Posted by Caleb in Kansas [108.162.221.145] on Friday, December 23, 2016 at 13:43:24 :
We have been in the process of designing a new house and, with the help of my buddy who is a GC, I am going to do most of the construction myself. I was planning on hiring out the main excavation, then marking out and digging the footings and drainage myself. Recently, the 60+ acres adjacent to us came up for sale and we could not afford to buy it, but my in-laws had just sold the family farm out West and bought it up...sooo, this means they will be soon building a house as well. My wifes Father just sold his 25+ year business and will be fully retired in a few short days so their process will likely start to pick up soon. It's a funny/cool situation, the house I grew up in is just down the road, literally a stones throw (well, a very big mans stone throw) away and now the whole famdamly will be right together...my plans for a commune are only an 8' security fence away!
Anyway, I need to dig my own basement, the excavation for the in-laws house (semi-berm into the hillside), we have a creek bank in major need of stabilization (losing about 1/4 acre per year depending on flooding), and we have a rather long run of driveway, not to mention hogging out a pond and building another creek crossing that will be done in the next 3-5 years. Long story short, my father in law bought a smaller JD skid loader which showed up at my house on Wednesday and the fella he bought it from has a late 50's CAT tracked loader he's asking $10k for. He says its a 955D, but I am not familiar with that, I am familiar with the 955k and l. He has had it since '95 he traded a corvette for it. His father ran it on the farm clearing trees and doing farm stuff so it was used maybe 3-4 times a year for a day or 2 but nothing "hard". Shortly after they got it, they rebuilt the motor "just because" since his father is friends with the local CAT guy. Says it fires right up (not a pony start) without hitting it with ether but it does need new batteries (has to steal out of his other machine). He said it's difficult to run for him, but his dad hops right on it and swings away...and he's near 80. I am going to go look at it and operate it a bit this afternoon. Any opinions or input would be great. Feel free to email me off forum.
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