2010 DS4510HS -- should I buy a backhoe or trade in or rent?
- Thread starter davel8257
- Start date
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ishiboo
Platinum Member
What backhoe did you get and what did you pay? My dealer just quoted $6,450 for the KB2485 for my NX... he said something about a $1000 rebate on the hoes right now?
r0bg
Bronze Member
That’s fair. You get the $1000 off with the purchase of the backhoe with the tractor.
OP
davel8257
Silver Member
1 week later: Back from Florida vacation with grand kids (and a little red) -- today should be delivery day to the house. I have some errands to run, diesel fuel to buy -- and hopefully will get some 'back seat' time this afternoon. Will keep you posted.
OP
davel8257
Silver Member
1 Day Later: backhoe arrived about 2:00 in the afternoon. I added fuel and headed to the back yard. Driving the tractor with the extra 1,000 LBs was less of an issue than I thought it might be. I did snag a tree branch on a trip into the woods -- the extra height is something to keep in mind (and hard to track since it's behind me). I worked on 4 stumps: 2 popped out (rotted roots), the 3rd one took some digging in on 2 sides, the 4rth one is still in the ground. It has large (size of my wrist) roots running in at least 3 directions (that I've found so far). Pulling on the stub, so far has been immovable. The sun was shining in on the jobsite and my Florida sun burn was complaining, so I put it up for the day (don't operate equipment when you are tired!).
More tomorrow . . . .
More tomorrow . . . .
OP
davel8257
Silver Member
1 week later; 5 gal of fuel, 10+ hours on meter: 3 stumps out of the ground, 2 monster stumps still in place but now with motes on 3 or more sides. One stump seems to be made of solid concrete -- tough to even break down through roots (and hard to get at -- it's on a hillside with other trees around it that I don't want to disturb). I've used the bucket to drag and pick up dead tree limbs for sawing up (works pretty well). Also, this this is a great tool to drag out multi-flower rose (aka "thorny weed bushes").
I took the hoe off to do some bush hogging and put it back on. That process went amazingly well. The only rub is that draw hitch seems to have to be off in order to slip subframe into place. I want to do some checking on that. That's a little disappointing.
I'm getting better at reflex movement -- when I first started in -- I had to stop and think about which level to move which way to make the motion that I wanted. Now -- I'm 80% just thinking about moving the bucket and the hands move the levers without much thought to it. That's a lot less tiring (less mental effort).
I found that If I pull both sticks straight back, the bucket follows a straight, level path back toward me. That will come in handy for smoothing out the bottom of trenches or final finish work after cover up is complete.
I'm glad I made the purchase... highly recommended to anyone with landscaping projects.
I took the hoe off to do some bush hogging and put it back on. That process went amazingly well. The only rub is that draw hitch seems to have to be off in order to slip subframe into place. I want to do some checking on that. That's a little disappointing.
I'm getting better at reflex movement -- when I first started in -- I had to stop and think about which level to move which way to make the motion that I wanted. Now -- I'm 80% just thinking about moving the bucket and the hands move the levers without much thought to it. That's a lot less tiring (less mental effort).
I found that If I pull both sticks straight back, the bucket follows a straight, level path back toward me. That will come in handy for smoothing out the bottom of trenches or final finish work after cover up is complete.
I'm glad I made the purchase... highly recommended to anyone with landscaping projects.
OP
davel8257
Silver Member
I tried picking up some large logs with just the bucket and could quite get under them. I had purchased two King Kutter Box grader knives for a different project and got to thinking -- I could buy some steel and make a simple bracket and bolt them onto the boom. When I held one up to the boom -- the holes lined up perfectly. I bought 2 Grade #8 bolts, 6" long, lock washers and nuts and mounted them as shown. I was able to lift the log on the first try. There's no fancy angle adjustments -- I moved it up/down the boom to just mate up with the teeth on the bucket. I think this will come in handy during future trips into the woods.
OP
davel8257
Silver Member
Yesterday, I stopped in at the dealer -- he had ordered a 12" backhoe bucket. We talked about it -- and I decided to buy it from him and keep my 18" bucket. I swapped it out today and headed for the woods. It seems to be be a little bit stronger in breaking up roots -- but that's a little hard to say -- I tackled an older stump and the roots might have been softer (Poplar) and decayed. In about an hour, I had a stump out of the ground (shown) and headed to the burn pile. Cycle times were a little quicker, as I'm not lifting nearly as much heavy clay out of the ground with each dip (and the bucket weighs less). 
