We have some undeveloped acreage that we would like to start preparing for an eventual house build. This acreage is adjacent to my father/mother in-laws acreage, my bil and sil's acreage. All these folks currently live on their acreage and are established in the area. My wife and I are absentee owners of our parcel (about a 3 hr drive from our primary residence). All of the in-laws parcels are connected by a private road that they built when bil and sil built their respective places. This road has the opportunity to be extended to our place as well. In addition we have access of the main road to our parcel is needed as well.
My fil and bil have some equipment we can use in our endeavor - bulldozer, old dump truck, an old MF tractor and an old Jim Brown tractor I think it is. The tractors have various attachments for brush hogging, haying etc. The Jim Brown tractor has a front end loader bucket of decent size. I will be providing some maintenance/repair, paying for fuel, parts and such in exchange for using the equipment.
Our first project will be to put in a boundary fence along the 1200 foot east boundary between our place and the new neighbors (also absentee owners). This will require putting a culvert in a drainage ditch between our place and fil's place, such that we could drive equipment over to our place without having to go out on the highway every time. This will require a bit of backhoe work.
Furthermore, as I think through the rest of the work on the property it occurs to me that there will be a lot of digging/trenching type work to do. We want to reroute some drainage ditches (significant reroute), do some of the digging for the power and septic projects, driveway etc.
That's the background, here is the question. I assume they make backhoe attachments for tractors? I seem to recall that my fil borrowed one when doing some digging years ago with one of his tractors. I also seem to recall the thing was very persnickety in operation and reliability.
I realize it may be cheaper to rent a backhoe but I struggle with this approach given that we are absentee owners and our available time to work on the place comes in spurts. These projects will be drawn out over time as we have time to work on them. We may have time one Saturday to go down for the day, or we may string four days off during the week to go down and work on the place. It seems like renting a backhoe for this sporadic work may not be the way to go.
So... I'm wondering if I should look into buying a used loader/backhoe instead, or if I should look at purchasing a backhoe attachment for one of fil's tractors?
I would of course keep this backhoe down there and all the relatives could use it when needed, just as they are letting me use their stuff. Although, as a practical matter most of my inlaws development work is already done, so I don't think they would have much use for a loader/backhoe. One drawback to this approach is it the loader part of the loader/backhoe would be a duplication of equipment (w/ the jim brown) on the farm overall.
Yet a possible third approach would be for my wife and I to buy our own tractor w/ loader bucket, post hole digger, and backhoe attachment. The advantage to this would be that we would not have to borrow fil's stuff and would be able to use it as we see fit. But again, outside of the backhoe attachment, this would be a duplication of equipment on the farm overall. Plus, when I say we will be piece mealing the development of this property I'm talking over 5 or so years time... In addition, I think fil might be put out by not using some of his equipment. Borrowing stuff has never been a problem.
As far as budget goes, I have no idea what these things cost. While I am handy with tools, welders etc, and my bil is a diesel mechanic by trade, and I don't mind doing some fix-up and repair work. I don't want to get in a situation where the piece of equipment needs so much fixing that I spend more time fixing than actually doing productive work. So.... I guess I have a number between say 6K and 14K in mind, less is of course much better, but I just don't know what any of these options cost.
Sorry for the long post but I thought some background on the situation may be helpful.
So... Backhoe attachment for the old MF or JB tractors (if there is even one available) vs used loader/backhoe vs another tractor/loader/backhoe vs trying to coordinate the rental of said backhoe with our schedules?????
Thanks
Wayne
My fil and bil have some equipment we can use in our endeavor - bulldozer, old dump truck, an old MF tractor and an old Jim Brown tractor I think it is. The tractors have various attachments for brush hogging, haying etc. The Jim Brown tractor has a front end loader bucket of decent size. I will be providing some maintenance/repair, paying for fuel, parts and such in exchange for using the equipment.
Our first project will be to put in a boundary fence along the 1200 foot east boundary between our place and the new neighbors (also absentee owners). This will require putting a culvert in a drainage ditch between our place and fil's place, such that we could drive equipment over to our place without having to go out on the highway every time. This will require a bit of backhoe work.
Furthermore, as I think through the rest of the work on the property it occurs to me that there will be a lot of digging/trenching type work to do. We want to reroute some drainage ditches (significant reroute), do some of the digging for the power and septic projects, driveway etc.
That's the background, here is the question. I assume they make backhoe attachments for tractors? I seem to recall that my fil borrowed one when doing some digging years ago with one of his tractors. I also seem to recall the thing was very persnickety in operation and reliability.
I realize it may be cheaper to rent a backhoe but I struggle with this approach given that we are absentee owners and our available time to work on the place comes in spurts. These projects will be drawn out over time as we have time to work on them. We may have time one Saturday to go down for the day, or we may string four days off during the week to go down and work on the place. It seems like renting a backhoe for this sporadic work may not be the way to go.
So... I'm wondering if I should look into buying a used loader/backhoe instead, or if I should look at purchasing a backhoe attachment for one of fil's tractors?
I would of course keep this backhoe down there and all the relatives could use it when needed, just as they are letting me use their stuff. Although, as a practical matter most of my inlaws development work is already done, so I don't think they would have much use for a loader/backhoe. One drawback to this approach is it the loader part of the loader/backhoe would be a duplication of equipment (w/ the jim brown) on the farm overall.
Yet a possible third approach would be for my wife and I to buy our own tractor w/ loader bucket, post hole digger, and backhoe attachment. The advantage to this would be that we would not have to borrow fil's stuff and would be able to use it as we see fit. But again, outside of the backhoe attachment, this would be a duplication of equipment on the farm overall. Plus, when I say we will be piece mealing the development of this property I'm talking over 5 or so years time... In addition, I think fil might be put out by not using some of his equipment. Borrowing stuff has never been a problem.
As far as budget goes, I have no idea what these things cost. While I am handy with tools, welders etc, and my bil is a diesel mechanic by trade, and I don't mind doing some fix-up and repair work. I don't want to get in a situation where the piece of equipment needs so much fixing that I spend more time fixing than actually doing productive work. So.... I guess I have a number between say 6K and 14K in mind, less is of course much better, but I just don't know what any of these options cost.
Sorry for the long post but I thought some background on the situation may be helpful.
So... Backhoe attachment for the old MF or JB tractors (if there is even one available) vs used loader/backhoe vs another tractor/loader/backhoe vs trying to coordinate the rental of said backhoe with our schedules?????
Thanks
Wayne