I am curious how the majority here uses their backhoes. Are you just a home/property owner or do you use your backhoe for part time or full time business?
Mine are used mostly in my business, but I wouldn't think anybody would click business only. After all, if I need a backhoe for something at my house, I am unlikely to rent one, or hire somebody.
Mine was bought for my own house and property but it's quickly become used more to help neighbors... It's rough sometimes but I've got a new neighbor that wanted some landscaping done or redone. With my help, a bit of pay from them (they said we get free fresh eggs, for life!) I helped save them months of hard, hard work, and the appreciation they have makes it worth a lot to me. Yeah, it's nice getting a bit of income from the backhoe but it's also nice to know I saved someone tons of work, and it's neat when they know how much work it's saved as well. My biggest complaint about helping neighbors is it usually isn't on my time frame. I'm a big time procrastinator and like to do things when I feel like it. Sometimes folks I help have different time lines than I do, so I've gotten better about mentioning that when help is asked for. I don't mind having a deadline for things but the energy used for those kinds of projects saps it out of me for my own projects.
I wouldn't count helping a neighbor as business even if they pay you. Trying to help neighbors is a slippery slope. I buried a horse for a neighbor once. I didn't ask for compensation and they offered none. It wasn't long before word got out and another neighbor called with a dead horse. That one was further down the road and I was busy digging stumps on my place so I told them I couldn't get to it. A while back the first neighbor had to put down another horse and they called me to bury it. I was knee deep in another project so I told them I couldn't get to it. They won't even wave to me when they pass by now.
The going rate around here to bury something like a horse or cow is $200.00 if it's close enough to drive the backhoe there in a few minutes.
I understand what you mean @NH575E I'm not too hesitant to let people know what I'm capable of and willing to do. So far it's been ok but I can certainly see somewhere in the future where it just gets to be too much. Luckily my neighborhood is small, a lot of us help each other with various stuff, and so far it's working out.
I've been busy with mine. Built a loop type turnaround at the end of the driveway. I dug and spread about 12 yds of chirt type dirt to get that done. Dug and covered an 18" x 20' culvert corrugated pipe. Dug two ditches to feed the pipe. Then put the backhoe to cleanup duty moving 4 loader loads full of jack stands, ladders, pipe, etc. All that would have been a whole lot of work without it.
Helping out neighbors can be tricky. If they are the type that would help you in an instant, then by all means help them out. I've found that a lot of people would like you to help them out but when ever you could use their help they are too busy or want to be paid handsomely. A lot of friendships have been ruined by doing work for friends and neighbors. I try to be friendly with my new neighbor but won't ask him for help with anything anymore. He wanted 150 liters of diesel for pulling my dump truck out with his excavator that cost me $175. I thought that was pretty extreme for about an hour of his time. His normal rate is $150/hr. I'd have much preferred to help him spread gravel with my skid steer or clay with my Cat even if it took several hours. The good thing is now I know better than to ask him.
I remember being shocked to read that in a different thread @Welder Dave I think that's crazy. I would have been hard pressed to not have laughed at his 150 liter suggestion. So far I've been very lucky and folks have been willing to trade services or pay me.
Just up the road another neighbor has kids that ride at my track. The parents came down one day and I was talking to them. They thought the new neighbors were a little odd to. The wife had taken the other neighbors wife into town a couple times when she was going. One day she got a call at her work and it was the other neighbors wife asking if she could borrow her car to drive in to town. No and why did you call me at work? If you need to go into town, get your own car. They don't appear to have much money, their yard looks like a junkyard and they've only been there 3 years. They have a young daughter and just had another kid. I think another daughter but not sure. If you're hurting for work and low on funds why are you having another kid? He mentioned he couldn't apply for income subsidy due to Covid because he's self employed. Talks about all the money he can make but his excavator sits idle at home most of the time.
I bought my backhoe to do some landscaping at a property I intended to sell. 20 years later, I'm still here. I did about $75k worth of work with rocks, embankments, driveway building, etc. In the meantime, I bought a large piece of land and wanted to fix the trails and logging roads but the wheels sank in too much and the 180 degree swing wasn't working out well so I bought an excavator. So it's a little hard for me to define work/home. Fixing real estate is what I do wether it's building a house or building a rock wall or thinning trees. I've enjoyed almost every minute of it ( a couple of 'stucks' w/the hoe ticked me off...) and now I have a purchase and sale agreement on the piece of land... not that the trails had any bearing on that. Mostly, I wanted the equipment and had a use for it and it's sort of paid for it's self.
@Welder Dave that situation sounds tough. I try to be a good neighbor and treat people well but you can certainly only do so much. Watching people make terrible decisions over and over sure makes me want to not help with anything...
My machine is 40 years old and probably has a zillion hours on it. I bought it for cheap a little over a year knowing it had tranny problems. The little woman and myself split the machine (twice) and managed to fix the transmission with a lot of advice from members on this site. It starts instantly, runs good, and the hydraulics work good. However, I don't think it would take much overworking of it to turn it to non-functional scrap. So, to make a short story long, I use it gently around my own place, and consider myself blessed to have a functioning backhoe.
Bought my beast mainly because I couldn't stand to see the old treasure sit out in a corn field with the doors wide open to the elements and figured it would be a good project.( I got issues) But after much attention and parts I've gotten so much crap done around my place...stump digging,hillside relocation to make swamp go away,tree felling, lifting just about anything onto a trailer or into a dump truck ..But one of my favorites is the 62 hp snow shovel with windows and heat when its 25 degrees with 3 feet of fresh snow to clear a 700 ft. driveway in the woods....add a set of ring chains and its unstoppable...I've got two other hydraulic snow shovels,a 1957 ford 850 w/industrial loader,fully rebuilt of course, and a massey 1428 3 banger diesel,4wd but that cab and heat in wny winters is priceless....