Backhoe Can a backhoe attachment do the job?

[fisheye]

I'm a new (and terribly inexperienced) tractor owner. I have just purchased a good, used Kubota MX5000 with bucket to putter on a piece of recreational land I also just recently purchased. My first priority is to put in a laneway and a pad to build a driveshed on. I will need a fair quantity of material to build up the laneway and pad. I was considering digging a pond to get the material for the laneway and as a bonus end up with a pond. I was considering purchasing a backhoe attachment for my Kubota. I was thinking either a Kubota BH92 or a Wallenstein GX920. I don't know, though, if a small backhoe attachment would be practical for doing the work I want to do. I have lots of time so am not in any hurry. If anyone has experience good or bad I would love to hear it.

fisheye

 

[cartod]

You can do anything with a backhoe, it just may take you the rest of your life. I am currently putting in a 1 acre pond. It's estimated that it will take 2 weeks with two guys. One on a D6 dozer and one on an excavator.

 

[Hirascomo]

fisheye,
I have a small backhoe attachment (John Deere 46) mounted to a small 4WD tractor Yanmar YM2210D. I have used my backhoe for digging out stumps, digging a foundation through tree roots, setting large fence posts, digging up concrete driveway pads ...... I could keep going, the backhoe attachment is probably one of the most useful things that I have ever bought. I would buy it again in a second. However, it is small and does not do large jobs quickly. If you have the time, and as long as the backhoe has the reach and depth that you are wanting to accomplish, I would think you would be pleased if you are a do it yourselfer.

One word of caution, even though I am amazed at what can be accomplished with my little backhoe, if you have large/heavy boulders, the little guy does not have the hydraulic force necessary to do what the big dogs do, so depending on your individual situation, a small backhoe should work for you as long as you have determined that your job is within the capabilities of the backhoe unit.

I just dug out a good sized stump a couple of weeks ago with my backhoe, the tree was about 24" diameter, and the root ball was about 6 feet in diameter. As you can see in the pic, some of the roots were big and the little backhoe got through them with some work. Just to give you an idea of time needed for a small backhoe, this stump took about 2 hours to dig out. I estimated the weight of this to be about 2500 lbs. So with some time, the little backhoes still can get the work done.

Best of luck with your project.

 

[tman1020]

I'm not sure you would want to use the dirt that you take out for a pond for Fill underneath your driveway. Most times when I've dug for a pond the soil has been more like Pete Moss or Mucky. Not sure if this will be the case for you or not but something to watch out for. You definitely want the most solid base possible for underneath the driveway.

 

[Kanook]

The Wallenstein gx920 is hardly what I would call a 'small' backhoe. ... It can dig a 9 foot hole with a 2 ft bottom, suspect the bota BH92 to be similar. I have a 'small' Wallenstein (GX 500) hoe that can toss the B1700 around if not carefull. In my opinion the hoes you are considering will do what you expect if they are sized correctly for your tractor...or maybe I should say if your tractor is sized correctly for the backhoe. I know that some areas in the vicinity of Kincardine use drain tile in the fields so 'muck' may be what you'd excavate from your pond and as previous commenters say, it wouldn't be ideal for a road bed.....but local soil type would dictate that for you.

 

[newbury]

Backhoe attachments on tractors excel at digging deep holes. They are a shovel on steroids. You can also travel relatively fast.

Either backhoe would be a nice attachment. A nice EXPENSIVE attachment.

Are there rental facilities in your area?
As tman wrote are you sure you can use the "dredging" for fill?

If, like me, you are not pressed for time and want to do the job at YOUR pace a BH would be great. The rental tradeoff I viewed was $2K/ month for a rental mini-ex or $8K for life buying my BH. If I had only planned one small job I would have rented a mini-ex. If you want to get it done fast hire a dozer and excavator.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I dug my small pond using the FEL and a box blade with the scarifiers down. My soil is hard clay with small to medium sized rocks with the occasional large boulder thrown in. If you have soft to medium hard soil, you may be able to dig faster with the FEL by loosening it up with the box blade.

You could dig with the hoe, but then you have to stop and move what you dug out with the hoe which is very time consuming.

I just laid out my pond size by dragging the box blade in a configuration where I would start putting dirt for the dam. I removed all the grass and organics from the top and then just started making a large circle with the box blade to loosen up some dirt and then would scoop up the loose stuff while still dragging the box blade (keep the scarifiers down as far as they will go). It took me a couple of days with my P7010 for a small pond perhaps 40x40 feet. Larger would take longer of course, but same principle would apply.

 

[fisheye]

Thanks guys for your inputs. The message I am getting is that the backhoe attachments are capable but may not be practicle for such a large job. I know that a backhoe attachment would be so handy for the multitude of other jobs around my property. If I am to attempt the pond digging and driveway installation with my tractor, loader and backhoe combination will it require me attaching and disconnecting the backhoe every time I want to move a bunch of the excavated material to my laneway or can I do it with the backhoe attached? I don't have a feel for how robust the connection between the tractor and the backhoe will be. With the backhoe attached can I bounce around the property carrying loads of dirt and gravel in the bucket without stressing the supports for the backhoe or does it need to be disconnected?

fisheye

 

[rScotty]

Thanks guys for your inputs. The message I am getting is that the backhoe attachments are capable but may not be practicle for such a large job. I know that a backhoe attachment would be so handy for the multitude of other jobs around my property. s for the backhoe or does it need to be disconnected?

You've got it exactly right....very useful for all kinds of things, and surprisingly powerful.....but slow at moving quantities of dirt, though there is nothing finer for making a trench. I had a small 3pt mounted backhoe for years. Bought it used and sold it for what I bought it for. It was mounted on several small tractors just like you are planning to do. Note, some model hoes run off of the hydraulics on the tractor while others have an internal pto-driven pump and separate reservoir. I prefer the pto hookup type myself, but either will work. The PTO hookup type might have a slight edge on power and speed, but are also more expensive.

Yes, you can leave it all connected when you want to use the loader. In fact, a backhoe makes a fine counterweight. It is quite heavy, but carried that close to the rear of the tractor it balances fine. But you do lose the ability to use any other 3 pt implement while the BH is mounted since the backhoe is occupying that space.
Luck, rScotty

 

[Gary Fowler]

Even with a trackhoe, you still need another piece of equipment like a tractor with FEL to move the dirt. With a tractor backhoe, you need to constantly be removing the spoils so you will have a place to dump the diggings. Digging a pond is really a two man job when you use an excavator or any type (backhoe, track hoe, dragline, etc.)

Just use your FEL and a soil loosener type of attachment, like chisel plow, box blade with scarifiers, subsoiler) to loosen up the soil a bit. You may even need to put a tooth bar on your FEL to make it dig in better. MY LS P7010 digs quite well without one but my B26 not so well.

 

[fisheye]

Thanks cartod. I am probably being very naive to think I might be able to putter away for a summer and get enough dirt to lay down a laneway and building pad.

fisheye

 

[fisheye]

Thanks for sharing your pond building experience Gary. This is exactly the sort of information I am looking for. I like your idea of using the loader to scoop up the broken up top layer. This would work for the first part of my pond but I think I will be hitting the water table about 2 feet down where I want the pond. I can't see any other way than digging to get down to 9 or 10 feet deep. What I thought I might do is scrape the top layer, dig down as far as I can with a tractor mounted backhoe and then get a highhoe in to finish the job. Again please comment if I am "all wet" in my ideas

fisheye

fisheye

 

[fisheye]

I totally understand what you are saying tman1020. The first step, before I commit to making a pond to get road material is to dig a test hole to see what is actually down there. I think there may be a layer of clay but don't know how thick or how deep it is. Any experience on how clay would work for a driveway base?

fisheye

 

[wmonroe]

I really like the BH92 I have on my tractor but have no pond digging experience. The backhoe works great for trenching, digging out stumps, digging out large rocks, etc. I have about 70 hours of actual backhoe time on it and I have not been disappointed. The way it mounts is very secure and the backhoe makes a great counterbalance for front loader work since it is so heavy.

 

[mike69440]

I really like the BH92 I have on my tractor but have no pond digging experience. The backhoe works great for trenching, digging out stumps, digging out large rocks, etc. I have about 70 hours of actual backhoe time on it and I have not been disappointed. The way it mounts is very secure and the backhoe makes a great counterbalance for front loader work since it is so heavy.

I have a 10' hoe on my L39. Huge hoe for size of machine. Very handy. But if you want to dig a pond, an excavator is the way to go. i could not imagine diggig the 3 small pond we have (50 to 70 Ft accross) with a small BH. It took for ever to move the 5000 yards of dirt from the pond with the L39 bucket, (Up to 9' deep.)

 

[tman1020]

Clay is good soil in my opinion just depends on how much sand or small gravel content it has if you're digging below the water table it's going to be extremely saturated it will need to sit quite some time before dries out good(like a year or two). Otherwise it's going to be like trying to spread peanut butter. Also the excavator is a excellent idea you will be amazed at how much dirt and how fast a full-size excavator can move. there is a video on YouTube of a man digging a small pond with a small tractor I think it's a kioti CK 20 he videotapes his progress it's nice but looks shallow. The excavator is the tool to use most times for digging a pond you can get much deeper and move the dirt much farther much much much faster. In my opinion the way to do this job is to hire the excavator to come out dig your pond they can do a beautiful job. It will take you most of the summer just to move the dirt where you want it to go and you'll have a deeper pond. Even if they charge you hundred dollars per hour and you hired them for 10 hours you'll be amazed at how much dirt you'll have to move. You could purchase the tractor in the loader & box blade and hold off on the backhoe until you are finished moving all this dirt. 1000 dollars would not be that much to recover in the amount of time it will take you to move that much dirt with a small machine. Just my opinion hope this helps. Good luck and have fun

 

[fisheye]

Thanks for the advice tman1020. I played around today with my MX5000 and bucket and was able to dig about a 4 foot hole the length of the tractor (steep learning curve). I was amazed at what the tractor and bucket could do. The spot I was digging on my property had about a foot of black loam and then the rest was clay with a bit of sand and rock mixed in. it took me about an hour to dig my hole and I probably moved about a truckload of material. I didn't hit water so am encouraged. I felt like a kid in a sandbox. Great fun.

fisheye