Buying Advice Backhoe on a SCUT - yea or nay?

[djefferis]

Primary use is light property upkeep on a rural homestead. I understand the question, but keep in mind terms like "light duty/medium duty" are highly relative. Light upkeep to many is mowing a flat or rolling lawn - to others it means plowing 3-4' drifts every winter or planting a 10 acre garden.

Basically will be working in a moderately hilly terrain keeping up pasture and doing household chores, taking out a few stumps, upkeep on a small unpaved drive, setting a few post and mowing <5 acres of field 4-6 times a year. Lawn duty will be handled with a machine designed to mow lawns.

I recognize the limits of what I am looking at - haying, serious digging or "pro" farming require something much bigger than a SCUT or CUT could deliver.

As to depth of digging - I feel 6' is sufficient - again, If the need arises to go deeper - different class of machine. It has been mentioned here - and is a good rule of thumb for these machines - if you couldnt/wouldnt attempt it via hand with a shovel - you probably need something heavier. The machine lightens the task - but does not expand the boundaries.

 

[Tompet]

Weird how people see nothing wrong with having a camping trailer or classic car that never gets used, or Golf Clubs, but somehow you need to have use for a tool all the time to own it. You can always sell a used hoe for what you paid for it, IF you bought a good one, used. Try that with the other stuff I mentioned. I would not buy seldom used stuff new.

Exactly, my initial thought when I purchased a Massey GC2310 around 2007. Traded up twice exactly because of BH...(should have just got a B26 from the start) as others have said most of neys never had one.

To the op, the Massey scut BH had some nice features vs some other brands. Power was great for its size, design of stabilizer "feet" and the way they flip if you add street pads were excellent, stabilizers retract just past ninety degrees so leak down is minimized, the 3pt hitch stays in place with BH mounted (very nice feature), bucket design was good for clay soils (even the 10" I had which was better in that regard to a 12" Kubota bucket) and the Massey had better performance at lower rpm's than the competitors at the time.

 

[Snobdds]

I have a mini ex and when I upgraded my tractor, still bought a TLB.

Just to handy to not have.

 

[shooterdon]

Like you, I have a rural homestead so thought I would share my very limited experience.

Assume you will be brush hogging the 5 acres? About 25 hours a year on that task. I do about an acre with the brush hog and I hate using it. I have a 5' model and it seems too big for my 2000lb machine. It sure throws rocks and branches a long way. Keep spectators at least 50 ft away.

Just as an example, I have about 200 yards of drive that is not in the best of shape and 75 yards that are good. I am new to this and spent over 10 hours on those 200 yards this fall using a back blade and rake. Much improved but still not "perfect". I figure another 10 hours will get me there. I looked at getting a light duty box blade ($600) but glad I did not. Have no other use for it except doing the road. Many here recommend a land plane as there is no learning curve but those are way out of my price range. Best to work the drive when it is slightly moist.

In my case, all my trenching/digging chores have been less than 3 feet. A small backhoe would work fine but I farmed the work out to a guy who lives 4 miles from me.

If you get the PTO post hole digger, be careful as they are dangerous. I helped my neighbor with a 2 man unit and we both got hurt. Was going to get a PTO unit for my tractor after that experience. Have not pulled the trigger on that yet as so far I have made do with T posts.

It is great to have a tractor for the homestead. My primary use also includes firewood.

 

[atsah]

It really depends what kind of soil you have to dig and how much backhoe work you will need to do. I have one on a JD2305 and on my property I find it to be **** near useless.

I actually sold the JD and several years later bought it back from the person I sold it to with 50 more hours than when I sold it. It did come in handy putting in a power line one time but I rent equipment when I need to use a backhoe on this property which is about every 5 years.

 

[edgarrian]

Id say it isn't worth getting. But I have rental shop that typically has a mini excavator i can rent. If it happens to be out then I just wait a week and have them deliver it to me. Excavators if you know how to run one are by far a better option. You can essentially get a lot of excavator work done in a weekend in comparison to using a BH. You would be ahead of the game if you went this route. If you don't how to run an excavator then I wouldn't bother and consider the BH

 

[paulfun9]

Having owned both I simply can’t agree with the statement that the excavator is a far better option!

Which machine is best for the job or jobs at hand will depend on the job.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Id say it isn't worth getting. But I have rental shop that typically has a mini excavator i can rent. If it happens to be out then I just wait a week and have them deliver it to me. Excavators if you know how to run one are by far a better option. You can essentially get a lot of excavator work done in a weekend in comparison to using a BH. You would be ahead of the game if you went this route. If you don't how to run an excavator then I wouldn't bother and consider the BH

No doubt that an excavator will outdig a TLB, but then that is all it can do is dig. No 3PH so no implements to add on, no PTO, slower than a snail when moving, just to name a few of the cons. An excavator is great is all you need to do is dig, but a TLB can do so much more. Digging is much slower but if you have the time, it can do most jobs. The only drawback to a TLB is the 90 degree L/R swing which is a pain if trying to dig out a ditch since you have to put your spoils next to the ditch whereas with an excavator, you can swing it all the way to the rear.
Even with this limitation, I still prefer a TLB.

A big issue with SCUT TLB's is their weight. If you have really hard soil or rocks, then you may not be able to penetrate the surface easily with a lightweight SCUT. Even with my B26 which weighs 4000#, sometimes when digging in hard soil, I lift the rig off the ground using my 12" bucket when trying to dig in hard soil so it is slow going when doing that. I haven't found anything that I couldn't eventually get done with it and I have dug up some big trees and rocks. Well actually I did find one rock that I couldn't dig up but it ended up being over 10 feet long and over 4 feet deep (never did find the end of it nor the depth) and it wouldn't have came out if I had a 20 ton excavator unless I had a hydraulic hammer attachment to break it up.

So just think about your uses and get the heaviest TLB that fits your needs and pocket book.

 

[4570Man]

Having owned both I simply can’t agree with the statement that the excavator is a far better option!

Which machine is best for the job or jobs at hand will depend on the job.

An excavator fails in versatility against a backhoe. Mobility is important to me. The excavator can’t drive 25 mph down the road, you can’t buy an excavator for half what a backhoe cost and use the other half for a skid steer. If you dropped the excavator to a size where I could haul it and a skid steer at the same time you have little chance of beating my full size backhoe. If you lost 2 hours on a days work to go get the second machine you have little chance of beating my backhoe. If you’re using the excavator to do a job you should do with a loader bucket you have little chance of beating the backhoe.

 

[Diggin It]

A big issue with SCUT TLB's is their weight. If you have really hard soil or rocks, then you may not be able to penetrate the surface easily with a lightweight SCUT. Even with my B26 which weighs 4000#, sometimes when digging in hard soil, I lift the rig off the ground using my 12" bucket when trying to dig in hard soil so it is slow going when doing that. I haven't found anything that I couldn't eventually get done with it and I have dug up some big trees and rocks.

Ditto. I've dug stuff out that I really didn't think I'd be able to and I've never used anything like this before. Scratch at it a bit at a time instead of trying to dig deep. They'll bounce a round a bit, but you'll get used to it. If I can do it with almost no prior experience, I'm sure a seasoned operator can.

Not sure why others are still pushing the rental angle here. Didn't the OP say that wasn't possible due to distance?