I figured I would bump this thread from the depths.
I bought an excavator in mid February, with the hopes to expand my services and increase annual bottom line. I didn't have any specific work for the excavator, but I decided to roll the dice and bought a 2010 Kubota KX121-3 with a 6 way blade, quick attach, and thumb. Thus far I've put about 75 hours on the machine. By comparison I've only put ~88 on my AL540 since mid August.
I figured I would use it for land clearing, drainage, etc, but was surprised at how handy it is for handling tree debris, especially on larger trees. It radically reduces the labor associated with processing a tree as well as reducing the time involved. It's not an efficient forwarder, only a handler. Also, if I could only have one machine for tree work, it would be the loader. The loader is far more efficient at forwarding material, as well as being able to handle heavier material with more ease.
So far I have used the excavator to dig out quite a few stumps, remove hundreds of bushes, loaded logs into a portable sawmill, got a tree off some cars, as well as loaded out the trailer removing quite a few large trees. On the books I have one large job carefully clearing for a house and driveway, another job cleaning up fallen trees, a small demo job that's part of a tree job, a grubbing job that's part of a tree job. It's amazing how quickly you can put hours on the machine as compared to the loader, I figure with my current work, I'll put another 100 hours on the ex.
I'm excited about the possibilities it will open with new avenues of work as well as the increase in efficiency handling tree debris (even more competitive). In combination with the loader, we can handle a wide range of work without excessive manual labor. If you're a removal based company, and already have a loader, an excavator could be a worthy investment. My break even point is roughly 11 hours per month.