Thread: Dingo Mini Digger

Originally Posted by davo453

Looking good squiz, so this is to put the shed on top of or bribery to enable you to build the shed?

Dave

A bit of both Dave. The shed goes on the south side which needs retaining. To get at the southside we had to do the front. There was too much sand out the front and the best place to put it was on the north side which would then need retaining. Part of the deal with the shed was to do the double garage properly so doing the north side was 1st in line. Goes like this

North side + Front + Southside = New Shed and Squizz broke

All very logical really.

Cheers

Originally Posted by vsquizz

NB note Prune of a day

Well done Squizzy.

Originally Posted by

Well done Squizzy.

We aim to please . Actually, it was a little more pear shaped than prune like.

Davo, sorry to do this to ya mate but I'm going to hire a Kanga. I've had enough of the Banjo. Hire place down the road has them for $140.00 a day, what do you reckon?. Its the plastic track one.


Cheers

Oh and here is completion of the northside, well most of the hard yakka anyway. Now comes the worst bit, where She picks the plants and the edging an all that....

Sorry about the mug in photie, just woke up, fell asleep on the bricks...

Hey Al look I'm a brickie!....oops, no crack showing...Bugga not qualified!

You'll notice I still have a "few" bricks left over. Thats the next job..Crikey I can't wait to get back to work. This couple of weeks holiday is killing me....and my hands...from all that concrete and bricks...what a mess...there all coarse an dry...Ooohhh my poor pinkies Al ...AL what am I going to do...there all rough ..OOoooooooo!

Cheers

I run a little landscaping business and have toyed with buying a kanga (over the dingo) and have decided to stick with hiring them. For around $100-140 a day I can charge that out and don't have to worry about servicing etc. And I figure at $40,000 I am tied to the unit for 3/4 years before it pays for itself.

A must would be 2 augurs, trencher, 4 in 1 bucket, leveller. The kanga is only really any good for moving topsoil, mulches etc. As with a BobCat once you get into any sort of sub-soil you are totally buggered.

I find the tracked kangas are handy for when your doing trenching as they move steadily and make less of a mess of where-ever your headed, but if your moving dirt, using the augurs bascially anything else then run with the wheeled jobbies as they move nearly twice as fast.

Originally Posted by vsquizz

Sorry about the mug in photie, just woke up, fell asleep on the bricks...

Hey Al look I'm a brickie!....oops, no crack showing...Bugga not qualified!


Cheers

Were your prayers answered?

Originally Posted by

Were your prayers answered?

Nope, it was all still here this morning

Namtrak, the guys at the local hire shop reckon the tracks are really good in the boggy stuff where the wheeled jobbies will get stuck. They did say it was slower. I'm only hiring this one because its literally down the end of the street and cheaper than Coates/wreckair. But get this; I hired the core drill with 127 mm bit for $140/day. Coates wanted over $250 for the same.


Cheers

Originally Posted by vsquizz

Davo, sorry to do this to ya mate but I'm going to hire a Kanga. I've had enough of the Banjo. Hire place down the road has them for $140.00 a day, what do you reckon?. Its the plastic track one.


Cheers

You obviously realise that your a traitor, but the Kanga is certainly ok and the tracks will be good in soft sand. It is arguably little less powerful than a Dingo but has to beat a shovel any day, 140 seems reasonable you can pay up to $220 but that usualy includes more than just a bucket.

Cheers


Dave

Originally Posted by davo453

You obviously realise that your a traitor, but the Kanga is certainly ok and the tracks will be good in soft sand. It is arguably little less powerful than a Dingo but has to beat a shovel any day, 140 seems reasonable you can pay up to $220 but that usualy includes more than just a bucket.

Cheers


Dave

My thoughts exactly
Cheers

The tracks do work better in boggy conditions. If it's dry though, consider the wheeled version - the speed difference is chalk and cheese.

And $140 is a good deal, pick it up at 7 and use it for about 14 hours!! to get some real value.. And then you can legitimately argue the point with swmbo that you have saved over $1000 because if you hired a man and his machine for 14 hours it would have cost 14 by $70, rather than $140 neat (plus fuel for digger and driver). Now what would a $1000 buy? Vacuum, second fixed router, 235mm cut-off etc etc?

I get the kanga for $100 with all attachments, but only cause I hire nearly every week for a day or so. And it isn't through Coates etc, who charge much higher - I've just lucked out a bit cause a local car hire company wanted to make a few dollars on the side....

Thought I'd follow up on my Dingo purchase and "new business"

Unfortunately It's hasn't been a total success. Don't get me wrong I've done a fair amount of work with the machine and it is very good at what it does.

The quality of the product and service backup can't be argued with at all.

My problem has been in the availability of work, I've tried everything I can think of, having advertised in all the local papers, dropped flyers written letters and made phone calls etc. I did (I thought) research the market before buying it and got positive responces, but they have come to nothing.

The fact is that even though the Dingo does an excellent job, many people.

1) Don't know what they are capable of but know the name Bobcat.
2) Some that know of the Dingo know the older machines and their limitations.
3) Those that do know their capabilities generaly only use them on limited access jobs (which is logical i guess)

The trick it seems is to specialise and use the machine as a tool for maybe a fencing contracting business or Handyman or something and take on the occasional extra job. This is not what i set out to do, but reality bites I guess.

I've not given up though. But am going to have to take on a part time job driving again by the looks of things, at least for the time being anyway.

Cheers



Dave