Deere 3000 series vs 4000 series backhoe?? 485 vs 485a (3520, 4120, 4044r and others)

[Shawk]

Update...

Alrighty guys... so I ended up grabbing my neighbors minty 3520. I bought it for the little upgrade in PTO HP and I knew the owner had babied it through it's whopping 40 hours on the meter. After hashing this thing over (probably to much) I'm shifting focus. The 3520 is tractor only so I'll add H165 loader and decided to look hard for a 20 or 30 series Deere mini excavator (or similar). I was ok with the 11kish cost if would have cost to add the 485 backhoe to my 3520 with thumb but I know in the end the mini will dig deeper, reach farther and just get things done quicker. Tow rating on my truck is 12k (trailer 14k) so a 2x or 3x Deere mini at 6k-8k weight should be a good fit. I'll look for a 35 mini likely but if a 2x comes up for a decent price I'll likely just grab one. Thanks for the feedback!! I'll update when I get things finished up now... best wishes!!

 

[Shawk]

Another update... first, thanks for the replies. This forum has always been fantastic!

As I mentioned, we did grab my neighbors 3520. It should be a fantastic machine (like our 3120 has been) but with a few little bonus' such as the added horses and a mid pto which opens the door for a front snowblower and/or mid mower at some point if we'd choose. It didn't have a loader so we ordered a H165 w/ 61" hd bucket.

Backhoe vs mini... in the end I decided to just bite the bullet and go with a local 220 hour old Deere 35G cab mini. For the amount of money I needed to spend to get a 485 backhoe, I figured jumping into a mini now just made sense for us. It's a dealer "demo" with warranty, cab (a/c & heat), 2 buckets (24" w/ teeth & a 34" ditch bucket w/out teeth), thumb, long arm option which puts the reach to 18', additional rear ballast weight and should be ready to work!

Pic I took last week... should be delivered in the next couple days.

 

[kthompson]

I did what kevinhawk suggested and would do it again. Only my tractor at the time did not have a fel. Tractor with backhoe is faster to drive from one spot to another and after that not sure where they have any advantage. Mine will go where wheel machine will not, will rotate 360 degrees and believe it or not when you are digging beside a tree or building there are times you need that, it is easy to move a few feet while working with no outriggers to raise or lower. With the front blade you can level it on grades not sure how the tractor loader would compare and you also with front blade can come travel up and down rather steep grades keeping the machine right level, even where you can work on the grades. Now my time on tractor with backhoe is very limited but just can not imagine the excavator will not be faster for same size machines.
I had a great friend who had a site work company with all the machines and it was his advice to go with the excavator over the tractor loader for the reasons of speed, setup and full rotation. Sure do miss him.

 

[texasranger556]

Very nice! I have a 48 hoe on my 4400 and while it works well for what I need, the mini will no doubt dig circles around it. I recently bought a project Kubota L48 which has a 10' digging depth and those extra 2' make a huge difference in reach. Mostly used it to dig out stumps, much less moving and repositioning, not to mention the root ripping power with the larger cylinders and 12" bucket. Plus you're getting a thumb and quick attach bucket which are super convenient. I'd look for a 12 or 18" bucket to fill in your bucket selection.

I agree that besides tracking a long distance mini ex is the way to go. Once you establish some roads you could probably just trailer to wherever you need to work. Looking forward to photos in action!

 

[Shawk]

Thanks KT & KR...

The dealer seams to think the 24" bucket is the absolutely perfect size for this machine. I specifically talked with him about removing tree stumps and he still thinks the 24" will do the job well. I know he actually spends a ton of time on these machines so I trust his advice and decided to skip the 3rd bucket for now. The 18" doesn't seem a step down enough from a 24" to justify and I've read that when you get into a 12" the buckets don't always empty easily which of course is time as well. Do you guys have 12" and/or 18" buckets?

 

[texasranger556]

I have an 18 on my 48 and it seems well suited. Haven't needed anything else although I did want a 12 for digging the stumps but the Kubota came along before I found one. The Kubota just had a 12 with it. It could have easily run 24 or larger but a friend wanted the tractor so I took it to his place after I finished digging all my stumps. The soil around here is very loose so no issue sticking in the bucket. Honestly the 12 on the Kubota probably holds as much or more dirt than the 18 on my Deere, it is much deeper and taller. If your ground has a lot of clay then your dealer is probably speaking from experience than 12 is too small to clear effectively, regardless of the advantages. If you're digging out in the woods then no drawback moving more dirt than necessary anyway.