For working on the farm and doing what you want, any of the name brands will get it done. They are all in the 80hp range, which is plenty for digging dirt, taking out trees and stumps, as well as trenching. I think the backhoe is the ultimate do everything machine and if I only had one tractor, that's what it would be. I made the mistake of buying 2wd and a standard bucket. I can't do anything on muddy days, and in winter, that might take most of a week until I can get around to do anything. What really sucks is that the ground might be mostly dry, but sure as heck, I'll find that wet spot and get stuck. To say it's frustrating wouldn't even come close. Another advantage to 4wd would be how much easier it is to getting a full load of dirt in the front bucket. After my dirt piles have sat awhile, maybe a few months, they are too compacted to get a full load by just scooping them up. I have to break them up with the backhoe first.
The 4in1 bucket would be a huge time saver if you plan on removing or clearing any brush or trees. Without it, I have to wrap a chain around everything that I take out and drag it to the burn pile. Then I have to take the chain off, get back on the tractor and push, scoop the tree/brush onto the burn pile. It doesn't take long to add a bunch of dirt to the pile doing it this way. With the 4in1 bucket, you just pick up what you have taken out, drive it to the burn pile and put it on top of the fire or coals. It will burn real clean and fast this way too!!!!!
A cab would be nice, but that's a big expense for comfort that you probably don't want to spend with your budget.
With a limited choice of dealers in your area, those are the only brands to look at. It really doesn't matter how cheap something may be, it's too expensive to own it if you can't get parts for it, or have to spend all day driving back and forth to get those parts. Resale on a well maintained backhoe is going to be close to what you paid for it, no matter the brand. Cat seems to hold the higher end of the price range, but if you pay $20,000 for a Case, NH, or Deere, it will sell close to that amount minus the hours on it. The key here is how well you maintain it.
Look for those two features and find the tractor with the lowest hours on it that you can. Things start to fail on them at 3,000 hours, so allot of commercial and rental yards get rid of their machines before they get to this point. They can't make any money on a machine that's not out working.
The things that will fail first are usualy the hydraulic seals on your cylinders. They have a limited life span and there's nothing you can do to prolong this. When it's time, they fail. Learn how to rebuild them yourself. It's a pain, like everything else, but with all the cylinders on a backhoe, it's a huge amount of money to have somebody else do it for you. On the biggest cylinder for my backhoe, I rebuilt it while still in place. It was just too heavy to pick up and work on in my shop. You will need a few special tools, but they are not complicated to work on, just awkward and painful. LOL
I have a 98 NH 555E, and they started selling a replacement piston for their cylinders a few years ago. If you buy the rebuild kit for the cylinder, you have to buy the new piston for it too. The kits run around $50 each and the pitons are in the $200 range. The parts guy told me that I could just get the stuff to rebuild my piston at a shop that specializes in cylinder rebuilds, which has saved me hundreds of dollars. Maybe more. He sells me just what I need to rebuild my cylinders and I'm usualy out the door for $20 this way.
Since cylinders and hoses fail all the time, don't waste any effort on them when buying. Use them as a way to get the price down, but don't let a leaking one deter you from buying a machine.
Bushing and pins are another thing. If you have one that's worn, it can be very dificult and expensive to get it fixed. It just depends on the tractor that you are looking at. Some are simple replacements, others have to be machined. Talk to the parts guy of the brand you are considering and see if they sell replacement parts that you can do yourself. If not, shy away from that machine as this is something that can shut you down and cause allot of grief.
Most all of them have pretty good engines. If it starts right up, doesn't have any smoke and runs smooth, you are probably alright. Drive it around and make sure it runs good. A transmission issue would be very expensive to fix and something to avoid.
When negotiating, be sure to include delivery as part of the deal, and only pay for it after it's been delivered. If they won't do that, walk away. Finding a company to do this for you and then paying them for it can be expensive. Most backhoes around my area of the country are hauled with a one ton pickup truck with a gooseneck trailer.
If you don't already know a set of backhoe controls, it doesn't really matter what you get, as it's what you will learn and become comfortable with. I think there are four different patters, so it's just up to which brand you buy. The joystick controls are nice, less fatige and easier to use, but when they go out, very expensive to replace. I've heard numbers of several thousand dollars for just the control panel on a Cat backhoe that a guy had to get fixed when his stoped working.
Machinery Trader has allot of stuff listed all the time, but usually it's all top dollar. I go there and find out where all the local used dealers are and then either look up their websites, or their address and phone number. They don't always advertise everything on Machinery Trader, so it's worthwhile to contact them to see what they have.
Good luck,
Eddie
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