First of all, the only experience I've had was with a re-purposed JD backhoe (probably from a JD 310?) that I used on the back of my JD 4010. It was a 3-pt hookup, but included a frame due to its original 4-pt mount, which made the unit sit farther back than normal, which made lifting it a strain on the 3-pt hydraulics. BUT.....it was a beast!
If I had it to do again, I'd just buy (or build?) a self-contained, towable backhoe. However, that depends on your needs:
1. how deep might you need to dig?
2. what kinds of soil might you run across? (heavy clay will be harder to dig)
3. how large a bucket? You can use a lighter-but-longer arm if you're willing to also use a much smaller bucket.
Northern Tool used to sell what looked like a nice little backhoe with Honda engine, but I see it has been discontinued. Do a web search for "towable backhoe" and look at the results. Some units are set up so that you can use the arm to move the unit, while other models have hydraulic motors in 2 wheels with other 2 wheels being swivel.
For small, occasional use, I'd go this route. Would also free up the tractor-loader so that two people could work at the same time, or each machine could be in different areas.
If I were to build a unit from scratch, I'd likely build 2 arms; one lighter-but-longer for digging deeper, and one short-but-stout for digging small stumps, etc.
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