This is a great point. I guess my only real tasks in mind for the backhoe are stump removal and french drains. But maybe it makes sense to queue up a lot of stumps and have some real machinery do the job. And maybe the same for the drains. Are there some bucket or hitch attachments that help with this? I see a spade for the loader but that is probably slow. Maybe some sort of plow for the hitch?
From the list of things you say you want to do with your new compact tractor, it sounds to me like you might be doing a lot of backhoe work much like we do. A backhoe is a dandy landscaping tool even when you aren't digging. In fact, you might be looking for a TLB instead of a tractor with a backhoe. Here's a primer on TLBs vs Tractors with FELs & Backhoes for the next time you talk with a salesman at the dealership.
A compact TLB is very similar to a compact farm tractor, but it is more oriented to rural construction and landscaping instead of being agriculatural oriented.
Oh, back to the backhoe... not everyone wants one but for us it is important to have the backhoe handy all the time, because we use it more than any other implement on our property, but to our surprise it does very little digging. It is mostly used for picking heavy things up and placing them somewhere. Sort of a mobile crane instead of using our aging bodies... Stacking logs, placing machinery, or rocks, doing landscaping, building rock walls... yes, digging ditches too, but more often just planting a tree or lifting something heavy like a machine tool aor a tree to be planted into or out of the barn or pickup truck. With the thumb on the backhoe odd shapes can be grasped.
Compact tractors and compact TLBs look very similar, and both can do the same job. But they do those jobs a little differently.
For instance, the compact tractor has lighter weight because in mowing and some farming it is important that they don't sink into soft soil.
The compact TLB is more likely to be digging and carrying heavier loads on rough ground, so it is both heavier and more strongly built.
On a TLB, the backhoe is rigidly mounted and mounted to the back. It quick-disconnects and an optional 3pt hitch is mounted when you want to run other implements.
On a tractor, the 3pt hitch is the normal thing mounted to the back and implements are mounted to that. A backhoe is one of those implements that can be mounted either to the 3pt hitch or preferably to a special subframe that remains on the tractor.
Unfortunately Kubota is the only company making a compact TLBs right now. But they do make a very good one. The comparable model to the Kubota L2501 with a backhoe that you looked at would be the Kubota B26 which comes with a backhoe and is also 25hp and has a 3 speed HST. Look around on TBN to see how people like them.
Both tractors and TLBs are 4wd, have the same engine, similar transmissions, both have PTOs, and roughly equal front end loaders. If you look closely at how they are built - again compare Kubota's L2501 to their B26 - you will notice that a TLB frame and attachments have a construction heritage rather than agricultural heritage.
The extra beef in the TLB comes at a price; TLBs are more expensive than tractors - although by the time you add a backhoe to a tractor they are pretty close in price.
Both will do a lot of the same jobs; the difference is in the type of job they were designed to do most of the time.
rScotty
