I'm buying about 50 acres of rugged desert and need a piece of equipment for digging, loading, hauling, grading, etc. The property is rugged and varied with a wide range of soil/rock conditions and some difficult grades. I plan to put in some roads, improve others, dig a couple of ponds, harvest gravel, sand, cobble, and large stones from an ancient creek bed. Ideally, I'd buy a dozer, loader, excavator, and dump truck. Sadly, I can only spend about $20K. Maybe $25K. I'm leaning toward a track loader with a 4n1 bucket and a backhoe attachment. I've never owned, or even operated, heavy equipment. So, I'm pretty much clueless. The one thing I'm sure of is that I don't want to buy the wrong piece of equipment and spend the next few years kicking myself for failing consider all my options.
Track loaders are awesome only down fall is if you have to shuttle material any type of distance it kill productivity but every you mentioned can be done with the setup you are leaning towards
Make sure you look at the tracks closely, don't want to spend all your money on it and then a month later you need 10 grand in track parts.
I guess that's the main trade-off between a track loader and a normal loader. Power and traction vs speed (not to mention the ability to drive on pavement). Since it will rarely leave my small property, I'll take the raw power over the speed. Also, I expect to be able to borrow a friend's dump truck on occasion. That should make the road work a little more manageable. The longest drive from road-material source to road work will be about 1/2 mile. I definitely don't want to move that material one bucket at a time.
Good point. Since I won't have $10K, I'll have to spend $10 on a want add to sell the broken beast.
Have you ever thought about a large rubber tire backhoe like a 4x4 710d deere you can find those in your price range they push and dig pretty good also allot more nimble than a track loader with out the expensive under carraige wear
With a backhoe you have to be careful around slopes, they will flop over if you get into a side slope situation.
Be careful. Better stay on the flats until you get the hang of things.
Good points. I'm hoping to be able to detach the hoe and switch it out for counterweights most of the time -only attach the hoe when needed. Also, most of my work will be in fairly level areas. Delaying the slope work should not be a problem. Then again, my life insurance is up to date and my wife is eyeballing some cactus she wants harvested from a steep, rocky slope in a landslide zone.
I'm getting some conflicting info on power/traction of a track loader vs a 4wd loader. I have always assumed (and it just seems obvious) that a tracked vehicle would have much more traction than a wheeled vehicle. However, a buddy of mine is saying it doesn't make much difference on a loader. His point is that the bucket hydraulics and mechanics will be the primary limiting factor. If so, sticking with a wheeled vehicle might make more sense. Thoughts?
If you are talking machines of a similar size the tracked machine will have more traction and more power, I run a CAT 973d tracked loader at a landfill and it is out standing the sort of power it has for the size of machine it is. When pushing a load, the main problem for the noobs at our site is that they try and push something too big but the tracks keep spinning (and they dig a hole and get high centred and very very stuck!). The tracks have more contact with the ground then 4 tires do, as long as your grousers are in good shape a track machine will out perform a tired one. A good hint for looking to buy a tracked machine is that sellers often will have a percentage attached to the wear on the undercarriage, you want that number as high as possible. What was your friend referring to with the hydraulics and mechanics??
Beats me. He was ranting and acting like I was just an idiot (which I am on this topic), so I did not pursue the issue with him. I think he was jealous and upset that I looking to buy something that he wants but can't afford. Alcohol may have also been involved.
You can't beat backhoe for versatility and portability and since it's your first machine I'd stay away from track $ Plus after punishing the dirty little hoe you could trade her in on something different.
I started off with a track loader with a 4 in 1 bucket - it was an amazing amount of fun and power. My first big machine - assuming I don't get to count my JD 770 tractor.... I had a couple of hours in lessons from the seller (nice family machine) so it was in excellent shape. It was a wonder for making some trails, pushing some trees (took me awhile to push trees) - it was a JD555a so I think it could have had a backhoe attachment on the back but I didn't find one. Moved slow though compared with a backhoe or ctl... and weighs about 18,000lb so moving it anywhere wasn't something I could do easily. then started looking at larger tractors and found out how much they cost. I ended up with a CTL-MTL - track machine... absolutely love it. seems more stable than the tractors I tried and so many attachments ...of course the attachments cost a bundle more than tractor attachments. If the new large tractors hadn't cost so much I would have ended up with one of those with all the front end attachments and pto attachments... but the CTL with the tracks is great. And lighter weight so if I needed to haul it I could. Look at the clearance underneath the units too. Can you rent a couple of different machines for a day or two just to try them out and see what you like?