Buying backhoe for CK2610 vs Renting Mini Excavator

[5030]

It always takes a tractor with sufficient tractive effort (weight) and sufficient balls to pull a pan.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

I agree with other posters stating that the TLB is not the right 'tool' to dig a pond. I disagree that they say it can't be done....

There was a guy on Facebook that dug a pond similar in size to yours, approx 5' deep. He did it with a small LS MT125 TLB (SCUT). It was a project that took a couple of months to do at his leisure.

He used the BH to loosen up the dirt, digging maybe a foot down at a time. Just "breaking it up" with the BH, then scooping out the loose materials with the bucket. He used the spoils to build up the berms. It CAN be done, it won't be fast, it won't be easy, and it puts a lot of wear on the machine.

 

[hornett22]

I thought the same thing. Renting a backhoe isn't as convenient as it sounds. Most of the time there are none available around here without notice. It takes time to go pick it up and return it. Hours are usually limited, you have to use it within a deadline, they're usually not maintained well/repaired around here.

After a year, I added the backhoe I should have bought in the beginning. It's always maintained and available at a moments notice. There's no limit on hours and no deadline to return it. It's also a lot of ballast when I need it.

You'll use it for more than you think.

 

[hornett22]

"1000 hrs nearing breakin" - what make are you looking at. I have seen and run Kubotas with 4000+hr without any major issues other than replacing worn tracks. I have 550 hrs on my Mini and everything works like new - now I will say some of the overseas junk may not last 1000 hrs but any quality machine should have NO problems at that point in its life unless abused.

I've got 900 hard hours on a Mahindra 1626 and it's showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever.

 

[WVH1977]

I agree that a compact with backhoe can dig out a little pond over time and lots of hours of work. However, I am never going to recommend someone spend 8 grand or whatever it costs on a little tractor back-hoe that is NOT designed for heavy duty construction. Around here in Virginia where I live, I could not imagine digging a pond out with a little tractor. The OP is ready to spend $27,000 to use a little tractor/backhoe for digging out this pond. Excavator rental for two weeks with fuel and delivery is probably $4,000. I have dug out 1 to 2 foot stumps by shovel, pick-ax and pulling out with a 40 hp tractor. Back breaking work and after a couple, I rented a mini-ex:

A friend of mine built a small pond on his farm for his cattle. He had a guy there with a dozer and excavator. It took them several weeks to get it done. I could not imagine trying to do what they did with a 25 HP tractor designed to move mulch and till a small garden. I have waited years and been looking for years for an excavator. I finally found it. Got $ 5,000 invested in to date. Machine has 5700 hours on it and digs like a champ.

If you want a small TLB, go get it and enjoy it. It will be a great machine and provide years of service for your property. My opinion though, and it might not be worth much, is get the RIGHT tool for the RIGHT job. A little TLB is not the right tool for earth removal. You can use a shovel, pick-ax and wheelbarrow to dig it if wanted. Will be a lot less expensive and like others have stated, if you have the time and stamina it will get done. I am just trying to be realistic about what you are trying to do based on what you have posted.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Everyone has different needs, different circumstances, and different time frames.
Simple math would dictate that renting would be substantially less ($6500 approx savings) than buying the BH.

A con with renting is being limited to a very specific time frame. Then take into consideration of weather.... say you rent it for the weekend, the weather turns bad on the first day, now your out the time and some of the rental.

Having your own BH, you could do an hour or two whenever you want. No rush, having 'fun' while your making your improvements. Then other projects may arise that you would be glad that you had a BH.

Selling it later, yes it would take time and you will "loose" some of your investment. IMHO, if you buy a BH, plan on keeping the BH. Selling the tractor with the BH, would be a better plan overall.

Your situation could be different, but here renting equipment, you have to plan on an additional day to be used just to pick up and return the rental equipment. It takes 3-4 hours just to pick up a rental here... if what you need is available.

For my particular situation, buying the BH was far more beneficial to what needed to be done. I could come home from work and do some work even if it was for only an hour. We had a waterline break.... I had it dug up and repaired before I would have even gotten back from picking up a rental.

I have used my BH far more than I ever thought I would. It has paid for itself a couple times over if I had to contract out the work I have done. At this point, rental cost would be about the same as buying if I had rented each time I used my BH.

Will it sit for a while in between uses? Yes. Will it be nice to have "at the ready" ? Yes. Will you use it for more than you are planning? Probably.
Will it be worth it to you? --- only you can decide on that.

Similiar experience for me.
To rent a backhoe or excavator would be over a two hour drive round trip. Or delivered to my site for a 200 dollar mobilization fee and another 200 dollar de-mobilization charge. This would have gotten time consuming or expensive either way.
Putting a backhoe on my little Max-24 worked out very well for the convenience of having it on site when i had an hour or two to dig post holes. Dug a couple of underground irrigation pipe trenches and electrical trenches to out buildings.
Availabilty of the backhoe saved countless hours vs going to pick one up each time I had a need.

 

[MHarryE]

Maybe I just lucked into my situation. I had a CUT and was looking for a BH. Dealer I worked with said he had one for my model coming in because customer no longer had a use for it. Price would be 20% less than ordering a new one. Time went on without the deal happening so I began investigating used mini-excavators. I found one from a rental business that had reached their 3 year limit before exchanging and price was 30% more than the used BH attachment. Seemed like a no brainer. None of the problems switching from BH to 3-point, plus I had a dump trailer in which I could haul the mini-excavator behind the tractor. So go to a job, unload mini, complete job digging dirt, loading into dump trailer to haul off, load trailer with gravel to use as replacement fill, blade on the mini to backfill trench with the gravel, load mini and head home. Has worked excellent for me. Thirteen years later I have the same mini but the tractor got traded up, and that one traded up, and that one traded up so I likely would have needed 3 backhoe attachments. I've only put a couple hundred hours on the mini but it has been awesome getting into places where I had no hope with the large profile of tractor with backhoe.

 

[dogbert2521]

A friend recently mentioned that he rented a mini-ex after his TLB broke and said he'd never go back to a TLB. This sounds reasonable for big projects like digging a pond, maybe not so much for general light-use landscaping.

 

[Code54]

We have a BX with the backhoe and a mini ex -two different worlds. The BX is great for using in the yard, planting trees, doing a ditch, and stuff like that where you don't want to damage the yard or have to transport it a decent way under its own power. The mini does the real digging. Yesterday spent 4 hrs with the mini and a 12k dump trailer digging a fire pit circle into a hillside for a friend. Sure I could have done it with the little tractor/backhoe but it would have been a 12 hr job, not 4 hr job. For a one-off larger job (say digging a pond) I would just rent a machine and do the job, if you want a small backhoe on the tractor for other projects down the line that makes sense. It will be handy for cleaning up around the pond or fixing the edges, stuff like that. You can dig the pong with it but it is going to take forever and really not be worth renting a larger machine for a weekend and knocking the majority out very quickly.

 

[charles todd]

Has anybody tried a dirt pan for this kind of digging a large open area?

No idea what they cost, but they've got to be less than a BH.

I can't see where either a BH or Ex would be the best tool. Any time I've seen a pond dug, it was with a dozer.

These work. Have shaved many a hill and built many a levee with a Reynolds 4 yard pan. How much HP/weight tractor do you have?

Old school 50-60 HP row crop tractor is 1st gear hammer down. 110hp 4x4 tractor will spin all 4 if dig too deep. Moves a lot of dirt.


CT