B and L series bh operators

Casco1 · Apr 9, 2013

I will never get the use out of my BH to have it pay for itself, but as an earlier poster stated having it there when I need it, to do what I want is invaluable. One of the best things having a TLB is finding new uses for it. I've used mine for a multitude of things not in the manual, but made my life easier. I'm posting two pics of my BH and loader with stuff I added to help me. On the loader beside the slip and chain hooks notice the 2" receiver in the center I have a ball hitch with an 18" drop that I use to move my trailers around. Using the TLB I can turn on a dime and place my trailers where I never could with a tow vehicle, which is a big help when hauling debris, fill or just parking them where they can't be seen. The second pic is a set of chain hooks on the BH buckets that I use to crane items and lift things. The manual says not to do this but I figure it's my machine and I'll use it to help me. Common sense goes a long way. Good luck and much success with your machine.

kootenai · Apr 9, 2013

Our local rental place has an excavator (granted it is three times the machine as a b or l series) renting for 260 a day and a trailer fee of 120 rt. Those figures quickly add up and help justify having one on hand. 4 uses and I will have wished I had bought my own bh. At worse, I figure I can use the bh for a few years and still turn around and sell it for 4 k.
Like others, the self sufficiency, convenience, and preservation of my lumbar function all have a value that is hard to enumerate. For me, it will be used to level out a pad for a shop, holding logs for sawing, building Swales in the pasture, diverting water, planting trees, building raised beds (hugelkulture). It's kind of like having a couple of strong teenagers on hand.

Gary Fowler · Apr 9, 2013

Carl_NH said:
No disagreement at all PapaPerk, likely 20 8 hour days at $250 a day average. Can get a lot of work done in 150-160 rental hours and put the wear and tear on someone else's machine. But it's on thier time and you need to plan

I have used my BH for maybe 150 hours total in 12 years, but nearly every time it I use the tractor I use the BH for 10 min or 30 minutes at one time from spring to fall and it has saved countless hours and improved the utility of the machine.

I think it depends on your location, and anywhere it snows, there are more hoes, and a lot of that is due to glacial till, the rocks and stuff left behind - it's really tough digging in New England areas so a BH is a necessity for most jobs.

Carl

I can second this in it's entirety. I have used mine over 130 hours in the 8 months that I have had it. The first thing I did was put in about 200 more feet of sprinkler system for myself then dug the trenchs to put in two more water hydrants for my brother in law, dug out the edges of one of the ponds that had filled in, dug a couple of grave for some dead animals, dug up hundreds of rocks that grow every winter here, dug up hundreds of sweet gum saplings from a thicket and used the hydraulic thumb to drag out the trees and pile them up.
In just the last 3 days I have used it to plant 4 new fruit trees which I wouldn't have been able to dig into the ground with a shovel here due to all the rocks, used it to transplant some raspberry vines then till up the spot where the vines were so wife could plant some flowers there (beat dragging out the tiller), I also used the back hoe like a crane to lift and move around some heavy items that I put together to make a pasture drag (48" combine throat drag chain and heavy pipe gate frame neither of which I could lift by hand), then dug a trench in one of the creek dams to install a overflow pipe.
Most of these chores only took a few minutes to a couple of hours and never would I have been able to justify renting a hoe for this work. That is the beauty of owning your own equipment, you can do those small jobs in a few minutes compared to several hours or days of heavy back breaking hand digging. I am way too old to hand dig so in my case the chores likely wouldn't have ever gotten done.

Gary Fowler · Apr 9, 2013

I almost forgot that just about every time I mow the yard I find another few rocks that have surfaced, sometimes they are small and can be pried out with a small pry bar but many, many times it is just the tip of a very large rock that has worked it way to the top and then is where the back hoe is handy. It may be just one scoop to dig it out or it could end up being a 6 foot diameter hole with many large and small rocks taken out as they seem to congregate and multiply around here. So having the BH here all the time enables me to get these out before I forget about them and end up damaging the lawnmower because what you cleared without hitting this week doesn't mean you will not hit it later as they continue to rise from the ground.
I also use my BH all the time to remove scrub brush here and there and dig out the sawbriar roots from thicket areas. Those things have massive root systems that would take days to dig by hand but only minutes to remove them with the backhoe. If left unchecked they multiply rapidly and are have some nasty thorns on them.

andrehoude · Apr 9, 2013

I have a Kubota l45 we recently got 300 acres in northern quebec and really put it to the test we made a road took out some really big stumps and played with even bigger rocks and got stuck in mud

backhoes are great just because the versatility you have and don't forget when you buy a smaller one in the future you'll always want it bigger so start by biting the bluet at first

Here's a pick of me moving a pic rock

JOHNTHOMAS · Apr 9, 2013

Brought my B2320 FEL BH home yesterday. First I determined that my Brother next door had HUGH rocks that had little tops sticking up and were best to leave alone. Moved 3 semi large rocks for him with FEL to locations he wanted for landscaping. Dug 4" deep trenches the width of the BH bucket down both sides of his drive way so he canfill with decorative pebals. Moved 3 small fruit trees that I had planted last year and got them to close to each other. Racked up a bunch of Blackberry cuttings with the RatchetRake on the FEL and dug 4 holes for Pecan trees that are coming from Nolin River Trees in Western Ky.
Today the 4 pecan trees came and had bare rooted tap root that was over 2 feet long. Redug holes deeper, planted trees and reclaimed some top soil from an old garden to add to the 4 holes where I planted the 4 pecan trees.
I don't know if a BH is worth the money but I sure wish I had bought one sooner. I had a BX25 for a couple of years and replaced it with a B2620 FEL BH so have to have a BH because I dig holes.
I bought Lowes clearance trees and shrubs one year and would have never done it if I didn't have the BH. I also don't want to schedule when to rent equipment around several jobs I've had to wait to do till I rent equipment.
Brother also gave me $100 for doing his work.
It's not about money for me it's about convenience and not having one for 6 out of my 9 years owning tractors for home landscaping, I will always have a BH now and should have had one sooner.

bandit67 · Apr 9, 2013

kootenai said:
I am new to backhoe ops. With the relative limitations of a bh on these models, what projects do you/ have you done?

This was my B3030's BH75 at work...needed more driveway space. I started with a full size New Holland TLB rental before I settled on the new Kubota on my new property, but even with the big bucket, the NH still took forever to chip through the decomposed granite. That project thoroughly impressed me as far as the capabilities of that little backhoe. After that, digging in dirt/soil was like digging through butter. They are slower due to the limited hyd pump flow, but they are very, very handy tools to have in a non-commercial setting.