Guys, I have a dilemma I'm in the market for a piece of equipment in order to diversify my business in a mountainous area in the Caribbean island of Trinidad. I own a hardware in this area and I would like to get into general contracting and house building however, I have a limited income and I cannot afford numerous pieces of equipment to make this step. I own a Case 1840 99' that is in fair condition but i was wondering if a backhoe would be a better step in the direction that i want to go vs say a mini excavator. I've seen alot of videos (on youtube by jcb and wacker nueson) recently touting the benefits of both but I would like to get the advice from experienced users and not just advertisements. So conclusively, will my old skid steer and a mini excavator do the same job as a full sized backhoe or am I just misinformed in this regard? Thanks
It depends on how big your mini excavator will be. I have a 6 ton mini ex, it's arm/bucket specs are slightly behind the Cat 416 (12.8klbs/7.2klbs vs 11.1klbs/5.6klbs). To be fair, the 416 weighs 11klbs more than the KX057. I'd rather have my excavator than a backhoe, although stronger (bigger) would be better, sometimes.
My advice would be stay with the excavator and skidloader over the backhoe hands down.
A 307/308 is more comparable to a 420D size wise. As far as which machine, it depends on what you want to do. Will the machine be on one site for a while or will you be doing smaller jobs that require mobilization?
Thanks for the insight guys, I was thinking along the lines of a 2-3Ton excavator unit just for the weight cause i now only have a 3t truck for transport to and from the job site. As far as use CM1995 , I would like to do trenching/footing installation as well as some land flattening/cutting into mountainsides (relatively soft dirt). Also, I would be doing more smaller work than large sites so mobilization might be a factor as you mentioned. Price is also a factor cause of my limited budget but don't know if maybe i should hold out for one over the other, I assume the backhoe would be a heavier investment over a mini ex correct me if im wrong again thanks for the response.
A 2-3ton mini ex is a toy IMO It really depends on the job and terrain to which setup is better.... But IMO its only a good comparison if your comparing a bigger mini (307-308) of similar size to the TLB. If we are comparing a 4-5 ton mini to a cat 416 (7-8tons) I would choose the backhoe on just about any job that has enough room to work.
I lived in Costa Rica for a while and the backhoe was king for small excavation contractors. I might have saw one skid steer and a couple of mini's while I was there but tons of 416/420 D's and E's. They roaded them to the job. Since you live on a relatively small island, the ability to drive the machine from job to job might be the deciding factor.