Our First Two Months

We're a couple months in, and we’ve already learned a lot about the mini excavator rental business. Still working out some of the kinks, but things are going well! We’ve had great feedback from customers and have seen MANY projects completed.

For this post I wanted to share a bit about the excavator itself. We got a 1-ton model with a 13.5 hp Briggs and Stratton engine and hydraulic thumb, and overall we've been happy with it. The excavator is 8.5 ft tall and 3’2” wide, so it really is mini, and perfect for home projects! It has a digging depth of 5’4”, which makes it ideal for small trees, digging trenches, or digging a garden. The hydraulic thumb is also useful for clearing brush and lifting, including rocks, and as we’ve seen, just clearing junk in the yard.

In terms of operating/maintenance, it's running well, but has sustained some wear and tear, in part due to some design flaws. The hoses for the hydraulic fluid is exposed in some places on the arm of the excavator, leaving it susceptible to wearing out or getting damaged by running against things. Our solution to that was to wrap a protective plastic abrasion coil around the hose in the most vulnerable places, which seems to be working so far. Another issue with the hydraulic hose is that the fittings are difficult to find. So far, none of the local stores carry the replacement parts for nowhere to get them, and even an online search has been challenging. After finding an online store selling the international-style fittings, we loaded up! The other part that's had some issues is this pipe running into one of the cylinders [picture]. It started leaking after a few uses, and even though welding seemed to work initially, it's still relatively unstable and will need to find a way to secure it (brainstorming in process). A couple other issues we've had and are the choke handle being broken and some hoes we've had to replace, but those have been due to operator error, which is why we're including a refundable security deposit with the rental price.

So those are some first thoughts about the excavator, more to come!