When we moved onto the property full time at the end of September 2025, we knew there was going to be a lot of work to do.
We were living in the motorhome while we started working the land, and at first I figured we'd tackle things with the tools we already had.
By the middle of October, I had reached a pretty obvious conclusion:
Hand tools weren't going to fucking cut it.
So we bought an AGT H15R mini excavator.
It's a small machine — roughly a 1-ton excavator with a gas lawn-engine powerplant. It's also a budget, Chinese-built machine intended for light-duty work.
It's not a replacement for a full-size excavator.
That wasn't what I needed.
I needed something small enough to work around our property that could save my back and let me get shit done.
So far, it's done exactly that.
What We've Used It For
The H15R has become one of those pieces of equipment that I don't really think about until I don't have it.
It's handled:
Moving and stacking trees after felling
Grading the driveway
Building walking trails
General property cleanup
Moving material around the property
Handling logs, brush and other awkward crap that sucks to move by hand
It's not a giant machine.
But there's a huge difference between moving something with a bucket and trying to move it with a shovel, wheelbarrow and a bad attitude.
For me, the biggest benefit has been simple:
It's a backsaver.
And on a long workday, that's worth a hell of a lot.
The Upgrades That Actually Matter
One of the first upgrades I made was a hydraulic thumb.
That turned out to be one of the best things I've done to the machine.
The bucket is useful by itself, but once you can grab material between the bucket and thumb, the excavator becomes dramatically more useful for handling logs, brush and irregular pieces of debris.
Instead of trying to balance everything in the bucket, I can actually grab it.
The other upgrade that has seen a lot of use is a wider 38” bucket.
That thing has been worked hard.
For driveway grading and trail work, the extra width makes a noticeable difference. I'm moving and spreading material over a wider area instead of making as many passes with the narrower digging bucket.
When you're working on trails or trying to shape sections of driveway, fewer passes means less time sitting on the machine and more ground covered.
It's one of those upgrades that sounds pretty minor until you actually use it.
Then you wonder why you didn't have it sooner.
I also bought a rake attachment for clearing blackberry bushes.
I haven't put that one to work yet, so I'm not going to pretend I can review it.
It'll get its turn when the brush-clearing work ramps up.
That's another rule I try to follow around here:
If I haven't used it, I don't review it.
Thirty Minutes In, It Broke
My confidence in the new machine took a pretty serious hit about thirty minutes into its first real work session.
I blew a hydraulic hose.
Nothing like buying a new piece of equipment and immediately discovering that you're now the owner of a very expensive lawn ornament.
The bigger problem wasn't necessarily the hose.
It was finding one.
We're rural, and nobody local had the replacement I needed sitting on a shelf.
I ended up dealing with Leroy at Spikes Hydraulics, who came in, built a replacement hose on the spot, and got me back in business.
He even gave me his personal number and told me to call him directly if I had another problem so he could get out there quickly.
That's the kind of thing you remember.
When you're working on a rural property, having someone local who can actually fix shit can be just as important as the equipment itself.
New hose.
Fresh hydraulic fluid.
Back to work.
Nearly 100 Hours Later
And here's where the story gets more interesting.
That first hose failure was irritating as hell, but it hasn't turned into a pattern.
I'm now sitting just under 100 hours on the machine.
Since replacing that hose, I've had no additional mechanical issues.
That's obviously not enough hours for me to declare the H15R bulletproof. I'm not going to do that.
But it's enough time and real work for me to say that the machine has earned its place here.
It's been digging, grading, moving trees, building trails and cleaning up the property.
And it's done it without constantly demanding my attention.
That's pretty much what I wanted.
The Track Problem
There is one thing that consistently pisses me off.
Crushed black rock.
The machine's tracks don't particularly like it.
When I'm turning on crushed rock, the stones have a tendency to wedge themselves between the track and the rollers.
It can make for a pretty unpleasant surprise when you're trying to work.
Fortunately, I've figured out how to clear it without turning the problem into a bigger one.
I drop the blade to lift one end of the machine, use the bucket to raise the bound side, and then run the track forward and backward until the rock works its way out.
I've only thrown a track once.
Using the same basic method, I was able to get it back where it belonged.
It's not elegant.
It works.
And at this point, I know what to expect when I'm working on that kind of surface.
The Modifications I Keep Thinking About
The funny thing about owning equipment like this is that there's always another modification you could make.
I think about upgrades.
I think about attachments.
I think about ways to make the machine better.
Then I usually climb into the seat and go back to work.
That probably tells me more about the machine than a list of specifications ever could.
If I'm spending more time operating the machine than modifying it, that's generally a good sign.
Small Machine, Big Difference
The AGT H15R isn't going to compete with a full-size excavator.
It isn't supposed to.
What it does is give me a compact machine I can use around our property without bringing in a much larger piece of equipment every time I need to move something, grade something or clean something up.
That's exactly the niche I needed it to fill.
The machine has already paid for itself in saved labor and, more importantly, saved wear and tear on my body.
Sometimes the best equipment isn't the biggest or most expensive.
Sometimes it's the machine that lets you do the work yourself.
What's Next
The excavator is actually leaving the property for a couple of weeks.
Tommy is taking it to his place to put it to work.
When it comes back, I've got a much larger project waiting for it here.
That'll give me even more hours and another opportunity to see what this little machine can actually handle.
And that's really where I am with the H15R.
I'm not going to call it perfect.
I'm not going to tell you it's equivalent to a much more expensive excavator.
I'm simply telling you what happened after I bought one and put it to work.
The first hydraulic hose failed almost immediately.
I fixed it.
The tracks don't like crushed rock.
I learned how to deal with that.
The wider bucket has gotten hammered doing driveway and trail work.
The hydraulic thumb has made handling logs and debris dramatically easier.
And nearly 100 hours later, the machine is still out there doing work that would otherwise have required a hell of a lot more manual labor.
For a small, budget machine with reasonable expectations, that's a pretty good result.
And apparently, I'm still not done finding things for it to do.
