BUYING KUBOTA BH 92 Vs HIRING/BUYING mini EXCAVATOR

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM AUSTRA]

Anyone have any comments on durability and performance of the Kubota BH 92 as fair as work it does against service or breakdown costs and Buying or hiring a mini excavator. But also very interested in comments of performance of the BH 92 on say an L5740

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM AUSTRA]

Comments on the Kubota BH 77 would be handy too.

[nybirdman]

A mini-ex would be twice as fast as a BH.A friend just purchased a Kubota mini;amazing machine but also $48,000 new.

[swick1]

Mini ex is 4x faster and the backfill blade is priceless. If you work in tight quarters rent a mini ex for a month. If not buy yourself a backhoe.

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM AUSTRA]

thanks for your post Swick1 but is a Kubota BH92 a reliable piece of equipment...? i once hired a mini machine and the the bh arm bent and hire comapny wanted me to pay for it after only doing light digging...

so i have become very wary of bh equipment purchase. not many people seem to comment on bh's on TBN...any special reason?

[rswyan]

I can't comment on the BH 92 or that size machine (I have a B2910 with a BL 4690 backhoe), but I can say that with a mini-ex (of comparable size to my backhoe) that it is far, far faster .... and I can do certain things - like crossing an open trench and then pivoting to straddle it .... or straddling an open trench and then pivoting to leave it - that I would never consider doing with my B2910 and it's hoe.

Day before yesterday I was straddling an open trench with a Kubota U17 (7 1/2' mini-ex), working backwards, cleaning up the bottom and the spoil that had fallen in .... and I got a little sloppy backing up and got the right track a little too close to the edge .... and down it started to go ....

I was able to use the machine to pick itself up and pull the track out of the trench, and re-center and continue on ....

Definitely a little bit of a "pucker" moment ....

[swick1]

Idont know about that backhoe but my 1026r backhoe is definitely built stronger than the bx25 hoe. That was a big reason I got the Jd instead of Kubota. I have over 50 hrs on it doing commercial work and maybe 35 personal use with a welded on thumb and it still works great. That being said I rent a mini ex on about 1/3 of my jobs.

[crazyangel]

In my neck of the woods I can rent a mini-ex at pretty affordable rate. The math works out that I need 200 hrs of straight backhoe time before I start saving money over the rental. That is a lot of digging time; certainly more than I expect to be doing. I also have the benefit of saving up my digging work into weekend clusters since it is all at one location. So for my money, the rental makes the most sense.

[swick1]

In my neck of the woods I can rent a mini-ex at pretty affordable rate. The math works out that I need 200 hrs of straight backhoe time before I start saving money over the rental. That is a lot of digging time; certainly more than I expect to be doing. I also have the benefit of saving up my digging work into weekend clusters since it is all at one location. So for my money, the rental makes the most sense.

Lol! More like 400 hrs when you think about needing different sized excavators for different tasks. That said, I really like my backhoe. It beats a shovel!

[crazyangel]

I really like my backhoe. It beats a shovel!

You're right about that! I sure wouldn't turn away a backhoe if it were in my budget