Buying Advice To Backhoe, on not to Backhoe...

[nikdfish]

Add a thumb to the backhoe and you expand your possible uses. Ours gets used for holding logs off the ground for cutting, loading stumps onto a truck or trailer, moving rocks, etc. Cost isn't that bad for a mechanical thumb.

Nick

 

[dickfoster]

Sounds a lot like my place. Five wooded acres with sloping terrain and lots of stumps, logs etc. I just got a Mahindra 1530TLB shuttle, after doing a lot of reading here and doing some shopping around.

Yep, a thumb is a good thing to have for the little they cost. Imagine your hand without a thumb. Also a ripper tooth if you plan to dig a lot of stumps, another low cost backhoe accessory. I'll be doing some stumping when the weather gets a bit nicer out . Dig ditches, do some excavating etc. etc. etc.
A backhoe is made for digging while a loader is really designed for moving stuff around.

If you're gonna dig, get the hoe and get a good one with a subframe made for the tractor along with the tractor so you don't trash your warranty.

 

[Fernland]

Yes BH is a must have for your intended useage (IMO). Very happy I added to my purchase. That being said 6000 is excessive for a TLB combo.

 

[bamboozled]

I considered this same thing when I was buying my Max28. I can count on one hand how many times I've wished I would have gotten the backhoe, and usually I can get around it.

Only once have I actually gone and rented a small excavator. It was August, the ground was bone dry and I had about a dozen 6 inch or less stumps to dig out. So to summarize, unless you are retired and just want the backhoe to putz around on, I would pass and spend the money elsewhere. My dealer even agreed with me after I decided against it.

One to four inch or less trees? Get a subsoiler and pop them out after cutting them off.

 

[Baby Grand]

Like dickfoster said:

If you're gonna dig, get the hoe and get a good one with a subframe made for the tractor along with the tractor so you don't trash your warranty.

With 5 acres and it sounds like some construction in your future, my $.02 is try to get the backhoe as part of the tractor deal. You'll get a better deal than buying it later and you'll find all sorts of work for it, right away. This weekend I scooped out a new 12' diameter pool to about 5' deep, took out 2 10" elm stumps that had been complicating nearby mowing and transplanted a giant ornamental tussock grass for The Plant Manager.

As bamboozled suggested, a subsoiler has helped me dispatch many small stumps (under 6"), but be aware that in places with deep soils, white oak, hickory, walnut and (I think) pine trees may have really deep & tough taproots and very few lateral roots when they're small, which gives you very little for the subsoiler to hook onto.

 

[dragoneggs]

I considered this same thing when I was buying my Max28. I can count on one hand how many times I've wished I would have gotten the backhoe, and usually I can get around it.

Only once have I actually gone and rented a small excavator. It was August, the ground was bone dry and I had about a dozen 6 inch or less stumps to dig out. So to summarize, unless you are retired and just want the backhoe to putz around on, I would pass and spend the money elsewhere. My dealer even agreed with me after I decided against it.

One to four inch or less trees? Get a subsoiler and pop them out after cutting them off.

I will beg to differ with you but to each his own... I absolutely love my BH and it is on most of the time. My other two implements are a back blade and a rake. Depends on your property and uses. Yes, $6K might buy several other implements but none of them will dig a decent sized trench or dig out a decent sized stump or rock. I barely touch my shovels and my back is quite happy about that. I would buy it all over again in a heartbeat.

 

[4570Man]

I love my backhoe. It is the second most useful attachment I have second to the grapple. I bought my backhoe used and have about $4,000 in it.

 

[grm61]

The Hoe was a priority when I bought my machine.
Everything my Wife dreams up involves digging a hole.

They are very handy to have, pulling out brush, weeding overgrown beds, peeling up sod, digging up rocks, planting trees ,shrubs, digging holes, stumps, broken water lines, burying critters, pulling molding off the side of the house etc......:laughing:

Would not want to be without it:thumbsup:

 

[dragoneggs]

I love my backhoe. It is the second most useful attachment I have second to the grapple. I bought my backhoe used and have about $4,000 in it.

Oh thanks... you had to bring up a grapple!

 

[ultrarunner]

I had to have a backhoe and that is the reason I bought my BX23... it has been a great tractor and I have others... the BX would be the last one I would get rid of if it came to that.

My brother bought a backhoe for his L3800... so far he has used it... but in 2 years not all that much... it is also rather cramped on the operator platform for an adult.

One thing is that it always seems to cost more after the fact and sometimes the warranty is less if not bought new with the tractor... not sure how it is with Mahindra.

I think you are right with the small BX tires and forested area... not that it wouldn't work... just larger tires clear obstacles better.