I am looking to pick up my first backhoe for a few spring projects that I am lining up. I have time to shop around as I dont really need it for almost 2 months. Also this will be part of a larger package of purchases. I am picking up an older Lull, single axle medium duty dump and a trailer as well. Since I plan to tow the Lull with the truck and trailer I dont think weight will be too much of an issue with my backhoe purchase. I am leaning toward a Case 580 either D E or K right now. I would like 4wd and extend a hoe, but might toss these if I find one without at a great price. Also I would like to keep the purchase around 6k-8k. I am not 100% dead set on the Case, they just seem to be readily available. That makes me think parts will be readily available too since I will be maintaining mot of the machine myself. Any thoughts or experiences that can help me as I start looking into this?
Case parts are mostly available but not exactly cheap. (And other brands about the same) Case is the only one I have worked on, but John Deere & Cat seem to be good choices. I suspect you can find a Ford cheaper. For this price you may end up with a Case 580B. I would say your target price is low, but you might find one depending on how much you would be willing to spend rebuilding cylinders etc. You can spend $2000 real fast and I am learning $5000 is easy to spend on a hoe that seems to be already in decent shape. To me that makes $14K-$20K a more realistic price for a hoe ready to work. Seems to me that in 20 years seals, brakes etc are shot. There is just so many items to consider about what maintenence/items repaired and hours are on the machine. Also it seems the hourmeter on lots of the old machines do not work, or was disconnected at some point. http://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/case/backhoe-loaders-for-sale/all/ You can look at this link only if you want to be discouraged. You will not like the 1st 20 at all. I suspect a trailer would be in the 3K to 5K depending on what size, shape etc.
Good Luck in that price range... you might find a 2 WD machine worth owning. Parts availibility for your local area shoud be a major consideration. The price is right only if you can get parts for the machine. They will break. Call the local dealer of the brand you are looking at. They will tell you if there are parts available. They want to make sales and if you can't get parts for them they won't make any money off of you. This tends to keep them honest. I think the $10- $20k price range might be more realistic.
Thanks for the input guys. I know the price range is a little tough. Maybe a basic 2wd model would be the way to go. I have seen a number of 4wd models in that price range, but those adds normally didn't have pictures, list the hours, or much general info. In my experience when a seller leaves these out of the add it is because they are not too proud of the condition and dont want to scare away a potential buyer. Not always the case but I always get suspicious when something is being sold without much information. Also just to give you guys a little more info this will not be an every day machine. For years I have done just fine with rental equipment and subbing out as needed. However I have a few good size residential construction projects that make this spring and summer look really good. Since there seem to be some very nice deals out there I figured it would be a good time to invest some of the company money in larger equipment. Down the line if I do find myself using the machine a lot I can upgrade, overhaul/restore the existing or supplement with some additional equipment. Also if I find out I am not using the machine too much I can hopefully sell it and recoup a decent amount of my money as long as I haven't had to make any extreme repairs.
I'd go with 4wd if I were you. What type of terrain our your working in. The only thing a 2wd is good for I think is road construction, if your really set on 2wd you better be ready to use the rear differential lock, and the hoe - the only 2 things that could save you. I've had lots of experience with 2wd backhoes, and really there not that bad, just I wouldn't want to own one in this day, or age. My family has had the old C's, and E's- the E's I have to say are a far better machine. We had a 580e construction king, and it was beautiful. Best purchase, my dad and grandfarther ever made besides our new 580 super m- which is a beast. I'd spend the extra $cash for 4wd, any day. Let us know how it pans out, case 580sm
I'm in CT as well and I can tell you the market is only just now starting to open up lately. I was looking for about 2 years for just the right deal. I'm simply a homeowner looking for a yard machine. There's a lot of junk in the Eastern part of the state...leakers, no roll-over, diesels that have knocks and other noises that I wasn't comfortable with. Gassers are out there, but I'm a diesel guy. In your price range, on average, in the CT/RI region, you'll be looking at 2WD in the late 70's for a machine in the Case 580b/c, JD 310-410. Get a network going if you have pals in the field - the more eyes searching for you the more apt you'll be to find a good, unadvertised, deal. Just this past week, I finally found a (late 70's, maybe early 80's?) 580C with thumb & extend-a-hoe in fair shape out of an estate settlement. If you can afford to have patience, go slow, you'll have to kiss a few toads to find that princess...but the right deal will come along.
Kevin, You hit the nail on the head. The "usual advertised prices in my range are not going to get me the machine I want. Mind sharing what you paid for the 580C from the estate sale? In a week or two I am going to start getting more serious with my searches and start throwing feelers out for a deal like you got. I have the time and patience to wait for the right deal as I could always just rent what I need for now. I have a feeling there are a few nice machines out there that are only being held onto for snow contracts. Since we havent had any of that this year I am thinking they might start hitting the market once the contracts expire in the next month or two. At least that is what I am hoping will happen.
I paid $4000 - I just posted about that deal and it's condition after I replied to your thread - see "landed on a 580C" Thread - What section of CT are you in? NW Hills? Danbury area? Hartford (Central)? Eastern?
Oh... yeah - and sounds like we both had our share of craig's listings - if it's a true deal it gets snatched up pretty quick. Dealer's troll the want-ad forums and move in fast with cash if it's real. There was a 1980 JD410 in Danbury for $4500 that looked like a good machine - looked clean.
I just picked up a 89 Ford new holland 455 this past week. 4wd extenda-hoe. Fairly good shape. Runs good, 4wd works great, engine sounds good. Oil levels were in spec, the hoe was a bit sloppy and the lower boom pin needs replacement. Overall the machine was a little on the high end for hours at 6000. But i only plan on using it for a occasional yard machine to clean up my property. I plan to replace the boom pin and run it untill I finish with the big projects. Just keep your eye's open on craigslist. I looked at several machines before finally settling for one. I feel like i got lucky finding a 4wd machine for the price i picked it up for.
I am in Roxbury. Southern end of Litchfield County, about 30 minutes north of Danbury
Mind if I ask how much you paid? Sounds like a great machine.
Hi Guys......new to the site, but after reading several posts - there is a wealth of information here. My Dad (who will be 80 years old in April) has a 580B CK that I have been trying to get to running - new starter, cleaning the shuttle valve control body - and she is going. Seems to be a very good machine, but (seems there is always a BUT) I have two pressing issues : 1. The clutch pedal (this is a shuttle shift) does not come back up as freely or as quickly as you would expect. I thought about adding an extra spring to "help" it.....then I saw where someone mentioned a clogged "shuttle pump intake screen" may cause a clutch pedal to work slowly. How would you clean it without breaking into the transmission....could you drain it and run some diesel through the system???.....or just go with an extra spring>>> 2. The tractor is missing the right front floor board - that's right not foot accelerator, does anyone have a picture of the exact location and set-up for the linkage. The parts book just does not show enough information, Thanks alot for the help and guidance....looking forward to your feedback.
War Eagle, my 580B 'clutch' pedal was doing the same after I got it running (On the shuttle units it is really not a clutch, but shuttle pressure dump, but no matter). I found that someone had removed the brake tie bar at the brake pedals. When you push the 'clutch', do the brakes apply?? When I replaced that piece, the spring returns on the brakes helped the clutch return. As far as the pump pickup, it has nothing to do with the clutch return. Does the stuttle pressure gauge still work? And if so how much shuttle pressure do you have with the shuttle lever in neutral and the clutch out? Does it drop when you put the shuttle in gear? Mine did, so I did the trick to clean the pickup and all is well now... If the tractor is pushing good with good pressure that is not the issue. Finding the floorboard and pedal will be a challenge. I would try Wenger's of Myerstown, or some salvage yard like that. I have had good luck getting parts no longer supplied from them. HTH, Dave
Thanks dwloop, you got a good point about the brakes - one spring is missing, the other appears very weak. I just received my 2 new springs. I did notice that the brakes did depress when pushing in on the clutch - but the brakes did not return without some help - I'll try the springs and see how it works, all is lubricated and seems to be working ok, the brake springs may do the trick. I have the accelerator linkage, if I can find a picture of the set-up / location I was going to try and fab the floor board and pedal - but I wasn't sure about the location of the accelerator "bar" immediately under the floor board (it pivots for the pedal movement).....I think the bar may actually attach to the underside of the floor board....?? If I can find a picture it would help alot......I'll keep looking, actually I was also looking for a machine close by that I could take a look at for the set-up, I'll try the salvage yard approach also. Thanks for the help
dwloop, I forgot to ask - what is the "trick to clean the pick-up", is it flushing the transmission with some diesel....??? The pressure is green and ten drops when you put the shuttle in forward / reverse.....but once it is going (i.e. the clutch pedal is out) the power seems to be ok. Thanks again.
Here is another link for you to look at.. http://www.machinerytrader.com/list...Manu=CASE&bcatid=4&Pref=0&scf=false&HDROR=asc
War Eagle, It is going to drop when engaging the shuttle, but should return quickly to close to the neutral pressure. The trick is not for the faint of heart, it invloves drilling and large hole directly under the pickup tube carefully to not tear the filter screen. Then tapping the hole for a pipe plug to use as a drain, then flushing through that drain. The pickup tube sits in a well in the torque tube that once trash gets in the system will not allow the material to be flushed out without breaking the tractor. The trash sucks to the pump intake screen and limits the volume of oil the pump can get, dropping the pressure. That is only one scenario that can cause shuttle pressure issues, but seems to be a common one on these tractors with age. Other things can cause the pressure to drop, such as the clutch pack seals and a bad pump. When I purchased mine it would not move, had around 200 lbs of shuttle pressure when the shuttle was in neutral, but when put in forward or reverse the pressure would drop to almost nothing. The trash limited the volume of the pump output to a point it could not keep up with the clutch packs. I had nothing to loose but some time, since I had already decided to break the tractor if that did not work. I was very lucky, it did work and I was able to use the tractor all summer last year. BTW: Once you get your three posts in you need to start another thread, so we don't take this one over... Dave
I picked it up for 7500$ And paid about 400 to have it shipped to me. Overall so far i'm definately happy with the purchase!
I can't start a new thread yet but I think those reading this thread may be of help. We bought a 580E about a year ago in fairly good condition. The previous owner was obviously not very mechanically inclined and did minimal repairs. Last week we could not get the 4 wheel drive to work and found at some time they have snapped off the clevis from the cylinder that pulls it in and out of gear and tried to weld it back on-obviously not very well. It looks like a big job to get the old part out and replace it. Any good suggestions? Thanks for any help.
I have had several case backhoes over the years, would be a good choice, parts are available, stay away from any "G" modles, these are gray market I think and parts would be harder to find.
I looked for quite awhile on machinery trader, craigslist and other sites that i came across during my search. The most usefull search tool I had was a application for my smart phone called Craigs Notification. It let me setup search's for multiple areas at once. I setup about 6 different search's all within multiple cities located in MA, CT, RI, NY and I used search charicaristics like "backhoe" "back hoe" "case backhoe" "ford" "ford 555" "Deere", that way I got alot of results for everything around me, and i set my price range to 12000 at the most to filter out the newer machines that were out of my price range. The only discouraging thing for me during the process was the fact I was definately ready to buy a machine and I had cash in hand, but the first few machines I looked at were definately not in the shape I was hoping. A couple of them i knew i didn't even want to look at it as i pulled up. It was a bummer knowing i just drove a couple hours to look at something that was advertised to be much better then it actually was... When i came across the one i just got, i knew once I saw it I was visually happy with it, and after testing it I certainly knew I wanted it. So Definately try to be patient and don't impulse buy becuase it'll be very easy to end up with a POS that could cause high end maintenance costs.
dw710, I have the same app on my phone and am searching the exact same way. The only annoyance with this is the HUGE amounts of spam postings I get. Easy enough to delete but some mornings I will have 75 or more just in the John Deere section. I plan to take my time and wait for the right deal (or steal like KevinK2). I have another month or two until I actually need a machine on site and even then could still rent until I find the right machine. nlcsoss, Thanks for the info. I have not seen any G's but apreciate the heads up. Correct me if I am wrong but for non grey market I will be looking at B,C,D,E,K,M, right? I would prefer E or K but budget might work better with a C or D.
haha yeah i definately know what you mean about the spam... It's rediculous how many ad's there are everyday.... it seems like most of those ad's come from the boston area.. Another thing if you don't have a way to move the machine or the current owner can't deliver it, keep uship in mind. I found some reasonable offers on there to move the machine for me. But then I found a local guy to me that charge'd 90$ a hour to haul it. It seemed like on average for hauling prices were from 90-115$ a hour from what I found. I've still got my search's running on my phone, if i come across anything that looks worth while i'll post it up here for you.
I bought a case 580B last year for $2,000. It was sitting in a yard in my neighborhood for a long time, so i finally went and asked the people if they wanted to sell it. To my surprise they said yes. Then they told me it doesn't move. I was thinking, great something i gotta take apart and fix. Not what i was looking for! Anyway, i told my cousin about it, who owns a 580E, and he said that he would bet that those people don't know about the automatic transmission fluid. He said they probably only checked the manual transmission. (Of course now i know it is called a shuttle.) He told me if i didn't buy it he would just to fix it and sell it for a profit. That was enough for me. Yeah, it was a gamble, but it paid off. I pulled it home with my F-350 pickup, and checked the shuttle fluid. It did not even show on the stick. It took 4 gallons of fluid. I started it up and it ran like champ. That made me so happy. Yeah it had some other issues. Replaced the brakes. Had 2 Hydralic cylinders re-sealed. Replaced a couple of hoses. (One of them was throwing fluid every where.) All in all i think i spent $800 getting it going. I got a good deal, as far as i am concerned. I used it all through the summer, and it is still working great. So what i am saying is, if you are willing to shell out the kind of money you said you were willing to spend, i think you should be able to get something that you don't have to fix anything on. At least not right off the bat. With older machines you have to expect to have to replace a hose here and there. Or have a hydralic cylinder re-sealed. And other, hopefully, minor repairs. I replaced all the fluids and filters before i ran it just to be on the safe side. And i would recommend to anyone buying an older machine to do the same. If for no other reason than peace of mind. Look around. If you see one that looks like it has been sitting around for a while, ask about it. You never know. Just be careful about the price if it needs work. Good luck with your search. :usa
ijoker: Yeah I actually asked a few people about there machines that were sitting in their yards. One person didn't want to sell there equip, and the other one did, however after running it i decided it waas just to small for what I wanted to do to my yard. But either way i'm glad that I stopped and asked!
I have gotten a few good deals on my case garden tractors that way. I have scouted out a few yard machines that I might stop in on once I am ready with cash in hand. Those types of deals normally go best when you can make a serious offer on the spot. I also might throw a wanted add in a few of the smaller local papers and see what comes up.
If this thread still lives....dw710 makes a REALLY good point...never settle for a smaller machine. If you have certain jobs in mind and you know what kind of abuse you'll subject it to, never look down in size, up is OK!! Never down...you'll regret it (oddly, the same logic applies to boating, but that all for another website! LOL!!)
Ok, So apparently I am a bad listener like my mom always said, lol. As it turned out my work load changed significantly. I will be just as busy, but wont need any "heavy" equipment. So I invested most of my money into a 28' combo tool/office trailer. This way I can be on site and ensure everything goes as planned. I also bought a 1976 Case 646B. If you are not familiar, it is a larger version of there old garden tractor line with a dedicated loader and backhoe. Kind of like a Teramite but better. I collect older Case garden tractors and this can handle some basic digging around the house and minor site work. I may move onto a bigger machine when work dictates, but for now this will wet my appetite and be fun. And for 2k I couldn't go wrong. Thanks for all the advice guys. It wont go to waste. Just dont need it right yet.
I realize these are older posts but I have a 580C Construction King back hoe for sale. Please email me if interested. [email protected] Thanks