Skid steer work in Fallbrook runs $150 per hour with a 4-hour minimum, operator and fuel included. Most driveway gravel spreads, backfills and yard cleanups are finished inside the minimum; pad grading and bigger dirt moves run 6 to 10 hours. Text a few photos and you will get a straight answer on hours the same day.
A skid steer is the machine that does the jobs too big for a wheelbarrow and too small for a dump truck crew: moving and spreading dirt, gravel and decomposed granite, rough grading, backfilling trenches and foundations, cleaning up after a build, clearing light brush and loading debris. Our Bobcat T300 is a tracked loader, so it works on the slopes and soft ground that stop a wheeled machine, and it leaves far less damage on a lawn or a driveway.
You get the machine and the operator together. There is no rental counter, no trailer to tow, no learning the controls on your own property. Oscar has run skid steers for five years and learned on his father's machines, a family with more than 25 years in dirt work around Fallbrook. He shows up with the loader on the trailer, looks at the job with you, and starts.
We are insured and owner-operated. The person you text is the person on the machine, which is why hours quoted in the morning tend to match hours billed in the afternoon.
Watch: skid steer work on a real job
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The brush cutter from straight above
Straight-down drone view of the T300 cutting stripes through dry weeds. Each pass is a little over six feet wide, and a lot this size takes a morning. The wide shots at the end show the finished field against the road and the houses next door.
What is included
- ✓Bobcat T300 compact track loader delivered to your property on our trailer
- ✓An experienced operator for every billed hour, fuel included
- ✓General-purpose bucket for dirt, gravel, DG and debris; tooth bucket for hard ground
- ✓Brush cutter, auger, breaker and pallet-fork attachments when the job calls for them
- ✓Spreading and rough leveling of material you have delivered, or material we arrange
- ✓Site walk before we start and a clean, raked finish before we load up
Typical hours and cost
Everything is $150 per hour with a 4-hour minimum. Here is what the common versions of this job usually take.
| Typical job | Hours | At $150 per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Spread two truckloads of gravel or road base on a driveway | 4 | $600 |
| Backfill a foundation or utility trench after inspection | 4 | $600 |
| Rough-grade a 2,000 sq ft pad for a shed, barn or ADU | 4 to 8 | $600 to $1,200 |
| Clean up a construction site and load debris | 4 to 6 | $600 to $900 |
| Move and place 40 to 60 tons of DG or fill dirt | 6 to 10 | $900 to $1,500 |
| Clear a quarter acre of light brush with the brush cutter | 4 to 6 | $600 to $900 |
Hours are typical ranges for normal ground and access. Rock, roots, steep slopes and tight gates add time. Material, haul-off and dump fees are quoted separately. 4-hour minimum applies.
The equipment
- Bobcat T300 compact track loader: about 81 horsepower, rated to carry 3,000 pounds in the bucket, roughly 6.5 feet wide, on rubber tracks that spread the weight over soft or sloped ground.
- Attachments on the trailer as needed: brush cutter, auger, hydraulic breaker, tooth bucket, pallet forks.
- Mini excavator available on the same trip for trenching, digging footings and pulling stumps.
Skid Steer Work in Fallbrook and North County
Fallbrook lots are rarely flat. Most of the work we do is on hillsides off Mission Road, Reche Road, Live Oak Park Road and Gird Road, on decomposed granite that packs hard in summer and turns to soup after a winter storm. A tracked loader is the right machine for that ground, and it is the reason we run a T300 instead of a wheeled skid steer.
Gates matter. The T300 needs an opening of about 7 feet to get through comfortably. If your side yard gate is narrower, say so when you text and we will plan the access before the trailer arrives, which saves you a billed hour.