B series: need advice asap

[GPintheMitten]

Here's my take. Get the B2601 with turfs, otherwise R4 tires. As mentioned before and reinforced by rswyan , skip the backhoe for several thousands, get 3 rear remotes, and load up with implements. Consider this list of implements: grapple, rear blade, pto rototiller (if you garden), chains for the rear tires if you have heavy snow and ice, Ratchet Rake for the loader to help with trails, top and tilt for the rear 3pt hitch, box blade. Of course, in addition you'll get the midmount mower and ssqa front end loader.

Now you can probably get most of those implements for the price of the backhoe, and have money left over to rent a backhoe or mini-excavator for 2 - 4 weekends and have a more capable hoe.

 

[jim_wilson]

<From what you described, it doesn't sound like enough backhoe work to justify several thousand dollars.>

sshhh, my wife might be listening!

In all seriousness, though, that's what we said when we got the BX, then projects kept popping up where I'd say "wish I had that backhoe". And that was on one acre, now we're on 40+. The backhoe isn't just being purchased for current projects, it's for all those other projects we haven't even planned yet.

That is the way it works.

And you'll find that the hoe comes in useful for many more things than just digging holes.

I took down about 12 relatively large ash trees that were along the back property line of my lot a couple of years ago. The backhoe came in useful. First I'd run a chain from the hoe bucket over to the trunks (the trees were felled on along a hill and in the woods) - and I'd use the hoe to drag them out with. Once I had the larger pieces out - I'd use the bucket and the thumb on the hoe to pick up large pieces of the tree and I'd trim them down into 18" lengths. In limited cases you can use the hoe as a makeshift crane too.