"Poor Folks have poor ways"....I heard that my first year (1974) in the Ozarks. Money was, and still is, difficult to come by on these hardscrabble farms. I have learned to make do, and find innovative ways to multiply the value and use of any item that our hard-earned cash was spent on.
We have a lot of projects that require burying things.....septic tanks, manure pits, cisterns, electric lines, water lines......and a lot of things that require digging things up.....stump removal, basements, root cellars, foundations, gardens and orchards. Buying equipment might be painful $$$......BUT.....giving someone $60. to $150. per hour to dig or bury for us is intolerable. I was looking for a used backhoe attachment for my 60 HP Belarus tractor, when I stumbled on the best kept secret currently in the machinery trade.
I have noticed that farm "tractors" are holding their value on Craigslist. Many middle aged tractors are selling for as much, or more than when they were new. BUT..... heavy equipment prices have plummeted. Backhoes are still pulling down a fair price, but dozers are "worth the money" now.
One piece of machinery stood out as an outstanding value. Contractors bought them to install utilities, cable, irrigation/sprinklers, etc. and they are getting rid of them in droves.....often very cheap.TRENCHERS ARE CHEAP, VERY CHEAP RIGHT NOW.
I ended up with a Ditch Witch 3500. It has a 48" trencher bar on back, and an 18" vibratory cable plow. On the front, it has a A 320 backhoe that can dig 6 feet deep, and a 60" 6 way backfill blade. The machine had 816 hours on it and was in VERY good shape. It cost about $700 worth of bushings, gaskets, filters, and minor parts replaced to bring it to 100% shape. We just dug our first septic tank and drain field holes ( took 5 gallons of diesel !!! ).....subtract $2000. from the price, and buried 1400' of 1 1/2" Sch 40 pvc from the pond to the orchard and garden.... subtract another $1200 from the price......and loaded multiple tons of rocks from a foundation excavation into the pickup with the backhoe....deduct the price of a bottle of Ibuprofen.
The trencher will cut a 5" trench, 48" deep, allowing pipe burying without a huge trench being dug. The cable plow will bury electric all over the farm with barely a noticeable trail....AND THE BACKHOE.... who doesn't need a backhoe !!??!!!. The backfill blade will slowly level and grade loose fill and spoil from excavations, or even level a load of gravel for a parking spot or foundation.
We paid $6K for the machine....and added another $700. It is half paid for already with the $$$ we saved on hired work....AND..... all my neighbors have plans to use us to do the same for them at our "neighbor" $$$$ charge of $55./hr.
Use "CraigsPal" to do a 150 mile search. The machines can be hauled on a gooseneck with a 1 ton truck.....It is one of the best purchases I have ever made.
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