# Trail Building Machine



## Bluegrassbiker (May 4, 2013)

I could not find a "Trail Building Machines" section in the Classifieds.

2012 Ditch Witch SK650


Includes bucket and Bradco 4-way Blade.
Brand new Hydro pump and drive motors. <1 hour on Pump and Drive motors.
Fresh Tracks and undercarriage. All new Idlers and drive cogs both sides. Appx 60-80 hours on tracks and under carriage.
Fresh filters and fluids all around.
Asking $9,800.00
Steep discount for non-profit trail groups.
I can deliver to your trail head
Free 1 day training for non-profit trail Clubs available.
She has been solid and dependable for us.

Chad
Dirt Aritisans 
dirtartisans.com


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## karthur (Apr 20, 2018)

I'm going back in forth on one of these or a mini ex.


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## Bluegrassbiker (May 4, 2013)

I hear ya! Had the same conundrum in 2012. Now we have skids, X's, Dozer's....etc
Our experience is; DW is quicker to pick up than excavators by 2xs. Some we have trained have picked up the X quicker yet majority pick up skid quicker. Higher production using skid over X if only using one machine. Less manual labor needed to hand finish behind an X. Even though less manual labor needed to hand finish behind X production was still slower over skid. Of course my previous statements are all soil composition dependent. We work mostly in heavy clays which do not contain many rocks.


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## karthur (Apr 20, 2018)

Yeah, no rocks in my area, roots are what I fight with. I've been using a box blade and if it's dry it works well, I'm just getting tired of twisting around and looking behind me all the time.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

You can count me as someone who picked up the skid quicker than the ex. 

I'd love to have one of these at the house (one of these days, I'm going to get around to building a trail through my yard).


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## goodmojo (Sep 12, 2011)

Would love to buy one for 10k. Around here they are virtually non existent and used ones are like 20k

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

This past fall I used a micro x and a trail dozer back to back, the dozer was far superior for pretty much everything, more stable, better able to set grade, and much faster. The only time I wished had a bucket was digging out boulders. We have very, very rocky desert soils, volcanic mostly.

A micro or mini x might be better in rooty terrain or steep side slopes that need to be cut before grading. The excavators are far mire tippy, not for lesser skilled users on side slopes. If you ain’t never tipped an excavator, well, you ain’t tried hard enough 

I thought about building an inexpensive mini dozer using a walk behind tracked skid with a 6 way blade, but the cost and complication of the blade is probably not worth it, so a 4way blade would good enough. The OP has a nice rig, I’d like to see pics of the blade...

I got some skills from running equipment over the years, not a pro by any stretch, but I can hop on a piece of equipment and dig.


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

What part of the world is this machine located?

Just curious. I have a project here on the Central Coast of California that would fit this kind of machine, _possibly_ being dug this fall or winter depending on the organization we're designing it for now. Open, grassy rangeland. Unfortunately in many areas, very little side-slope. Clay with zero rock. In fact if we find an object the size of a bowling ball or bigger that doesn't get up and run away when we approach it, it becomes a control point it's THAT barren. A mini-X would be usable but overkill. I have already contacted Sutter about a 300 or 500 and bringing in as a rental but that would cost about half what your asking price is now.


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## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

Nurse Ben said:


> This past fall I used a micro x and a trail dozer back to back, the dozer was far superior for pretty much everything, more stable, better able to set grade, and much faster. The only time I wished had a bucket was digging out boulders. We have very, very rocky desert soils, volcanic mostly.
> 
> A micro or mini x might be better in rooty terrain or steep side slopes that need to be cut before grading. The excavators are far mire tippy, not for lesser skilled users on side slopes. If you ain't never tipped an excavator, well, you ain't tried hard enough 
> 
> ...


What machines work best will be very dependent on what kind of soil you're in. Dozers don't work well in WNC where the root mat is 18" thick. These little walk behind skid steers are pretty good compromises for a lot of places. Mini-ex is still king for many types of trail in multiple terrains though. Put a thumb on a u17 and there are very few situations where you can't do what you want with that. Yes, sometimes a larger machine works faster if you're building a jump line, and sometimes a dozer is faster if you're just cutting flowy XC trail, but if I could only buy one machine, it would be a mini-ex.


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Cotharyus said:


> What machines work best will be very dependent on what kind of soil you're in. Dozers don't work well in WNC where the root mat is 18" thick. These little walk behind skid steers are pretty good compromises for a lot of places. Mini-ex is still king for many types of trail in multiple terrains though. Put a thumb on a u17 and there are very few situations where you can't do what you want with that. Yes, sometimes a larger machine works faster if you're building a jump line, and sometimes a dozer is faster if you're just cutting flowy XC trail, but if I could only buy one machine, it would be a mini-ex.


Yup, totally site dependent, which is why a mini dozer works well out here and a mini-ex does not.

You should check out the mini dozer that Sutter sells. I had one for a week, it's quite a tool, much safer for the user and the help, very powerful, super stable, six way blade is the bomb. It weighs 5k, so it'd be no problem cutting through the root mat.

Sutter 300 Single Track Mini Trail Dozer - The Ultimate Trail Building Machine


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Oh My Sack! said:


> What part of the world is this machine located?
> 
> Just curious. I have a project here on the Central Coast of California that would fit this kind of machine, _possibly_ being dug this fall or winter depending on the organization we're designing it for now. Open, grassy rangeland. Unfortunately in many areas, very little side-slope. Clay with zero rock. In fact if we find an object the size of a bowling ball or bigger that doesn't get up and run away when we approach it, it becomes a control point it's THAT barren. A mini-X would be usable but overkill. I have already contacted Sutter about a 300 or 500 and bringing in as a rental but that would cost about half what your asking price is now.


Unless you want a 48" wide trail (the 500), get the Sutter 300 mini dozer, it's friggin amazing, like cutting cream cheese, you'll do a mile a day on those soils with minimal cleanup. Seriously, I'd buy one if I could afford it: Sutter 300 Single Track Mini Trail Dozer - The Ultimate Trail Building Machine


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## karthur (Apr 20, 2018)

There is a reason why there is no pricing info on the Sutter web page.....$65800.00 plus shipping to buy or $4850/month for rental.


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

I rented one for a week, it was well worth the price, rental was about the same as a decent mini ex. If you can pick it up yourself, it's a lot less than having it delivered.

I'm lucky, their shop is fifteen minutes from my house 

Keep in mind that they sell their rentals, which is s nice way to save a buck.



karthur said:


> There is a reason why there is no pricing info on the Sutter web page.....$65800.00 plus shipping to buy or $4850/month for rental.


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

Nurse Ben said:


> Unless you want a 48" wide trail (the 500), get the Sutter 300 mini dozer, it's friggin amazing, like cutting cream cheese, you'll do a mile a day on those soils with minimal cleanup. Seriously, I'd buy one if I could afford it: Sutter 300 Single Track Mini Trail Dozer - The Ultimate Trail Building Machine


Well...actually, on this trail, we're going with 40" full bench tread which is a little out of the ordinary but the nature of this trail warrants the width. It'll be multi-use with hikers, runners, bikes, and maybe some equestrian though we don't expect it to be much of a draw for the horses as it won't really be worth the effort to haul a horse to this location but it will be built to accommodate. It will be showcased as a beginner trail for bikers and built with some easy, beginner features for kids (and inexperienced adults) as nothing exists in the region that foots that bill. We learned on a similar city network we built a number of years ago as a single track that has a high amount of walkers, that walkers insist on walking two abreast and that trail, over time, has been braided and turned into a wide trail for that very reason. That created issues since that was not how it was originally designed. This one we're building with that in mind so with the diagonal adjustment of a Sutter 500 blade, we could accomplish that in one fell swoop and likely finish the entire trail tread cut with 3-4 days. It's one of the few trails in our area where a Sutter just plain fits



karthur said:


> There is a reason why there is no pricing info on the Sutter web page.....$65800.00 plus shipping to buy or $4850/month for rental.


You could hammer out a hell of a lot of trail in a month!! I'm looking at under <$4000 for the 500 including transportation both ways. The transport is almost twice the cost of the machine for this time frame. Nothing is set in stone for us, yet but at least we have this option available to us come fall/winter.


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## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

Nurse Ben said:


> Yup, totally site dependent, which is why a mini dozer works well out here and a mini-ex does not.
> 
> You should check out the mini dozer that Sutter sells. I had one for a week, it's quite a tool, much safer for the user and the help, very powerful, super stable, six way blade is the bomb. It weighs 5k, so it'd be no problem cutting through the root mat.
> 
> Sutter 300 Single Track Mini Trail Dozer - The Ultimate Trail Building Machine


I'm sitting less than 100 yards from a sutter. I'm pretty familiar with them. Yes, it will cut right through that root mat. But on the side of a mountain through the root mat and then enough clay to have a bench is just too much overburden to do nothing with, hence the need for the mini-ex. Even where we use the sutter, we typically follow it with a mini-ex to do more shaping and cleanup.


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## str8downhill (May 2, 2020)

I'm digging this thread up from the dead. New member(can't make a new post yet) here looking to hire a pro to build a trail in central texas on a steep slope that goes down to a river. Do yall have any suggestions on who I should connect with?


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## tommyfogarty (Apr 24, 2010)

Could someone list places that a Sutter 300 can be rented? I am coming up blank, and it seems like they should be available as rentals. I am in the Placerville area, but have an equipment trailer so I could pick up... This is a great, informative thread.


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## Oh My Sack! (Aug 21, 2006)

tommyfogarty said:


> Could someone list places that a Sutter 300 can be rented? I am coming up blank, and it seems like they should be available as rentals. I am in the Placerville area, but have an equipment trailer so I could pick up... This is a great, informative thread.


Directly from the Sutter distributor...IIRC, it was in Carson City area. I had a conversation with them about it. It's spendy for transportation but in the end, it panned out as worth it. Ended up the trail still hasn't been built due to funding.

https://www.sutterequipment.com/rentals


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Call Sutter and get on their schedule, plan ahead, if you can pick it up then you don’t pay delivery.

I have used the 300, a mini ex, and a walk behind skid on my trails, though they all have their pros cons, the 300 is far and away the best for cutting trail in most conditions.

I will admit that I still prefer to cut trail by hand, but these something to be said for production. If I were a wealthy guy, I’d own a 300 and donate my time.


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