Another backhoe question

[murraya8922]

I know the "backhoe or not" subject has been discussed many times here. I have read many of the threads. Love all the knowledge here. I seem to read either:
-Everyone is crazy, mine is great
-Waste of money overall

My question is... if I don't expect the BH to be a mini-ex, and I do my projects SLOWLY and CAREFULLY, couldn't I get a lot done?? Manage expectations, but still:
-Dig trenches for power/water lines
-SLOWLY dig stumps
-Little by little pond
-Little by little root cellar
-Footings for barn/house/shop foundation

I have 6.4 acres of heavily wooded raw land that I will be making into a full time homestead from scratch myself. So the BH would get a huge amount of work.
I am buying a Branson 4820H in March. I was quoted $7,500 for the BH. Ballpark an extra $90/month on the loan payment. In my area, a mini ex for a weekend (still work full time, mostly remotely) is ballpark $400 for the weekend. So, about 19 rentals.

If the BH is CAPEABLE of doing things WITH TIME, I would 100% rather take the time and do my projects right, than rent and rush. Not to mention I work on call all over the country, so even scheduling rental is very difficult.

So I guess my main question is: Is a Branson BH250 actually useful when used correctly and personally (no commercial, so length of projects if more or less irrelevant) or would I be better off with a shovel?

Thank you all.

 

[K5lwq]

I think you will find it useful but I would not want to dig a pond with one. Nice choice on the tractor though!

 

[Robert_M]

I wouldn’t want a tractor without one. Its all what you need/want.

 

[murraya8922]

I think you will find it useful but I would not want to dig a pond with one. Nice choice on the tractor though!

I can see what you mean about the pond. Definitely not ideal, ha. I was thinking of kind of straddling the area and digging as far as I could from each direction. Making a ramp with the loader down into the dug area and dig the sides out/deeper. Little by little! More of project than a necessity.
Thank you for your response.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have a 1998 New Holland 555E full sized loader/backhoe. In my opinion, it is the best single machine for clearing the land and moving dirt. It's not the best at anything, but it is the only machine that does it all. At 80hp, it's a little underpowered for the bigger trees. A lot of the time, I have to cut the trees into smaller lengths to move them to the burn pile. I haven't found a tree that's too big to take down, but it's also borderline for some of the bigger trees.

My neighbor has a newer, bigger, more powerful backhoe then mine. He can lift more with his, but he still has to cut some trees up to get them to the burn pile. He has more land then me, and he has more money then me. A lot of the time he hires an excavator to take out trees on his place. An 8 ton excavator is night and day better at clearing the land then my full sized backhoe. It's not even close at how much faster it is.

I've only seen a few 3pt backhoes on ag tractors, and they all seemed better then nothing. The people that owned them all had good things to say about them, but they also said that they are very limited in what they can do. I've never operated a 3pt backhoe.

In my opinion, for what you are going to be doing, I think you would get a lot more done, a lot faster and safer, if you rented an excavator and used a grapple on the tractor to clean up the debris. When you need to dig footings for your buildings, an excavator is also night and day better then a backhoe. When you dig footings, you want to have the forms set, and it is impossible to use a backhoe to dig along forms because of the tires and outriggers.

When you are done with the excavator, you will be able to sell it for what you paid for it if you take care of it. Used equipment rarely depreciates. You cannot say that about the 3pt backhoe attachment. It will never be worth what you paid for it.

 

[Carl_NH]

A BH on a tractor is invaluable as a tool for maintaining your property and strongly suggest getting a grapple on the loader for cleaning and clearing up debris from stumping your property.

But as Eddie states, get an excavator for the big work - a 30-40K machine (15-20 ton) rents for $5-6K per month and you can get a lot done in that time. You can find these size machines with 4-5000 hours for under $40K then sell it when you finish your projects.

Then it depends on your location, ground, and rocks or is it sandy soil (means easy digging)?

 

[murraya8922]

I have a 1998 New Holland 555E full sized loader/backhoe. In my opinion, it is the best single machine for clearing the land and moving dirt. It's not the best at anything, but it is the only machine that does it all. At 80hp, it's a little underpowered for the bigger trees. A lot of the time, I have to cut the trees into smaller lengths to move them to the burn pile. I haven't found a tree that's too big to take down, but it's also borderline for some of the bigger trees.

My neighbor has a newer, bigger, more powerful backhoe then mine. He can lift more with his, but he still has to cut some trees up to get them to the burn pile. He has more land then me, and he has more money then me. A lot of the time he hires an excavator to take out trees on his place. An 8 ton excavator is night and day better at clearing the land then my full sized backhoe. It's not even close at how much faster it is.

I've only seen a few 3pt backhoes on ag tractors, and they all seemed better then nothing. The people that owned them all had good things to say about them, but they also said that they are very limited in what they can do. I've never operated a 3pt backhoe.

In my opinion, for what you are going to be doing, I think you would get a lot more done, a lot faster and safer, if you rented an excavator and used a grapple on the tractor to clean up the debris. When you need to dig footings for your buildings, an excavator is also night and day better then a backhoe. When you dig footings, you want to have the forms set, and it is impossible to use a backhoe to dig along forms because of the tires and outriggers.

When you are done with the excavator, you will be able to sell it for what you paid for it if you take care of it. Used equipment rarely depreciates. You cannot say that about the 3pt backhoe attachment. It will never be worth what you paid for it.

I appreciate such a long response! Several good points.

I was a heavy equipment operator for about 6 years, and I agree 100% with you! An excavator, tracked skid steer, or a true backhoe are all better options, no question. Closed thing I could "afford" that could do more than one task was a TLB. I priced out a Kubota L47 TLB at about $60,000 MSRP. Would be such an amazing machine to have, but that is serious $$$. Also, I am trying to Swiss Army knife things a bit. I really will need the 3 point for my brush hog and tiller in the future. Kind of a goldilocks machine, but nearly double the price without the grapple.

I was quoted $39,700 for:
- Branson 4820H
- Loader
- 72" Grapple and 3rd function
- 72" Landscape rake
- 4k Pallet forks
- Auger
- 72" Tiller
- 72" Brush hog

Very much a Swiss Army knife type set up. I'll really have to consider clearing what I can, and saving the excavator tasks up until I know I have a free weekend to rent one.

Very very good point about the footings. I didn't even think about that.

 

[murraya8922]

A BH on a tractor is invaluable as a tool for maintaining your property and strongly suggest getting a grapple on the loader for cleaning and clearing up debris from stumping your property.

But as Eddie states, get an excavator for the big work - a 30-40K machine (15-20 ton) rents for $5-6K per month and you can get a lot done in that time. You can find these size machines with 4-5000 hours for under $40K then sell it when you finish your projects.

Then it depends on your location, ground, and rocks or is it sandy soil (means easy digging)?

Good to hear. And as my land was logged about 8 years ago, I am 100% getting the grapple. I've got more debris than you can imagine! Will help a ton getting it piled up.

Ah, I had never thought about buying one and selling it! I'll so some searching. As for renting one for a longer time, I do not disagree at all. But I work oil/gas on call. They are really good about my schedule compared to my last company, but I still get emergency calls. Sometimes it's one really long (35 hour?? haha) "day", sometimes its over a week. Or scheduled things like now, where it's a month. So I don't want to get bit renting something and not being able to use it. I tanked $4k on my other property for just such a reason with a bulldozer. Rental PTSD haha. But seriously, that stung.

Soil (as far as I can tell with a spade in a few spots) it's actually decent! A little red clay, but not a bunch, and nearly rock free. I shall see when I get a few feet deep though.

 

[loggin]

All good information here!! I would also like to point out that it depends on the type of footing you are intending to dig. Shop and barn footings are usually quite shallow and typically do not require a large machine. However if you are needing to dig past a frost line then a bigger machine becomes more important especially if you have hard soil and or large rocks. You never know whats lurking below until you get in there.

Having said that I really appreciate my backhoe on the back of my tractor and would not want to be without one again. I don't use it that often but when I do it's there. Having another machine to maintain while it just mostly sits is another consideration. Then again having another machine to work on the broken down one is also handy. Oh boy, this could go on forever.....

Good luck with your decision making!! I know it's not always easy...

 

[Stonehaller]

I was clearing land as a weekend warrior and was very glad to have my own TLB rather than trying to arrange rentals. You will not regret having a backhoe even after your clearing work is done.

With the size tractor you are getting, you may want to consider an 84" land scape rake rather 72". Gage wheels for the land scape rake help immensely for finish grading. I did a lot of finish grading work with a box blade and land scape rake. Eventually, I got a good deal on a used Harley rake and never used the land scape rake again.