Anybody use a MT50 or MT52?

[500K_773]

I am digging footer for a house foundation repair and headroom is very limited. Currently we are excavating the footer trenches by hand, but progress is slow and we still have to haul in gravel for drainage beneath the footers. The trenches are 5' wide and about 12" to 18" deep by 42' long; and there are four of them. The bottom of the trench is 3.5' (42") beneath the beams, but this depth can be increased to 4.5', especially if we can get a machine in there. I believe the MT52 is 44" tall and the MT50 may be a couple of inches shorter.________________________The dealer has his MT50 out on rent until Wednesday. I plan on going in to see if I can operate it underneath the house. My main concern is operator visability from the side because I won't be able to look over the top since headroom is limited. If I can operate the machine by looking to from the side, I should be able to drive in, fill the bucket, and back out. I should even be able to drive in with gravel backfill and dump the bucket as long as I dont lift above the bottom of the beams. Maybe I could fasten a limiting strap or chain to prevent accidently lifting too high underneath the house. If you have experience with the MT, please tell me if this may work._____________________________Option #2 is a conveyor system that the rental place has, but it is only 20' long.

 

[500K_773]

Sorry, I meant to put this under compact track loaders, but any help would be great. Thanks

 

[kensandiford]

Sorry, I meant to put this under compact track loaders, but any help would be great. Thanks

I rented a MT50 for a tight space dig and I was really impressed. I think it will work well for you.

 

[500K_773]

I rented a MT50 for a tight space dig and I was really impressed. I think it will work well for you.

I see this did get moved to the right forum.
Thanks Geoffrey

 

[Tigerotor77W]

I see this did get moved to the right forum.
Thanks Geoffrey

Never used one, but there were a few threads from lawnsite.com that mentioned good performance.

 

[500K_773]

Never used one, but there were a few threads from lawnsite.com that mentioned good performance.

My dealerships MT-50 is still out on rent. The utility company is using it to clean out some tanks/pits at the sewage treatment plant. I may not want to rent it when it comes back

from that job. It should be available for rent next week. I went ahead and hired labors to dig out the foundation by hand instead of waiting. There was 56 man hours involved in removing about 30 yds^3 from underneath a 32' x 40' house foundation. I need to bring back in about 30 yds^3 of gravel backfill now. If the MT-50 is available for rent next week, it should save me about 30 man hours. Some of the savings will be used up by machine rental, but the job will get done faster. Also would plan to remove a little more material to allow for extra working room after the gravel backfill is in place, but I'll only do this with the machine and not manpower because labor costs are too expensive.
I'll keep everyone updated.

 

[864wood]

My dealerships MT-50 is still out on rent. The utility company is using it to clean out some tanks/pits at the sewage treatment plant. I may not want to rent it when it comes back from that job. It should be available for rent next week. I went ahead and hired labors to dig out the foundation by hand instead of waiting. There was 56 man hours involved in removing about 30 yds^3 from underneath a 32' x 40' house foundation. I need to bring back in about 30 yds^3 of gravel backfill now. If the MT-50 is available for rent next week, it should save me about 30 man hours. Some of the savings will be used up by machine rental, but the job will get done faster. Also would plan to remove a little more material to allow for extra working room after the gravel backfill is in place, but I'll only do this with the machine and not manpower because labor costs are too expensive.
I'll keep everyone updated.

Some of my backfill jobs are on such tight lots that I am spending alot of time spreading dirt by hand or shoveling dirt into lage holes out of the bucket once I get the machine close enogh. The other fantastic use would be for silt fence installation and repair. You typically want to install the silt fence as close to the LOD as possible to allow more room for work and less chance it will be taken down or knocked down be other trades. Because the contractors either never put it back up or they just hammer the stakes back in and don't bury the lower edge of the filter cloth. This is the surest way to get a job shut down as I can think of. The Mt machines look great, I just haven't looked into price.

 

[Tigerotor77W]

Some of my backfill jobs are on such tight lots that I am spending alot of time spreading dirt by hand or shoveling dirt into lage holes out of the bucket once I get the machine close enogh. The other fantastic use would be for silt fence installation and repair. You typically want to install the silt fence as close to the LOD as possible to allow more room for work and less chance it will be taken down or knocked down be other trades. Because the contractors either never put it back up or they just hammer the stakes back in and don't bury the lower edge of the filter cloth. This is the surest way to get a job shut down as I can think of. The Mt machines look great, I just haven't looked into price.

Physical price -- "GOt mines today. attachments Breaker,tiller ,trencher.deluxe landplane,4 in one bucket,and 36 in bucket with teeth 33,000" (from lawnsite.com) Xing

 

[500K_773]

Physical price -- "GOt mines today. attachments Breaker,tiller ,trencher.deluxe landplane,4 in one bucket,and 36 in bucket with teeth 33,000" (from lawnsite.com) Xing

I picked-up the MT50 today and will be using it underneath a house foundation for the next couple of days. It seems like it will work fine. Only needs about 4' clearance for me to work it. I'll take some video of it in use underneath there and post it if anyone would like to see it.

 

[500K_773]

I picked-up the MT50 today and will be using it underneath a house foundation for the next couple of days. It seems like it will work fine. Only needs about 4' clearance for me to work it. I'll take some video of it in use underneath there and post it if anyone would like to see it.

MT50 outperforms 3 laborers nearly 9 to 1!!!!

Just got back inside from completing the same job which took 3 labors 7.5 hours last week. Took me just over an hour with the MT50. All I can saw is WOW!
Excavated a 4.5' wide trench 42' long 1' deep. This is underneath an existing house so working height is limited. The labors had to work on their knees and pull the material out on a sled. Excavated 7 yards of material. I thought I'd have to keep the MT50 nearly a week to excavate and backfill for the new foundation, but I should be done in 2.5 days. This is great. If I had lots of work which required labors, I'd definately have one of these machines.
Back to the salt mines Got a job to go bid and pick up some materials for tomorrow.

 

[Tigerotor77W]

MT50 outperforms 3 laborers nearly 9 to 1!!!!

Just got back inside from completing the same job which took 3 labors 7.5 hours last week. Took me just over an hour with the MT50. All I can saw is WOW!
Excavated a 4.5' wide trench 42' long 1' deep. This is underneath an existing house so working height is limited. The labors had to work on their knees and pull the material out on a sled. Excavated 7 yards of material. I thought I'd have to keep the MT50 nearly a week to excavate and backfill for the new foundation, but I should be done in 2.5 days. This is great. If I had lots of work which required labors, I'd definately have one of these machines.
Back to the salt mines Got a job to go bid and pick up some materials for tomorrow.

Nice to hear that... pretty impressive. How easy is it to use?

 

[500K_773]

Nice to hear that... pretty impressive. How easy is it to use?

It's easy to operate. Two levers for your left hand control the skid steer operation of the tracks. There are three levers for your right hand to control the lift, tilt, and auxillary hydraulics. The auxillary hydraulic control is a shorter lever which doesn't get in the way. The lift arm lever is closer to the center than the tilt cylinder, which I feel is incorrect. The tilt level seems like it would be easier to operate it if was in between your thumb and index finger and control the lift arm with the heel of your hand and pinky and ring finger. The electric over hydraulic controls for attachments (ie. snow blower chute) are two toggle switchs at the top of the control panel.
The machine has high and low speed travel ranges. In high speed, it is a fast walk to keep up with the machine. Reverse is slow in either range. There is also a proportional flow valve to give priority to either the drive or loader hydraulic system depending on the job. I alway keep the machine in low range and max flow to the loader system. The 36" bucket on the machine I am using has the cutting edge nearly worn off. In fact the right side of the bucket is worn right back to the weld where the cutting edge meets the bucket. This makes digging a little bit difficult, but is still many times better than man power.
My daughter had a blast shooting video footage. Now I will just have to edit it and post it in the media section.

 

[500K_773]

It's easy to operate. Two levers for your left hand control the skid steer operation of the tracks. There are three levers for your right hand to control the lift, tilt, and auxillary hydraulics. The auxillary hydraulic control is a shorter lever which doesn't get in the way. The lift arm lever is closer to the center than the tilt cylinder, which I feel is incorrect. The tilt level seems like it would be easier to operate it if was in between your thumb and index finger and control the lift arm with the heel of your hand and pinky and ring finger. The electric over hydraulic controls for attachments (ie. snow blower chute) are two toggle switchs at the top of the control panel.
The machine has high and low speed travel ranges. In high speed, it is a fast walk to keep up with the machine. Reverse is slow in either range. There is also a proportional flow valve to give priority to either the drive or loader hydraulic system depending on the job. I alway keep the machine in low range and max flow to the loader system. The 36" bucket on the machine I am using has the cutting edge nearly worn off. In fact the right side of the bucket is worn right back to the weld where the cutting edge meets the bucket. This makes digging a little bit difficult, but is still many times better than man power.
My daughter had a blast shooting video footage. Now I will just have to edit it and post it in the media section.

I am returning the MT50 tomorrow after a week long rental. I only used the machine about 10 hours during the week, but it was worth at least 5 times the rental charges for my application. I don't want to even think how difficult the job would have been without the machine. We backfill the excavated footers yesterday. A 44' long x 5' wide x 1' deep trench filled with gravel took only an hour with the machine bringing the material in and dumping it while a laborer spread and leveled it. I only needed the laborer because headroom was limited because once the MT50 dumped the material, it couldn't get it's bucket on top because the beams were then too low. About 5 hours total to backfill 4 of these footers underneath the house.
The MT50 is a great machine and if I end up with more jobs which require laborers or very tight working areas, I'll definately have to buy one. Someone might think that it's 5 ft3 bucket capacity is barely more than a shovelful, but the MT50 can dig continuously without getting tired a lot longer than anyone would care to use a shovel. If you have a job with that much shovel work, you are probably going to use a machine anyway. I think the MT50 would be great for demolishion or remodel work inside a warehouses or large buildings because you should be able to fit it through most doorways.
One final word to sum it all up: Invaluable!!!