To me you really need to consider all your options and what you plan to do with it before deciding which one will be the best fit. We recently started a project to replace over 200 acres of 40 year old fence. Needless to say, we have some clearing to do and I have been looking at used excavators for a few months now. Not really at mini excavators but rather a small full size machine, something in the 30,000 lbs range. Since my knowledge on excavators is just enough to get me into trouble, I asked a very good friend of mine who has many years of experience working with construction equipment to help me look for one.
From the start he was pushing me toward a 4x4 backhoe (rubber tire as we call them) over an excavator simple for its versatility. I wasn't sold on the idea, but as he pointed out, it won't be as fast as an excavator, but in the long run it will be a better all-around fit for farm use. After looking at several excavators that we both agreed weren't worth the asking price, I ran across a pretty good deal on a Case 580 backhoe (4x4). Still not convinced it was the best idea, I decided to give it a try since I already have a NH SL190 Skid Steer loader (which is a large machine)and I was thinking the two might be a good fit.
So far we have cleared about 3,000 of pretty bad fence and I have to say that I'm impressed with what the 4X4 backhoe will do by itself, but when paired with the SS it really makes things go faster. Now, there's no way it's going to out dig or perform a 30,000 lbs excavator for what we are doing, but when you consider the cost advantage, it does the job nicely. It was also really nice that I could just drive it down the road to complete a few small jobs that I wanted to do and drive it back within an hour.
I still would like to have a small excavator and if the right one at the right price where to come my way I would jump on it, but I don't think the backhoe is going anywhere. I'm satisfied.
Your friend was a good resource to use it sounds like.
We picked up a bit smaller 24" hoe and 7.5' FEL) 1983 JD 310B 2WD backhoe in 2010. It starts and runs fine without using engine oil but both ends have a lot of wear so we just keep it greased up.
The more I use it the more I realize it can do. It does require some brain power/forethought often.
The lot our church sets on is in a location that is becoming swap due to beavers, drainage stoppage and rising water table (has to add a foot to the 4" well casing because water started flowing over the top with no power to the well).
The guy that owns the land on two sides ditched about 10 years on both sides that dried up the church propery but they were about filled in and since he lets the church keep the field behind the church mowed to be used as a playground I offered to clean them out.
I learned working from 90 degrees was about as fast as digging in a straight line but if one reaches a lot the banks can have a saw tooth look.
Like Ken I ran I a what to do with the dirt issue to get finished. The last dig was along the road that is about 12' wide and I had to dig from the road with no where to pile the dirt other than in the road then there was not way to load it on the truck so I just loaded it directly onto the very high F700 16' flat woooden bed dump truck with 30" sides.
This saved a mess at best and saved a lot of time/energy as well. Another plus was my 14 year old son learned to move it forward and backwards on the fly because it was too much climbing for me to do every 10'.
After we got 6-10 ton loaded (water logged clay) we would dump it and go again. I found by lifting the rear tires around 15" with the fronts on the ground I could get the hoe bucket like 36" higher when fully extended but that it was not necessary to clear the 30" sides.
The backhoe cost $7200 and the Ford F700 with 16' flat dump cost $2800 so I have $11K in the set just as a reference.
An $11K track hoe could dig faster I am sure but I can move dirt 20 miles much faster with my $11K solution.
Actually my real task is moving a hill 1000' up to the house to build a large level pad for a shop. The fill will be as deep as 18' in a few places and I will be doing some filling to cover stumps and other rough places on a hillside so we can make the back yard about 60' deeper into the woods.
Yes most every day I am working the backhoe I think of the things a trackhow would do faster.
Adding four chain on FEL forks and the thumb on the hoe means the BH is seeing a lot more hours.
