Just wondering how much of a burden you think the dual seat setup would be to you. I was in the same predicament when I began shopping for a new machine. I had only ever run TLB's, from the
BX22 all the way up to full size backhoes, all with the single seat. I had a real "problem" with the dual seat setup of the
B3030, until I started thinking about all the time I spent rotating the seat on the TLB's.
It came down to the way I use a TLB, and it happens that a large portion of my particular use consists of moving back and forth between the tractor and the backhoe quite a bit. I remember often times thinking swiveling the seat around all the time was a real pain when I was jumping back and forth a lot. It turns out that after logging 135 hours on my
B3030, I prefer the dual seat setup - at most, I only have to flip the 2 seats up or down (if I don't want the sun to heat them up too much), and there's no messing with the seat linkage in twisting the seat around and moving into the raised backhoe position or lowered tractor position, and making sure the mechanism locks every time so the seat doesn't flip out of position when you get up. In cooler weather, I can leave both seats down in position and just hop on and off.
One other thing to pay attention to is this new backhoe - be sure it is at least 7.5' and specs out at least as strong as the BH75. I wouldn't want anything smaller or less powerful - the BH75 is matched nicely to the
B3030 and
B7800.
Good luck and happy tractor shopping!
