i’m looking at a very nice almost restored 555 a Ford backhoe just a basic hoe Also have a chance to buy a caterpillar 420 D I believe it’s an 03 model. It has 6000 hours fairly well maintained. The Ford is 16500 The cat is 20 grand Common sense says the caterpillar is a better deal, but I like the old Fords am I crazy for even thinking about buying the Ford thanks everybody
Well, all else equal, the Cat will work circles around the 555a. Not really a fair comparison as the Cat is about 90hp and the Ford is about 60hp. Are they both 2wd? Its easy to stick these things with 2wd. I have a 4wd JD 310E and I used 4wd many times to get out of jam.
Cat hands down. Good luck trying to find parts for the 555a. I can barely find them for my dads 555d let alone something even older.
As I don’t know too much about the Ford, I do appreciate the simplicity of having a machine that doesn’t think it’s smarter than me. I do like the Cats but can be expensive to work on. Depends on what you’re doing with it. If there is truth to the parts available, that might seal the deal. Otherwise, I might go with the triple nickel.
Honestly, I could be convinced to purchase either. Do you have any dealers in your area to support one over the other? Test them both and then make up your mind....your gut is usually correct!
Thanks guys as always I’ve owned several 555s over the years. They are simple and powerful enough and are easy to operate. I’ve never owned a cat or even operated one, but this one looks extremely beefy. It wasn’t planned, but I found a 555D 30 miles from my house about 6000 hours. It started up in 27° weather after sitting for three weeks. Everything checked out on it except for the four-wheel-drive, but I believe it’s linkage related and not drive train Right choice 16 K it’s almost impossible to steal a good deal around here
Lotta people saying hoes are obsolete, but you sure could not tell that by the prices!
Lot of junk out there also.
I love the 555, but the Cat is twice the machine. You have left out a lot of important information. Four wheel drive is VERY important. Age makes a world of difference. Ford is now an orphan, parts are not certain. Cat is famous for product parts support. Are both joystick controlled? Is the Cat able to pattern change? I personally prefer SAE control pattern, find it difficult to switch my brain to Cat ISO pattern.
A little too much $$$ for the Ford. It was a great machine in it's day though. If it were $12.5K or $13K would make it more appealing. I'm not sure if a 555D is basically an early New Holland. The older 555's were a much better machine than the New Holland machines. The front end loader in particular was night and day better designed. It's like they wanted to make it much cheaper on the NH machines.
I tell the parable: My customer is not an operator. He likes to rent machines. Local rental company is famous for renting broken machines. He drives his truck & trailer 1-1/2 hours each way to rent good machines. He pays $350 per day for nearly new 4-1/2 ton excavator, about as much for a mid size CTL. He would make four round trips, 12 hours driving to rent machines for the job. He would then use 2 days of an employee pay to operate. He had a foundation hole for a wind turbine tower to dig. He wanted 15' square hole, tapering to 17' square at bottom, 5' deep, with a level bottom. He wanted the spoils from the hole placed on a 5' high terrace 150 yards away. Including hauling equipment to & from the site, setting up the lazer level, fine tuning the floor of the hole ready for concrete pour, I spent 7-1/2 hours with a backhoe. Is that obsolete? My backhoe reaches 22 feet from the swing tower pin. It lifts 9500 LBS each scoop. I can see, & reach the opposite side of a 15 foot hole easily. If the ground isn't level, I can lift front & either side to level the machine. Mine can move 22 MPH on the highway. Moving dirt with the loader bucket, mine moves 1-1/2 cubic yards at speed. The compact track loader must make three trips to move that much. Mine lifts to a height to load the tallest dump truck, most Compact skid loaders or compact track loaders can't. Can you really call this obsolete? It is true, trenching on flat land, 46" deep, 8 ton excavator will dig faster than an 8 ton backhoe. It is when you do all the rest of the job the backhoe dominates.
I think a backhoe is a versatile machine. My 14' backhoe is fairly typical and has over 10,000lbs. digging force and max. lift capacity is around 2300lbs. I can't imagine how big a backhoe would have to be to lift 9500lbs. Breakout yes but not lift capacity. Most clay material is around 3000lbs./yd. My former neighbor had a 3/4yd. excavator weighing 32,000lbs. and a 3000lb. wrecking ball was about all it could handle when stretched out.
No, I was talking breakout force. I move around 10,000 but don't actually lift it. I'll measure marble blocks at the veterans memorial. They are roughly 8 x 3 x 2'. A ton of Danby marble is 11 cubic feet. My friend preparing the ground under the blocks With me craning them up with the hoe was scaring me to death. I asked: "Please only put one arm under that at a time. No point loosing two at one time."
Thanks for clearing that up. 9500lbs. breakout makes sense. Talking about lift capacity I was shocked how much the Hopto H1900 excavators can lift. 68,000lbs.+ at 15' radius. Std. bucket is 4yds. No wonder they weigh 103 tons!
Never owned a Cat but I’m partial to the old Fords. Parts availability is good because most parts cross with the agricultural stuff and what you can’t order is at the salvage yard. This is an old 4 stick Ford 4500 I’ve had for 15yrs or so. Great machine for the small projects but it’s nothing compared to the excavator. 500gal shop septic installed last weekend before the freeze….6hrs start to finish but never would’ve happened without the Ex-120
That threw me a minute too. My 555D has a backhoe bucket force of ~11,800 lbs and dipper force of ~7,600 lbs, but I've actually tested *lifting* ability by pulling on a big 'ole stump with a force gauge and it was only good for a max of about 4,500 pounds that way.
From Ritchie Specs.: Mine has the Power Lift Option. I haven't used it. Should be a warning on the toggle: IF YOU HAVEN'T BROKEN YET, YOU WILL! Without hitting POWER LIFT, (an option increases hydraulic pressure by ?500?PSI.) I have had front bucket several feet off the ground while digging with the backhoe. In the race for the highest specs, Case went stupid. A well built machine will balance power to not break itself.
Ritchie is a little iffy... They have some definitely off specs on a lot of machines. Some of the ones for my machine are definitely not correct.
OK, I lied. It'll lift about 50 lbs.
If the Ritchie specs. are accurate is just crazy. Pretty much guaranteeing you'll break something sooner rather than later if you're not a careful operator.
They're not accurate more often than not in the ones I have checked vs. correct information from the OE manufacturers. They have a tendency to mix things in where they don't belong, like for instance the front loader specs mixed in with the backhoe specs. And in more than a few instances, just plain off the wall inaccurate information period. They're an unreliable source of info, to put it mildly. For instance, the "lift to full height" in Willie's post that Ritchie shows under the header "Backhoe Breakout" may likely be the spec for the front loader at full lift on a Cat 420D. Never seen a backhoe digging bucket rated for "lift to full height" anywhere, myself, though I have seen lift ratings below grade. Seen much better ratings for lift at various heights and radius from pivot on excavators. Backhoes they always seem to be a little cagey on. The bucket force figure for the 420D backhoe looks correct, however. Like I said, Ritchie can be hit or miss. Don't blindly trust their numbers. As another example, my 555D is listed at Ritchie with both 65 HP and 275 Gross Horsepower. Also apparently has a 428 cubic inch engine. Made by Caterpillar.
I see after a closer look the lift capacity and bucket width are for the front loader. I've seen other mistakes on Ritchie specs. in the past as well.
I like to think I am a careful operator, but did dig out a 9 X 5 X 5' boulder & folded back a bucket tooth. Provided a bit of heavy equipment welding experience. The power lift is frightening to me, I figure this hoe is better suited to a 30,000 LB machine, not a 17,000 LB machine.
Did you take a pic. of the folded tooth? I've seen buckets ripped apart but don't recall one folded back.
I didn't get pictures of that one, barely noticeable in a picture. I got pictures of an earlier bucket I prepped for major surgery with only a 580K:
I have bolt on side cutters on my hoe bucket. One of them is bent outward and I have no idea when it happened. It would take a lot of force though. Mind you I did rip the top swing mount right off and bend the lower 1 1/2" swing mount. That was a fault of poor design. Crack started at a grease fitting and then followed the edge of the bushing weld that had a little undercut. There was another member with same backhoe that posted a pic. and his was cracked at the grease fitting too. He was lucky he posted the pic. and I was able to warn him. It was a pretty big repair. I wish I would have thought to take pics. I was so glad that it fit back together when I put the hoe back together. I would have cried if it didn't. I made it considerably stronger than OEM and so far no issues. I can pull the track loader around with the hoe.