Hello all, newbie here. I'm looking to buy a backhoe for digging up some stumps On my property. My price range is around 5,000 ,ya I know that's not a lot. So I found a john deere 1020 diesel backhoe(early 60's) looks in good shape not all beat up . steering is tight and drives fine' front. Ucket and how works good and don't see a lot of play in pins. My question is can anyone give me any in for on this tractor? Other forums I've been on it's 50/50 about how good/bad they are. But most of them are talking about the 1020 farm tractor and not backhoes. Any info would be a big help thanks
Can't say I know anything about the tractor/hoe, but I have a similar era loader backhoe (Ford 3500) for odds and ends jobs and it's been a good tractor within the limitations of it's size/build. These tractors are generally just farm tractors possibly with some reinforcing of certain areas with a backhoe & loader attachment - not the later style TLB which uses a real frame and is built from the ground up as a industrial TLB tractor. This means that most of the parts are likely the same as the ag tractor and hence easy to get, but also means it's not as strong. Also in your case whatever good/.bad opinions you find on the farm tractor probably also apply to the industrial version. Being typically weaker, lighter and less powerful than the later TLB, you woln't be able to get as much work out of it, and could find yourself wanting a bigger more powerful machine - hard to say. Mine is just for around the ranch work where I can accept slower work and less power - would be different if it was a production machine. Depending on how big of stumps you're talking about you might find it's not a good idea just due to a lack of hydraulic power - if they're big stumps you may simply not have enough force to get them out/lift them. The big thing for me is that it's lighter than a typical TLB (mine is ~9500 lb) and hence light enough (barely) to fit on the trailer/pickup I have. A full size TLB means a 10 ton or larger trailer and truck to match.