Never an excavator, but I ran a Case 450 crawler TLB all around and dug with the hoe at 9 back in '05. That thing was great, we'd still have it if the backhoe wasn't stolen. We disconnected it for a week or so on the other side of the property. Then, as I was dirk biking, I noticed it wasn't there. I talked to Dad about it. But when we investigated more, we noticed that whoever took it left their plywood there. 4,500lbs of wheeless, bulky, metal-STOLEN. We asked a scrapper what whoever took it could've gotten for it. He said around $400-500. We lost $8k. Bought it for $12,500 as TLB. Sold it for $4,500 as just a loader.
Kyle