I have rented a Cat D-8 twice for doing chores on my land. Along with an excavator. They are very handy when you need to do stuff. I have only rented them for a week at a time.

The last time, hydraulic hoses kept blowing apart, and it ended up consuming three days of my rental time. Making repeated trips into the city to get new hoses made-up.

One of my neighbors has an older bulldozer. No hydraulics, just a winch with steel cables that raises the blade.

3 years ago, I bought a Massey-Ferguson tractor [front loader, backhoe, disc harrow, pallet forks, pto snow blower] it makes a huge difference. It can not do the work that the D8 can do. But for daily chores it is great

 

You could dig an epic trench style shelter or a something, until it ran out of fuel.

Oh imagine the sweet tree fort style home you could build with a crane!

 

I have a key to about all heavy equipment made, because its the kind of work I do.
So I have thought about heavy equipment an the rolls they could play in a SHTF situation.
Here's my CAT keys and Massey ferguson key (old and new style cat key pictured) my big key ring is out in the truck with all the other keys on it.
Anyone IMHO with heavy equipment after a major SHTF senario happens will have a big upper hand around their house or BOL in many different ways, from security to chores around the house.




Here's my old skid steer







Here's my brothers old track hoe. Kept it here at the house for many years and boy did it come in handy for land clearing and heavy lifting.

 

"I have a key to about all heavy equipment made, because its the kind of work I do. So I have thought about heavy equipment an the rolls they could play in a SHTF situation.

Here's my brothers old track hoe. Kept it here at the house for many years and boy did it come in handy for land clearing and heavy lifting.

Something like that would come in handy for digging graves, among other things. There will be many of them to be dug.....

 

i too work with hevy equipment for a living. dozers, excavators, loaders and scrapers mainly. yes the fuel issue is the major thing as these hold humdreds of gallons. I thought of this today when me an my daughter saw an excavator on side of the rod an i jokingly told her we could take it for a spin cause i have a key. wonder if theres a way to purchase keys to other brands online. if society breaks down these things would be a very valuable asset to say the least.

 

Just jam a screw driver in it turn and it works. Just like the car theifs.

 

oh, and as far as the problems with them, like any machine yes they will break down an the ones from a rental place may not get serviced like they are suppose to. im not sure about that. but hey if all it costs you is the price of a key its more than worth it IMHO!

 

This is why I'm glad I live on a farm!otsnof heavy equipment if I ever need it.

 

Most Bobcats also use the same keys. As an ex-bobcat mechanic I have a couple. Many other utility vehicles use only a very limited number of keys. Definitely something to keep in mind.

 

Most vehicles that take keys can be hot wired in short order. I have found that my Master Key .458 will unlock most locks. In a SHTF events how much use is one tank of fuel.

 

Heavy equipment would be great in a SHTF scenario. Only issue, but could be a good thing for a short time, they are real gas hogs when running. Vehicles measure miles per gallan, while these measure gallons per mile. They would be greatly useful if you have fuel source or tank is full to start with. Only problem is many of the new pieces are getting away from multi use keys and going to individual, so look for older equipment, and more are going computerized so presents new challenges in hotwireing.

 

Heavy equipment would be great in a SHTF scenario. ...

Anything that you could want done post-SHTF is better completed pre-SHTF.

Terracing for crops, clearing paths through forest for fence-lines, trenches for surface water run-off. All this stuff is best done now.

I have dug long trenches for my power and phone lines, to run potable water line from our well to our house, and sewage line from the house out to the leech field. All these things needed trenches. These were needed pre-SHTF, not post-SHTF.



Most stuff your going to do with heavy equipment, needs to get done now.

 

Go to a local Ford/New Holland dealership.
They sell sets of equipment keys...15-20 most used brands on one big ring.
But IF the **** ever does hit the fan...


Remember...If a guy can afford heavy equipment,he can afford big guns.

 

I can see where they would be of use. But most are slow going down the road. Not your ideal get to bol vehicle. Most are diesel, so I really have wouldn't have much use for them in my plans. Kinda late in the game to be digging and such post shtf.mho

 

Yeah, fuel would be an issue but if say the tank was half or 3/4 full you could as one post said dig a nice trench. And yes they areslowon the road and it be more of a bug in vehicle, therearelots better things to bug out in, but for bug in it be hard to beat a backhoe, which are usually readily available down the street from my house most of the times.

 

Do you even need a key to start a cat? I thought you could use a flat head screwdriver lol

 

I have a ton of keys to open & run equipment due to owning a construction & development company with roughly 40 employees for 30 years. Made a habit of having a set to all our equipment as it'd never fail that you'd need to move one and couldn't find the key or one of the guys took it home, etc.



I've used a bent nail with a flattened end to start some equipment. Don't recall if it was a Case, Ford, Massey or even if it was a backhoe or yard tractor off hand?? Don't think it was a Cat due to the two prongs on the key.

 

Having keys would be helpful if equipment is around you but if there are a lot of people scavenging around the fuel in all that iron is going to get siphoned pretty quick I would think. If I were to take anything of value from a jobsite like that it would be the light plants- they are their own trailer and have a couple 120V plugs on them, with 30+ gallon diesel fuel tanks. Leave the heavy iron and take the fuel (and scavenge fuel filters kff the other lightplanta you leave behind) would be my priority.

 

Not as heavy, but forklift brands have universal keys and ones used indoors run on propane. Could be handy in a suburban/urban environment to move cars, stack barricades, and remove debris. I would imagine every box store has one in the warehouse.

 

depending on how bad a shtf scenario you have... i plan on cutting trees near the 2 bridges on my road and using a skid steer to move the trees to block said bridges. to me, the large equipment takes me from "a few miles from the main road" to "its blocked for a long ways back".

also if worst case scenario does happen i would also use the skid steer to dig foxholes and burms. not by hand, ouch. lol

 

You would actually need someone to constantly cover that barricade though. A chain and a pickup will drag anything a skid steer can.

 

I have rented bulldozers twice. Both times were only for a week. Them things can do way far more than you could ever dream of doing with a pickup truck.

Granted my experience with them was very limited.

I have buddies who own skid-steers. I would play them a lot closer to the bulldozer end of this, then I would to the pickup truck end of the scale.

On a daily basis, I just play with my little tractor [loader-bucket and backhoe], it has it's limits.


As to the OP;
If you need stuff done, then do stuff.

Saying your going to wait, until after blah-blah, is just dreaming.

 

I would be interested if rental shops keep their equipment fully fueled? Not that I want to steal fuel, just wondering? That would be a ton of money! Same with rental cars, sitting there gassed up ready to go, keys just inside for the taking, won't everyone be thinking the same thing? Heavy machines can hold a boatload of fuel.

 

I can only speak for the rental co I worked for . Each machine was topped off when returned , as the customer was responsible for returning the machine with a full tank . After fueling , the machine went to turn around , where it was cleaned and made ready for rental . While in the company yard the keys were removed and all the machines were parked in a secure locked yard . However when out on rental they sometimes were parked " unsupervised " , that was usually on a construction site . When left at a private home site they were pretty safe .

 

You may not live long enough to get off the property with any of my friend's equipment .
He does landscaping, and has almost every tool in the book parked here but the D6 .
I have permission to use what ever I want but I'd rather he operated his own equipment and I pay him for his time .
I have and old 9N ford with a fresno and skip loader ,one tough little machine .
If you know your equipment and treat it for the way it is designed it does well , pushing things past design is when things go a-rye.
I've worked D6 and played with D9 and several wheel loaders and bob cats down to back howe ,and the broad spectrum of snow removal equipment .
When your work the mountains, and particularly a ski area as a mechanic, they've got you moving every thing that has been pushed it into failure , that's what keeps / kept me busy.
The most fun machine is a Piston Bully , Joy stick controls every where. 4-6+ different pumps depending on added accessories .
These had all the bells and whistles heated windscreen and mirrors ,seats that absorbed the grouser bounce like it didn't exist. (almost)
Way too much fun.

 

One word.....KILLDOZER

 

damn, beat me to it

 

http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Heavy-Equipment-Construction-Ignition/dp/B009UG9VZU

 

I live in a mostly forested region. I see a lot of track-crawler skid-steers used for 'twitching'. That is dragging felled trees out to a 'yard' where harvesting equipment is setup to strip the branches off, cut them to 20' or 40' lengths and load them onto trucks.

A few of my friends operate skid-steers for twitching.

I forgot they also make smaller ones with rubber tires. My mistake.

 

No biggie. They call those skidders where I am from. But every place i have spent significant time in a skid-steer is referring very specifically to smaller rubber tracked/rubber tired rigs. I am still assuming that is what the OP means.

If am correct on this assumption I stand by my original statement.

 

ForestBeekeeper-- Go to Tractor supply and buy a Sub-Soiler for your tractor for about $160. or weld one up. Its just a arm that going into the ground that attaches to the 3 point hitch and has a spade on the bottom. Can tare-up a lot of soil to make it easy for your grader blade on your farm tractor to move around.
I helped build the 3000' long runway that I live on. Several of us bought the land from the owner and we put all the roads, runway in, drainage system, etc. The owner let us use his 2 dozers, one smaller and the other that I liked was an 18-20 ton brute, 4' high blade, we called it Big Red. Also backhoes, DitchWitch, Large road grader, Large roller, Dump trucks, etc.
Lots of fun, I like playing in the dirt. Pops

 

I'm lucky as a farmer to have access to equipment

 

So can just anyone go to a Cat dealer and buy a set of keys, or a master key? I would think they would get suspicious that you were trying to steal stuff.

 

There could be many reasons you would need a new key, for one heavy equipment operators are not the most reliable of employees, soooo, your tracked backhoe driver gets into a bar room fight and thrown in jail for a month, how do you start the backhoe?

Rancher