Roger wrote:
The message
from Tim Lamb contains these words:

I have decided to up my budget to £3000 but that is still very much the
bottom end of the market, particularly for a mini digger.

I would have offered my JCB 3D but you said distance costs:-)

Don't tempt me. IIRC you are somewhere like Shropshire. 150 @£3/mile is
10% of the increased budget gone. (Incidentally I don't understand the
difference between a 3C and a 3D).

Anything that old is not going to cheer up any elfin safety person so
you are restricted to own jobs. The ability to move muck 1 ton at a time
may not be an enormous benefit if you do not have the space to manoeuvre
a large machine.
With a full size digger the choice is really which particular JCB but
there is a bewildering range of mini diggers from a considerable number
of manufacturers so I would like to know which manufacturers have a
reputation for reliability or perhaps more pertinently which
manufacturers to avoid.

Can't answer that but you might factor in the value of a 4 in 1 bucket
for levelling/scraping and the forks for any pallet work. I don't think
you get either with a mini.

I do have access to a Zetor tractor with a bucket on its front lift. No
good for digging and will only shovel loose stuff but much better than
the wheelbarrow and shovel alternative.

Some mini diggers have a dozer blade which presumably is some help
levelling even if they might not have enough weight to shift anything
well compacted.

Ive done extensive levelling with minis and a 3.5 tonner.

The blade sort of works, but you end up digging the big humps out and
spreading. I.e. none have the tractio to really BULLDOZE.


what a big digger will do that a mini cant is

- go deeper. Ponds are not much use if they are only a few inches deep.
- lift heavier. if pu are diggong rock and masonry it may not come in
pint sized chunks
- pull up bigger Trtee roots work well with a digger, but there is a
size limit.

What a little digger will do that a big one cant is get into small
spaces, and fall over. Its a great way to dig a garden bed over though.

There's just as much o go wrong on a little one as a big one, and it all
costs about the same. Except the tracks. They cost more on the big *******s.

Go for the biggest you can fit.