DigginJB
New member
Hey George, glad to be of help. It came with the 12", but if I could've had the 16 it would have been a better match.
Time was a critical factor though - our subsoil gets rock hard after rainy season is well over. It was the middle of July and we needed to get those trenches punched ASAP. Being the property owner I did not get a permit /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif , but if you'll be obtaining one you might check the codes for required trench width. If 12" is good, it sure makes for short work!
The nearest M dealer would not stock ANY backhoes, so we had to look all over the region; finally found another M dealer who did stock what we needed (and several of the impressive larger models, but no extra buckets.)
As for the 'other jobs', we found LOTS of projects that the BH made all the difference on. Now I know why all the big contractors use a BH to clear brushy ground! Speeds things up considerably...
A quick (& probably unnecessary) word of common sensible caution, though. Having use some of the big Case types, and hired a couple of BIG excavators over the years - keep in mind these are still relatively small machines. They'll do an AMAZING amount of grunt work, and I've been especially impressed with the KMW built FEL; but you can't just pull up to a big stump & pluck it out like that huge bad boy excavator can. Gotta call the pros if you have a bunch of them . But we've dug bunches of decent sized ones, & picked some humungo rocks...
Time was a critical factor though - our subsoil gets rock hard after rainy season is well over. It was the middle of July and we needed to get those trenches punched ASAP. Being the property owner I did not get a permit /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif , but if you'll be obtaining one you might check the codes for required trench width. If 12" is good, it sure makes for short work!
The nearest M dealer would not stock ANY backhoes, so we had to look all over the region; finally found another M dealer who did stock what we needed (and several of the impressive larger models, but no extra buckets.)
As for the 'other jobs', we found LOTS of projects that the BH made all the difference on. Now I know why all the big contractors use a BH to clear brushy ground! Speeds things up considerably...
A quick (& probably unnecessary) word of common sensible caution, though. Having use some of the big Case types, and hired a couple of BIG excavators over the years - keep in mind these are still relatively small machines. They'll do an AMAZING amount of grunt work, and I've been especially impressed with the KMW built FEL; but you can't just pull up to a big stump & pluck it out like that huge bad boy excavator can. Gotta call the pros if you have a bunch of them . But we've dug bunches of decent sized ones, & picked some humungo rocks...
