LoneCowboy said:
I have a commercial operation and i've never found a need for one.
You can rent a FULL SIZED backhoe for 200 to 400 a day
That's a lot of uses for 7000 bucks in today's morning.
I couldn't justify it. (and i can usually justify any toy.
)
This is my quandry.
john_bud said:
Interesting question. First off, it sounds like you found yourself a dandy of a piece of property. Congrats!
Are you planning on digging your foundation for the house, shop, barn etc? I wouldn't recommed that being your first chore with a hoe.
As to long term uses, there are many. If you have a lot of rocks even a small hoe with a thumb will make that chore go by faster and easier. If you want to make a rock wall it can be very nice with that thumb too.
The real question is are you planning on getting a tractor anyway? My assumption is that you are. Then the selection of which hoe / tractor to get comes in. The L39 is one heck of a nice machine, don't get me wrong. But it is an industrial unit and has some drawbacks for ag or private use. Mostly that the FEL is permanent. Can't come off. It is much stouter than the normal "L" series and if you want to buy a super stout reliable unit that is one.
You may be better off getting something like the L3830 or L4630. Then get a hoe to match either from Kubota, Woods or Bradco. Best of the bunch is probably Bradco. 485 would be a good one and the 3509 would be about the biggest for that range of tractor.
Bradco
jb
Thank you. I am very pleased with my land purchase.
Yes, I plan to get a tractor anyway for normal equestrian use. If I do decide on the BH, I will get the hyrdaulic thumb.
I do not plan to dig any foundations ... and will leave that up to my builder. I do plan on the following:
- Digging three compost-piles into the hill-side (dumping from the top-side and turning from the lower-side).
- Trenching water and electric from my well and transformer to strategic locations the property.
- Digging up rocks in the pasture area and along the hill-side.
The following are real possibilities:
- Building a rock-wall (using rocks from the hill) on the downhill-side of the house to extend out the yard for the kiddos.
- Since I'll have a number of horses, it's sadly inevitable that I may have to bury one at some point.
As I've stated in other posts, I've been looking at the L39 because it is relatively small, agile, stout (as you've stated), and powerful in all the right areas. The beefier hydraulics on the TLBs (over the L and grand-series) are attractive, and I'll most-likely use a BH-mounted hyraulic PHD for fence/tree installation/planting since the ground is hard and rocky. I'd mount it on the BH (instead of the FEL) for visibility and placement accuracy. That said, the L39 hood is sloped and it can always be mounted on the FEL, too ... assuming no BH. The only slight disadvantage that I've found about the L39 is that the FEL cannot be removed. Doing so would make mowing easier, but I may only mow two/three times a year. The L39's 30.5 HP PTO will be enough for a rotary/flail mower in the pasture area.
petegoud said:
While what Brian H says is true, it's still nice to be able to hop on my tractor anytime I want and go out to dig for an hour or so without knowing I have to my a** off for a whole day to get my money's worth.
Yes, this flexibilty is nice ... but how often do you just hop on and go dig for an hour?
bandit67 said:
But I do know that it's closer to $400 per day with tax, damage waiver, etc. for a full size machine, so divided by $7000 (if that is the cost of the L39 backhoe), that comes to about 18 days worth of backhoe work. So let's say for the price of that backhoe, you get about 20 days of rental use. If you think you've got more than 20 days worth of use for a backhoe, then buying your own becomes a better deal.
So it comes down to you putting together a list of backhoe projects and an estimate of time it'll take you to do them. Add some learning curve time the first couple of days of rental time to familiarize yourself with the backhoe (if you don't have much backhoe seat time under your belt) and then decide if you can justify buying it. I can tell you that if you have a backhoe at your disposal, you will find a lot of use for it that you may not even consider when making up your task list.
And where you are building your house, you will have a lot of rock that you may want to dig up, move, restack, build retaining or landscape walls with, etc.
So, given my list above and the flexibility of hopping on and digging when I want, I may be justifying the purchase here.
I sure love TBN and all you guys for your rich ensight. It sure eases my fears knowing that you're all out there.