cwooten, you've probably made yer mind up already, but I saw this topic and felt compelled to relate what I ended up doing last Fall.
My good buddy (and former yellow iron operator/mechanic/artist) used to own an excavation Co., and based on his 30 years of exp. I listened to him....he said "if you can rent it, rent it" He's out of that business now because of the headache of owning equip.
i opened an account w/ Co. called HOLT of CA...you probably dont have one in OK, but probably got something similar. they specialize in CAT equip.
Did it pay off dollar wise?.........we put 160 hours on a CAT 320 w/ 4-foot bucket and thumb in a little over a two week period, it was down about 5 times during the two weeks, w/ hyd. leaks and whatnot, and the big one was a cracked ram on arm (about a $7k repair job if I owned the machine).. HOLT sent out mechanics to my location each time it was down, they were there w/in an hour, and got us going again w/in 1 to 2 hours (except the day the ram broke, that took about 3 hours). At the end of project, the total bill to me based on hours was the monthly rate of $7,500, plus mob, plus taxes, total was about $8.3k.......if anything convinced me renting is better, my project was textbook ex.
I got a account w/ a local card lock (for Ag (red dye) diesel) and put two 55-gallon drums in back of my p/u w/ a electric transfer pump..kept the thristy machines working.
Just my two cents.......good luck and happy ponding
