To hoe, or not to hoe...

Humdinger · Apr 3, 2011

Does anyone regret their backhoe purchase? Maybe found out you don't use it nearly as much as you thought. Are they hard to use? Hard to move on/off when you want to use another attachment?

TripleR · Apr 3, 2011

Man, that is a can of worms like cab/open station, HST/gear, R1/R3/R4.

We have a Case backhoe we haven't used in years. We needed one a couple of times last year and rented an excavator.

In spite of having owned/owning one and not using it, people keep telling me, it is a "must have". For some it is and for some it isn't. We will continue to rent.

Good luck.

BillBeyer · Apr 3, 2011

Had mine about 5 years now. Have not used it as much the last two years but the first 3 it was busy putting in flower beds for the wife and all her sisters. In process of building new house for us so it will start putting in flower beds and trees again. I did use it extensively cleaning up the 12 acres we are building on now. I have never taken it off but it will come off in less than 15 minutes I am told. I have a hay spear on FEL so it makes a nice counter weight, expensive weight but it is always on. Never regretted buying it and when I retire next year it will get used alot more as I play....I mean work.

Fishing · Apr 3, 2011

I have a hoe on my L 35 Kubota that I find new use's for often. Just last week I was cutting out a fence row along a roadway, with the hoe I could have the tractor off the road and push the cedar trees into the field. After cutting I could take the hoe and hook the trees and drag to the pile,without getting off the tractor. I can hook up my frame mounted hoe easier than a 3 pt. blade.

Rob

jdfire · Apr 3, 2011

I think it depends on your situation. If you have property that is already developed/landscaped and you are basically in a maintenance mode then it may not be used as often. If you are developing your property and will be clearing trees and brush, digging stumps, burying pipes, digging drainage ditches etc. then I think you will find it very useful. I have used mine quite a bit. Sure beats a shovel!

Carl_NH · Apr 3, 2011

jdfire and others make a very good point - in maintenance mode on a property it is likely a nice to have implement, for example if your needs are mostly brush hogging and you need to do this say 9 months a year then taking it on/off when needed could be a chore.

The newer hoes with 4Pt attachment are easier (much like the dedicated TLB) to swap implements. As others have said, it takes longer to put on the 3PT arms and implement than R&R the BH.

The other case is region dependent, if you have lots of rocks, hoes earn their keep - here in NH each spring a new crop seems to grow from the frost heaves.

CompactTractorFan · Apr 3, 2011

So far I have used the BX25's hoe pretty much. Mostly for digging stumps. We have a lot of bamboo that will need to be dug out which will be a multi-year project, so getting a hoe was pretty much a necessity...:thumbsup: Getting it on and off is pretty easy, and like others said, getting the 3-point hitch on is harder. I must say, it does take pretty much room in the garage...

Mousefield · Apr 3, 2011

I am glad I got my backhoe with THUMB. For me picking up firewood rounds and being able to place it on my wood splitter is almost priceless. Being able to pickup logs to a good cutting height, what a back saver. Part of the reason I got the tractor in the first place was to get it with backhoe and thumb. See that most don't have a thumb but it sure comes in handy for me. My :2cents:

fredhargis · Apr 3, 2011

I don't regret it, but it can't be justified on the uses I have for it. On my tractor ( Kubota B2920), it comes off extremely easily. Goes back on with some effort (maybe 30 minutes +, typically). I find lining the tractor up for the pins to sit correctly to be tricky...maybe some day:laughing:. On mine, the 3 PH has to removed when the hoe is one...this is about a 5-10 minute job, and doesn't seem to be such a big deal. If I was to do it over, I'm not sure whether I would get the hoe or not; in my case it's almost a big boy's toy (or at least an old man's toy :thumbsup

. BTW, if you choose to get one, be sure to get the thumb...that thing is really handy.

brandoro · Apr 3, 2011

Mine is a 3pt mount (whole new can of worms to open there

). I bought it for a specific project where it worked great. Since then use has been sporadic but I haven't felt the urge to sell it. Jobs that you might not tackle, or would require many hours of hard work are easy with the BH. There are times a thumb would be handy but I don't have one, yet.
Biggest job last summer was digging a trench for underground power for the guy who owns the local store, traded an afternoon of seat time for a couple of boxes of steak for the BBQ. I hope he needs more digging done this year.:licking: