3000 hours on Kubota L4740 and looking at buying a backhoe bh92... dumb idea?

[N2DFire]

Your 4740 is somewhere between 50% and 75% 'used up' in my opinion. Not sure how many hours per year you put on her, but 3000 hours is getting up there. That machine should give you 4000 to 6000 hours of operation in its useful life.

I have a 1949 8N Ford with Lord knows how many hours on it and it runs & works just as hard as the 2014 Kioti. Also have a 97 Toyota Tacoma with over 332K miles that has been "handed up" to my Dad for his daily driver & farm runabout.
I've seen plenty of equipment "ragged out" from misuse and abuse that was still low hours / age. My opinion - Useful life is a function of maintenance and usage more so than time.

Nobody knows the state of that equipment better than the OP and he's going to have to decide for himself.

Several things wrong here as a BH-92 for a L4740 is 9593 at retail with a 18" bucket. That is not installed or include freight so there maybe some charges but should not be at 12,000!!!

As of right now $12,000 CAD = $9,510 USD so sounds like he's right in the ballpark there, I think it's just a conversion issue.

I have a kubota L4740 with 3000 hours and I am looking at buying a backhoe attachment BH92. I question is my tractor to old to be investing $12000 into an attachment. Question number 2 is what is the performance like. I heard conflicting stories. Could anybody shed some light on this.

As others have already stated, it's not a full size TLB nor is it an excavator so you can't expect it to perform like one.
It will dig holes, it will lift things chained to the bucket, and it will do all the other "stuff" larger equipment will do; it just does it in smaller bites, more steps, and lighter loads.

If you have a one time serious need / project I would suggest renting a mini ex or hiring the work out. If you just have projects you "could use a backhoe" for and want to work at your leisure off & on then sure why not.

I just passed up a chance to get a Woods 750 (3pt) off of craigslist for $1000 (or less depending on haggling) - it needed "minor repairs" but looked to be in decent shape from the pictures.
Depending on what it really needed I figured I could take care of "minor repairs" & convert it to a (home made) subframe and have a nice little backhoe for less than $2500.

Now I have a friend/neighbor in the Excavating business - I can hire him to do A LOT of work for $2500 and it gets done much faster (and probably better too) - but when it's done I'm out the $2500 and have nothing but the end work to show for it.
If I bought the backhoe then I could do the work myself and still have the backhoe for future projects or to sell and get some $ back.

This is the eternal argument to most any expensive implement / attachment ownership and one you'll have to decide for yourself (and maybe already have).

Best of luck whatever you decide.

 

[wmonroe]

I have a BH92 with my 5240 and am very happy with it. All my experience prior was with full size backhoes and a little with mini ex's and while the BH92 doesn't have the power of a full size hoe, it does extremely well. I've put approximately 75 hours on the hoe attachment and would buy it again right now.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

I like mine as well.