Mini excavator/skid steer vs backhoe.

[4570Man]

Yeah I wouldn’t turn it down if offered to me.

I’ve never ran one but I’m not a huge fan. It doesn’t dig any better than a backhoe. It’s not as good of loader as a CTL and you’ve gained the maintenance cost of tracks and lost the speed and low destruction of wheels.

 

[Big Barn]

I’ve never ran one but I’m not a huge fan. It doesn’t dig any better than a backhoe. It’s not as good of loader as a CTL and you’ve gained the maintenance cost of tracks and lost the speed and low destruction of wheels.

I was thinking for around the garden

 

[Will_C]

My brother is a residential excavating contractor. My father had the business before him. Beginning in 1967, my dad and then my brother had Case backhoe-every model of the 580 there was. About 10 years ago my brother bought a Bobcat CTL, and bought a 9 ton excavator about 7 years ago. He kept his backhoe, but the CTL and excavator does 90% of his work, along with a Case 650 bulldozer-prepping new house sites, septic installations, basement excavation, etc. It's about the same with his local competitors-complete shift away from backhoes.

 

[4570Man]

Is a full size backhoe a TLB? They seem more like a LB.

 

[4570Man]

My brother is a residential excavating contractor. My father had the business before him. Beginning in 1967, my dad and then my brother had Case backhoe-every model of the 580 there was. About 10 years ago my brother bought a Bobcat CTL, and bought a 9 ton excavator about 7 years ago. He kept his backhoe, but the CTL and excavator does 90% of his work, along with a Case 650 bulldozer-prepping new house sites, septic installations, basement excavation, etc. It's about the same with his local competitors-complete shift away from backhoes.

That’s a nice setup if you’ve got a truck to haul the excavator and CTL at the same time or are always doing big enough jobs for moving both. For me limited to a truck to haul 1 I’d waste more time hauling the second machine than I stood to gain.

 

[Big Barn]

Is a full size backhoe a TLB? They seem more like a LB.

That’s the terminology I grew up with.

 

[4570Man]

That’s the terminology I grew up with.

I’ve always just heard backhoe. I didn’t hear TLB until I joined here. But they’re not a tractor. They’re not built on a tractor frame, they don’t share much in common. And the backhoe and loader is non removable so they can’t even pretend to be a tractor.

 

[Big Barn]

Same. But they’re not a tractor. They’re not built on a tractor frame, they don’t share much in common. And the backhoe and loader is non removable so they can’t even pretend to be a tractor.

Yeah. I’m not digging it either.

Sorry. I’ve always wanted to say that.

 

[4570Man]

Yeah. I’m not digging it either.

Sorry. I’ve always wanted to say that.

Up until maybe the 80s it wasn’t uncommon for a backhoe to be mostly a converted tractor. But it was a lot different than a backhoe attachment of today. The backhoe and loader was pretty much a self contained unit that the tractor sat in the middle of. And they were construction grade not homeowner toys. Deere made the 210 that had a removable hoe until the late 90s but it was a built from the ground up backhoe not tractor. Today or the last 20 years I don’t think anyone makes a full size backhoe with a removable hoe.

 

[4570Man]

Here’s another pro backhoe moment I saw on Facebook. It’s a trash transfer facility. They dump trash off smaller trucks and dump it in open top semi trailers. They push trash off the edge into the truck with the skid and organize it into the trailers with the mini. The other facility uses a backhoe. The backhoe does the job just as good with one operator, one fuel bill, and one machine payment. The CTL can’t organize the trailer so it’s useless by itself. Using the mini blade would be painfully slow to push. And that facility just opened. Look how many skid marks are on the concrete already. The tracks couldn’t last long doing that.