Buying Advice Trading mini excavator for J.D. 770. Wise choice?

[New England Tractoring]

Hello everyone. This is my first post and probably going to be the most important one I make on here. I have a 1996 Yanmar B50 mini excavator with a thumb and blade. It's in good shape with 4700 hrs on it. I am currently using it to do misc yard jobs at my dad's estate. My time of cleaning up is winding down and believe I would now have more use for a tractor with a front end loader type set up.

I put my Yanmar on Craigslist for trade for a compact tractor. Someone is offering me their 1997 John Deere 770 with 650 hours on it for my B50. This is what the person said in their email to me, "Comes with a model 70 loader and Jd 5' grader, 4' bush hog, weight box, tire chains etc, only 650 hrs on it, everything works well, no backhoe though"

The person is asking $10,000 for the machine and is offering to give me "some" cash in addition to it. Let's say their 770 and $2500 for my B50, would that be ok? I'm not quite familiar with JD tractors. Is this a good trade? I've only ever been around excavators and a friend of mine has a Kabota compact.

Also, I would really like to have a backhoe attachment, is this a decent enough size of a machine to be able to attach one to it? What is the average price of a good used attachment? And finally, would it be a difficult mounting process if it has never had a backhoe attachment before?

Thank you all very much!

 

[MHarryE]

I bought this farm, a 40 that is part of the farm on which I grew up. Then I moved to Europe for several years. When I returned I went shopping for a skid steer and came home with a tractor intending to put a backhoe on it in the future. When that time came we went backhoe shopping and were astounded on how dear everyone valued them. Time to go to Machinery Trader. We found a used mini-excavator in excellent condition for 30% more than the backhoe attachment, and having the money available, we bought it. Wisest purchase ever. Thinking back over the past 4 years I don't know how I could have managed without the pair. Well, that's not completely true because we would always figure out a way or just not do the job. Maybe our place is a lot different than yours. If we want to go salvage rusty junk there is no fear of punctures with the tracks. The mini of course can swivel 360 which comes in useful - well, you know since you have one. Never saw anything close in a backhoe. Are you sure you want to lose the benefits of a mini once you have had one? Of course money is always the kicker.

 

[Vicen]

Yea, if you don't need the extra money i will stay with the mini. You can allways compare the price with some classifieds sites like this with mini excavator for sale and see for yourself if it would be a good tradeoff. Mini is more flexible in my opinion.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Hello everyone. This is my first post and probably going to be the most important one I make on here. I have a 1996 Yanmar B50 mini excavator with a thumb and blade. It's in good shape with 4700 hrs on it. I am currently using it to do misc yard jobs at my dad's estate. My time of cleaning up is winding down and believe I would now have more use for a tractor with a front end loader type set up.

I put my Yanmar on Craigslist for trade for a compact tractor. Someone is offering me their 1997 John Deere 770 with 650 hours on it for my B50. This is what the person said in their email to me, "Comes with a model 70 loader and Jd 5' grader, 4' bush hog, weight box, tire chains etc, only 650 hrs on it, everything works well, no backhoe though"

The person is asking $10,000 for the machine and is offering to give me "some" cash in addition to it. Let's say their 770 and $2500 for my B50, would that be ok? I'm not quite familiar with JD tractors. Is this a good trade? I've only ever been around excavators and a friend of mine has a Kabota compact.

Also, I would really like to have a backhoe attachment, is this a decent enough size of a machine to be able to attach one to it? What is the average price of a good used attachment? And finally, would it be a difficult mounting process if it has never had a backhoe attachment before?

Thank you all very much!

Take a look at used tractors on TRACTORHOUSE.COM for and idea of asking prices for used and new tractors. Remember that these listing may not be the actual selling prices but can give you an idea of the starting prices nationally of tractors, equipment and maybe an excavator.
I wouldn't plan on putting on a backhoe on any used tractor. Just finding one to fit would be a miracle and modifying one not designed for the tractor would be an iffy thing to do to get it right so it doesn't harm the tractor. Used back hoes will be priced at $5K or more with new being only about $7500 or so which is likely more than the tractor is worth and wont be nearly as useful as your current mini-X. If you can afford it, I would keep the X and look for a tractor with FEL and just buy it outright. There seems to always be recurring things that require a backhoe

 

[racerboy832]

I am in the opposite boat. I want to trade my backhoe for a mini. The problem is the backhoe is so darn useful.