Dig-It Towable Backhoes?

[mowerpan]

Alrite guys, my dad manages a cemetary and for diggin graves they have never had a backhoe, not enough money or people that knew anything(my dad took over about 3 year ago). He's looking at getting a backhoe for digging graves and lifting some heavy gravestones that have been tipped over. My dad's only looking to spend around 10,000 but heres the catch. We don't wanna pos that looks like no one cared for, don't want one thats super old. Don't wanna cheapo chinese one. Also we cant have one thats too big, as sometimes theres areas that are hard to get a big backhoe in.

So I was browsin ebay and came across the Dig-It towable backhoes that look like they'd do what we want beside it might not be able to lift some of the real heavy stones, but not a big deal. What do you guys think of these? Anyone know any thing about them. We have a dealer not too far away but before we go look I figured I'd see if anyone knew anything.
Ebay link

Manufacturer link

Anyone know what a brand new goes for?

 

[TroyR57]

I have seen, and used a smaller unit of this type, and found that it did not have enough weight to make it usefull. That said, this unit looks bigger, it might do more. The one I tryed was at a rental place, and it would not even dig in a pile of dirt. My friend Mr. Curry also tried it out, and said it just scrached around in the dirt. I belive it was powered by a eleven HP unit.

Hope this helps.

 

[LarryRB]

I know guys that tried them and was sorry they waisted there money on the rental.. They only have 2400 bucket force... Not much more than scratching the ground. If this is a municipal owned, county, or some type government body, I am sure they can get a substantial cut from a dealer.,.. when I was a town selectman, we bought a dump truck and backhoe from a military sale at Ft. Devens MA when they were closing.... For a small town, there are a lot of places out there if someone is willing to look

 

[mowerpan]

Alrite sounds like there pretty useless then. Thanks for the help. Nope its a private cemetary.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

We sell quite alot of equipment to guys digging graves and such and typicaly they are buying $35-40,000 excavators to do the job. I don't think your going to find anything that will reach the depths you need for $10k, maybe 25k or so on the used market.

 

[MikeD74T]

Have you tried renting any of the mini excavators? The advantage of renting is evaluating what works best for your application at a low cost. They have a lot of features like offsetting booms, 360 turn, light ground pressure , that are invaluable in a cemetary. There's a ton of good used small excavators around. While I have no experience with the towables, I know I'd rather have a good used machine than new junk. Mike

 

[SkyPup]

Some of the tractor-loader-backhoes are specifically setup for digging graves in cemeteries, but they all cost >$30-35K.

With a front end loader to lift headstones, push dirt, and unload freight, and a 3pt hitch with PTO to mow the lawns, that would be the most cost efficient.

M.T. Graves /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[ALABAMA_KID]

Look at www.Terramite.com

I have a T5C I bought used 5 years ago.
Great machine, wonderful tech. support, and quick shipments of parts.

I have dug graves and set stones in the past with no problems.

Forces
Dip stick 2800 lbs
Bucket curl 3100 lbs
Back hoe lift 750 lbs
Front curl 2200 lbs
Loader lift 1700 lbs

Digging depth 100"
I have a 16" bucket on the hoe and a 1/4 yard on the front

I have done most every thing you could want to do in a cemetery with mine, the only problem I have is my optional high flotation tires that makes my machine about a foot wider than stock.

My opinion from experience..