraulic quick coupler and a ripper might be faster than a breaker unless that's been tried before of course. You could also look into a zero tail swing machine like a Cat 321C L so you don't have to worry about swinging your counterweight into something. The cabs are more cramped but they are a little heavier and very nice to use in tight places.