I rented equipment before where they gave me a better rate over the weekend. And you'd want to work 14 hour days, with maybe a friend working 10 more, assuming they don't limit the hours you can put on the machine.
I'm conspiracy minded maybe, but I wonder if the $8000 yahoo doesn't know the first guy. I know how much dirt my guy moved in 2.5 hours, even with a little time for us to put in a couple pipes. Your 800 yards (?) should take five hours at that rate, plus MAYBE 3 for top soil rearrangement and smoothing, a little compacting.
A good worker on a decent sized dozer would move four times as much as you could with the rental (just guessing), and do it better. If you could just find a guy to work by the hour. I think my guy said he could push about three yards at a time, so you could estimate how long per pass. I'm thinkin they'd push back and forth the short way first, then back and forth the long way as they got deeper in the middle.
But certainly doing it yourself has its own reward. But sitting back with a beer and watching the work is pretty nice too. anyway .. just some ideas
and yeah, the track hoe idea sounds interesting ... he could pack it a little with the scoop, and if you have a truck, put a couple scoops in back and you can drive around in circles the whole time ... for compaction. I actually wish I'd done that on mine ... just on the core.
