ᐅ Mini Excavator – Buy or Rent?

@angoletti1

What do you think, should we wait until the Corona crisis hits and then act, or go for it now? At the moment, I don't really find any suitable equipment.

Hi,

here’s my two cents:
I was considering a small excavator, you can find some for around $5,000 sometimes.
But they are often in really poor condition, and I didn’t want to invest 30,000–40,000.

For digging the foundation pit, I rented a 10-ton Takeuchi excavator over the weekend.
Moved about 350 m³ (460 yd³) of clay.

Costs: $660 for the excavator and $150 for diesel.
Cleaned the excavator Sunday evening and returned it Monday morning.
No hassle, no repairs, no need for space on the property, etc.

I’ll do the same when landscaping the garden next year.

Best regards,
Paule

If you buy an old, used mini excavator that is still operational, you can sell it again later. With an older model, the depreciation upon resale won’t be too high. However, it might take some time to find a buyer.

Grantlhaua schrieb:

Hello everyone,

has anyone here landscaped their entire garden by themselves? If so, did you rent or buy a mini excavator? If you bought one, which model did you choose?

I would advise you to rent it.

These are great photos. 67 meters (220 feet) tall and weighing 300 tons (660,000 pounds). A true machine monster. This demolition excavator is really a beauty. I wonder how much a machine like this can cost. When looking for excavators or mini excavators, second-hand prices can be up to 30,000 or 40,000 euros. I imagine something like this would cost around 500,000 or 600,000 euros. Or more? Definitely more than a truck. That’s for sure. But maybe I’m wrong and it’s much more expensive than I think.