Time to buy a back hoe...advice??

Yes, I could rent one when needed, but I think that having one around will be exceedingly handy. Here are some of the things i need to do.

- I have several construction projects on the farm coming up and will be needing to dig foundations and grade
- We have many places around the house and in the yard where water settles. I need to properly grade things.
- I am a large tool junkie and I frequently have occasion to lift heavy things in and out of the pickup. Frequently the boom pole on the tractor doesn't have the reach, or the front of the tractor comes up.
- I'll be building a pole building or 2 and the long digger arm could be handy for placing poles.
- I recently acquired a mobile dimension sawmill, and will have occasion to move good sized logs around.
- etc, etc.

So- many questions.

Full size or compact? A compact would probably do just fine for many things (except the log moving), but it may be that since these are more desirable by many folks, a larger one would be cheaper?

Maybe a bobcat type or a skid steer would be handier for the soil activities, but I think a full sized tractor with front scoop and rear bucket woudl be the real answer.

I am almost certainly talking used equipment here. If I could get somehting for $10k or less, I'd be happy.

What brands/models should I look for, or are they all pretty good these days?

Any advice for a general purpose machine like this around the farm would be welcomed.

Thanks-

Lynne -
I was in the same boat a few yrs. back. I went out to the local dealers seeking trade in rigs. I ended up with a 1973 MF 50C TLB. I gave little over $3k for it and had offers for $5k plus. Rig just ain't for sale just yet!

I would recommend full size over compact, extra HP is always nice to have in reserve vs. needing it and not having it.

My rig has done everything I have asked it to do. Recently it has been sitting idle for some time as most of the tasks have been done.

Considerations:
How to haul it home? Will you need to haul from place to place? Can you hire it out, use a friends trailer or do you have a trailer big enough?

I would get the push/pull hyd. cylinder type on the boom bucket. I have a swing motor that works but not as smoothly or accurately as the hyd. cylinder rigs.

4WD - optional, I see little need for this. I know my limits and tend to err on the side of caution. Can't say the same for my Oliver 550 as I tend to push it very, very hard at times.

Shuttle shift with hi/lo range.

Power steering a must on full size rig

Check all the pins and bushings. Some of mine are badly worn but since rig is used for farm work accuracy is not that critical. I have approx. 1 foot overswing in my rear boom. Dogs have learned to stay back a little further. Front end is tight.

Others may disagree but I like prefer a DSL over GAS.

Makes sure ROPS is in good shape - no evidence of damage.

Check boom and frame for welds - for a used machines I would expect some welding. If welding in critical areas such as web, frame, spindles, boom pole etc. proceed with EXTREME caution. You will not know who did the welding and last thing you want is a rig that breaks itself in half due to poor welds.

Check condition of all hoses and tires. Tires can be spendy. I had to replace a rear to the tune of $300.

I would not buy one without a demonstration of its ability. Listen to it, watch for leaks, operate all controls. Ask if you can drive it and get a feel for it.

That's all I can think of right now.

Best of luck and let us know what you end up with!
ShepFL

You may also want to buy a bigger, better one, and sell it after a year or two. I did that when I built a house years ago. Got 500 more than I paid for it, and a year of use.

Take Care
Steve

the variety of jobs it performs are:
chainsaw (dig the roots and push tree over), general digging, digging ditches, foundations and footings, loading cut trees (not logs), moving six bottom plows into and out of storage, detaching and reattaching harrows from the disk and we even moved a gravity wagon with it while the wagon was full of corn and had a busted up front axle and wheel.

overall it has been a very good machine. i highly recommend full size over compact.

The guy I routinely recommend for septic work has two hoes going. He recently dumped his newer Cat in favor of another Case. Thought it handled better.

Lynn, I'm going to email you about one I looked at.

It probably needs the rams rebuilt, maybe the pump as well. It is rusty and massive. I need to weld up a big frame in order to mount on my poor little 650.

Apparently, even after doing this, it will be very hard to drive, unless I install power steering.

So- lets say I spend $1400 on the power steering kit, and maybe another $300 on fixup. Then, i'd need to add a back hoe of some sort. I dunno- I think I'd rather leave this sweet little tractor uncluttered fro misc uses like mowing, augering, etc.

I don't have tons of bux to toss around, but I think an additional machine is called for.