I wish.. stronger bh for 4x20...

[AKfish]

Good work, Tom. (Or good work 4520..) How 'bout a pic or three?

Yup, there's quite a few older construction hoes out there; and they're priced real good at this time.

A bit of a crap shoot and fixin' one can even make JD parts look cheap....!! But if you're a hobby farmer (me..) or a small landowner - not having the 3pt makes it a non-starter.

AKfish

 

[Cidertom]

2 more for your viewing pleasure. The house feed with a pipe being lowered in place, and the barn feed with the child unit digging out a chunk of steel from the dirt bank. House is 60 ft the barn feed is the rest. Next is building the vaults then finishing the genshed. following that is the conduits and pipes being installed in the culverts.

If the culverts were heavier, I would have to use the FEL. But that would take at least another person. From the BH seat, I can see into the hole enough to position the pipes myself.

The good pix are still in film format for inclusion in the record book I am putting together for future owners (and myself... now where did I bury???)

TEW

 

[JiminGa]

well, I take it back, I thought they had a backhoe for this machine but I guess I was wrong...

210LJ Landscape Loader from John Deere

 

[jgrreed]

Hey Guys,

What Woods model is suitable for a 4720?? Does anyone know what a guy pays for one, with a thumb??

Thanks,

-Jer.

 

[jgrreed]

Hey Guys,

What Woods model is suitable for a 4720?? Does anyone know what a guy pays for one, with a thumb??

Thanks,

-Jer.

Anybody?? Buhler??

I'm really tempted to add a BH, but the cost....!!!! Just wondering what other options are out there other than JD's 448.

Thanks,

-J.

 

[sweetjeep]

Jgrred:

Don't. Buy a second, small construction grade tractor. The JD 440 backhoe is probably lovely for what it's designed for, but it's small and weak. Same with anything smaller than a Woods 9x. They are cute and WILDLY over priced!

My dad has a Woods 8x (whatever the current 8 footer is). It's perfectly comparable to the JD and, frankly, it's good for little more than ballast and light/landscape type work. Or very close and precise work.

I have also used a Woods 9x (whatever the model might be) and it is very significantly better and bigger, but also more pricey. It's also likely too large for most of the CUTs. I was shopping for one for my 4720.

It was going to cost me just south of $15k to get one (Woods or JD). The solution was I bought an old Case 580ck. It's in generally great shape. 24' extendahoe backhoe, hydrostat drive, diesel, all the bells and whistles that a 1972 rig would come with (you know, like a seat ). For the grand total of $7000. It was a no brainer to me. I got 20x the hoe, a second tractor and paid less than half price. I may have to do a little more maintinence, but that's a very small price to pay.

 

[AKfish]

I tend to agree with sweetjeep's comments - the hoe's are very pricey for what you get. But, I think the 448 or the newer, 485 can be had for ~$7,500 (MSRP list is just over $8K). I would also be greatly surprised if the Wood's were priced very much less than the JD units - maybe a couple hundred difference - most likely.

That said, (and this has been discussed extensively here on TBN) you need to be aware of the lurking "black holes" that you can fall into with used construction equipment.

Big machine, big parts, BIG cost to replace or repair. sweetjeep fell into a good deal from the sound of things. But there are many cases where the exact opposite has occured - Black hole - to throw money into. If the hydro tranny on the 580 goes or the engine is hosed; bet you're lookin' at $5K for each - unless you can do all the work yourself - and then you might save yourself half of that $10,000 bill.

If you know the owner/operator of the equipment and have a pretty good idea of how well the machine has been maintained, etc. you can make out real well picking up some "big iron"; especially in today's construction climate. But like the Roman's said - Caveat emptor. Buyer beware.

AKfish

 

[2YD]

My 485 was $7200.
Would not have bought it separately but b/c I was buying a new tractor at the time I put it all into the package at one time.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I wouldnt have minded a hoe for my 3520, but like has been said before, its just a nice looking package more then anything...what my "plan" is....find a nice used Mini-Ex....SWMBO would never let me come home with a full sized machine, no matter how cheap I got it.... Plus 2 machines are better then one!

 

[Cidertom]

Interesting turn the thread has taken. I will give my reasons for my purchase of the 448. I want one power plant to maintain. There is no doubt that with todays market you can latch onto a construction hoe reasonably. If I was using the hoe once a week I probably would have gone that route. But why take up that much more yard space, have another engine to maintain and the issues surrounding a used machine.

I still think that the 4x20 could carry a larger hoe than the 448.

You can't get much simpler than the mounting arangement JD has with the rock shaft mounting. I'm down to under 5 minutes for either mount or dismount including the 3 pt arms. I've operated 3pt mounted hoes. No matter how much I tried to tighten them up, the linkage moved way too much and shock loads the whole tractor.

Have I had issues?