I have been in situations in the past where I have made decisions like this on a very tight schedule and in that haste made the wrong choice. Not necessarily for high ticket items like this, but for smaller equipment.
I am in the process of planning for work on an1850 home in the northeast- repairing a foundation (6-9ft deep), building a garage, doing some excavation for water drainage in the property, and gardening, maintenance to an additional 2 properties I own.
I had NEVER used an excavator myself, nor a front loader or tractor larger than a 15 to 20hp lawnmower. I did install a septic tank (1000gal) myself 3 years ago in an area that still allows this. I paid $1200 to a friend that dug the hole with a 9 bucket and a case mini excavator. I paid $1500 for the tank.
So after some research I realized that from the get go, if I purchased I would have equipment at my availability 24/7 without a concern for scheduling.
Additionally, I was concerned about the amount of wear and tear I might put on something that I would be purchasing new, and whether the amount of work that I needed to do would be more than the equipment might be able to handle.
So... I decided to go new, non excavator, and Kubota. I wanted to get the biggest backhoe I could as that would pretty much determine the overall capability of the excavation capabilities of the system.
The determination, after considering any of the implements I may need right away, was to get a Kubota MX5800 open station tractor.
But after pricing and comparison of all aspects of my age, my expected workload, and some comfort upgrades I decided on an
L3560 HSTC Cab based tractor with loader with 1600+ Lb load capacity, 9? backhoe, and a 72 grapple, along with a few other used attachments like a post hole and 80 back blade.
I understand reach, depth and maneuverability is less than a full fledged excavator, but for $50,000 at no interest, I will not be dealing with rental, will not be dealing generally with downtime due to failures (generally), and will have a piece of equipment that will be multi faceted with capability over its lifetime.
Granted ... many just can稚 float $50,000 for a piece of equipment, when a $700 bill to rent will fit the budget easily. I致e also been told that used the Kubota for all those tasks may stress it, but I figure if this is what these machines are meant to do then I probably shouldn稚 be afraid to use it, instead of still renting an excavator to do the work that may max out the Kubota and experiencing the additional costs of minimizing the use of the Kubota.
So far, I知 happy with my choice, and I知 in early with the Kubota, in that I have NO money spent on renting equipment other than the contractor that installed the septic. So applying at a minimum of $700 or $800 two or 3 times a year over a 10 year period is about $25,000 in excavator rental costs. That痴 Half the cost of the Kubota.
Add the other implements I can use compared to renting (grapple, mower, back blade, post hole, work platform, bucket loader, pallet forks), well that is all easily made up in the remaining $25,000 o we 10 years. In fact I would venture to say that the incidental use of all of these additional attachments would add much more value to cost of rental comparisons over that 10 years by at least double that by the backhoe alone (compared to renting an excavator).
So I would estimate the rental value of the additional capabilities of all implements per year at about $5000. Thatç—´ about 10 rentals at $500/rental per year. Or 20 rentals at $250/rental per year which more closely relates to the many more uses per year that I actually use the tractor.
In reality I use it every couple of days for many many more things than just those already mentioned including lots of snow stacking and moving during the winter. And with the heated and cooled cab, it is just perfect for this.
As a homeowner and NOT a business user of the equipment there is a big difference in how folks will interpret this question. Hope this helps.
