Just joined the forum. Per the title, I'm looking at purchasing a 2012 john deere 310sk backhoe with 5k hours. If anyone has experience with this model or similar I'd like to hear anything good or bad they have to say or things to look out for. I've been running equipment on the farm and construction sites in one capacity or another for 25 yrs (tractors, skid loaders, excavators, cranes, telehandlers, etc.) I've never run a backhoe, but I've been around them on jobsites. There aren't a lot in my area and I've always been told they're a "jack of all trades but master of none." Any advice is welcomed, I'm planning on using it primarily for is trenching, clearing trees, feeding hay, clearing snow, moving piles of firewood, installing culverts, a little bit of everything. Unit has a couple of buckets for the hoe, standard bucket up front, and a set of forks. Looking at a thumb for the hoe pretty seriously, trying to find a grapple for the front that's not astronomically expensive.
Welcome to HEF Hickock! After all the other stuff you've run I'd imagine you'll be fine!
every household should own a backhoe
The boom blind spot can be treacherous. IF there are people about, I look on both sides before backing and even then, I about ran somebody down who kept moving into my moving blind spot as I backed and turned. YIKES!
Welcome to HEF @Hickock56 !!
When you see someone gently scraping the bottom of a ditch leveling it out, it looks easy, but not so much. There is a learning curve to it, so don't get frustrated, it takes some seat time to start to get good at it. It's much better than a shovel I must say, no matter how long it takes to learn it. I love a front grapple on a skid steer. The kind that is open and you can see through. If you add something to your solid backhoe bucket, when you turn it down to pick something up you can't see what you are doing.
Thank you for the heads up, I have a pile of kids running around my place and that's always been a huge fear of mine. I'll make sure I'm keeping an eye out!
I've spent a decent amount of time in a mini excavator so I know exactly what you're talking about, I have watched some amazing operators and I'm not one of those guys. I can put in a trench but finish grading and precision work is a whole other level. I have been watching YouTube videos trying to pickup some techniques and a guy mentioned practicing precision work on level ground following grade and then moving up to ditch work. Luckily I'm on 10 acres and I plan on re-tilling all my wife's garden beds, the yard, and maybe the the cow lot among other things! Lol Your referring to a grapple on the front correct? On a side note I called deere today and a thumb for the back is $9600 that seemed a bit much considering a the prices for grapple buckets on a skid loader, but the salesman was adamant that was correct
If you'll settle for a manual thumb they are pretty cheap. Hydraulic can get expensive but look around. Search here for thumb, add a thunb, aftermarket thumb ect. Lot of threads about thumbs. Joe H
I've got a progressive thumb on my backhoe. the brand welded on is WF or something, so I don't know who made it. anyway, having a hydraulic thumb on a backhoe is wonderful. I keep my bucket pinned on the 'dig' holes, so it doesn't curl much, but has loads of power. my thumb is very very strong, but cannot overcome the bucket curl, but the two of them closing on stuff... it'll snap a 4x4 stud like it's nothing. while I like the thumb and think it's great, my favorite are over the bucket forks. you just tilt the bucket, drop and get rid of your forks, and your loader bucket is still there. https://www.ebay.com/itm/301978100155 I live in heavily forested area, these are the best thing out there for picking up immense slash piles, or... with careful loading, you can put nearly a cord of lodgepole (soft northern pine) on the forks and bring it up to the house for processing. forks and a thumb are my vote. Grapple bucket is cool too, my neighbor has one, but he's got a kioti and needs to have stuff as close as possible to the lift arms to pick anything up. Since you are getting a 14k lb machine... over-bucket-forks are a wonderful upgrade. while you are welding those holders on, but some chain hooks in strategic spots - really helpful for unusual loads.
Practice in an open area where the boom can't hit anything, beside you or above. The John Deere pattern and controls are user friendly, based on what you've stated you should pick it up pretty quickly. That being said don't do any digging in tight areas until you're VERY familiar with the controls, it's very easy to over swing and the momentum behind the boom can be unforgiving. Also very damaging. You may already practice this but NEVER, EVER allow anyone to be under a raised attachment, no matter how briefly. I know of three people during my adult life who paid with their lives from this mistake.
Seconded for the loader forks! They are an incredible attachment that isn't terribly expensive and is ridiculously handy. Let us know if you go that route, before you weld on the hooks, so we can give some tips and not weld them on like I did. It looks logical but I put mine in the wrong spot. Also, I came up with a camera setup that makes using the forks very easy and precise. Take everyone's advice and avoid the clamp on forks, mine bent on the second use and weren't nice to use. Uh, also seconded for keeping the pile of kids away. My kids are almost grown, and being that you have other equipment it sounds like this should already be a rule, but the family stays very far from the machine all the time, that is the rule. They can only approach from very wide angles where they have to catch my eye before anything else happens or we can talk or whatever. I've taken the reverse alarm off my machine, but if I had little ones around I'd reconsider.
Beware of using hand tools or chainsaws or anything else. It just seems like a magnet. I have run over the same chainsaw 3 times and rebuilt it twice, this was over almost 30 years. The third time, I stripped it for parts and bought a brand new one, of the same model, Sthil MS-250. I have run over a 4 tine clam rake and didn’t notice, till the handle flapping inside my fender. Run over shovels, root rakes, nice coffee cups. Rule now is, everything on the ground, completely out of the work area, even if it means walking a bit. First thing, put a fire extinguisher in it, a cup holder if it doesn’t have one a a full set of manuals. Good luck and have fun. Oh, and make sure the horn works, it’s the only way to get someone’s attention, or get the damned dog, from out under the damn bucket. Lol
I picked up an old Cat. I bought it before I found this place and I got lucky because Cat still has almost all the parts available. I only found a couple items not available from the dealer. I am not sure about other brands. I have had JD stuff, not construction equip., in the past and parts for them were discontinued and near impossible to find. Not sure if the construction stuff is available longer or not. I am having an old truck restored and the body shop owner has a JCB and loves it. It is 20 years old. He said it is his second one. I have read they are hard to get parts for but he said he did not find that. YMMV.
^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ Still haven't found my track shovel after forgetting it there......
I found a couple of aftermarket options about half the price, don't think I'll go the deere route for that kind of money
... I wasn't doing a search for price, but more for a quick example of over-the-bucket forks. I bought my set for $500 shipped a about 10 years ago. Best addition for a tractor bar none IMHO. Everyone I know who has quick attach pallet forks or bucket forks uses them more than the actual bucket. But... this is forest/mountain country so that makes sense.
I got real lucky with my forks from Titan, if I'm not mistaken. They sent me four boxes of the bracket things, each box had four brackets (only four are needed, not 16), then the bar got lost in the mail, so they shipped another, and a while later the 1st bar showed up. I called them up and they told me to keep it all since it's all so heavy and expensive to ship. It really is beautiful to set your forks down, and they stand up until you are ready to scoop them up again. The whole assembly is very heavy, so make sure you set it down somewhere suitable. I've done a fair amount of chainsawing around the backhoe but luckily I've read how many people tend to run theirs over, so I've kept it typically near the stump, that I also don't want to run over. And, you guys are suckers! I bought the backhoe so I didn't have to use the shovels! I'm not running them over ever! That being said I'm sure most of your projects look much nicer than mine for that very reason. Also, my wife isn't as allergic to the shovel as I am, she tends to do more of the finishing work.
Is there any benefit of the weld on forks vs a pallet fork attachment other than they'd always be on the bucket? The unit it's pictured with a set of forks so I'm hoping those are included. What was the camera setup? That sounds like a great idea.
does that backhoe have a quick-attach front bucket system? If not, your pallet forks are going to require pin removal and reset. not a bad job, just not something you do quickly. Secondly, I'm often picking stuff up wider then 4'. Pallet forks, as their name indicates, are meant mostly for picking pallets... I pick trees wider than the bucket quite often, so having the forks move to the extents of the bucket is great!
I'm pretty sure that unit I'm looking at has a quick attach and the forks look closer to something you would see on a telehandler, but having forks attached to a bucket would be handy
While I agree that sliding the forks out wider is nice and helpful, dropping the loader bucket and picking up forks would be pretty sweet too, if that's what you are talking about. If it's a quick attach scenario like that you could actually see the forks, so the camera setup would likely be unnecessary. The camera setup I have is about as simple as it can get. I got a backup camera with monitor, made for license plate mounting (mine was made with potential use on RVs so the cable to the monitor is long!). I wired it into one of the unused-ish lights in the dash. I built a little camera mount for the camera itself and screwed it into a magnetic, flexible monopod. I store it in the backhoe cab until I'm ready to use it, then I just magnet it to the inside bottom of the loader bucket and plug it in, making it very easy to see where the forks are. I could see a few improvements, like maybe a second camera to point up over a load, as the camera becomes useless once a load is on, blocking the view, but I haven't run into any real issues with that. If I know where the back of the load will sit I can still watch for that with the camera, and I guess once a load is on I could switch the placement of the camera to a higher location. It may be handy to have some sort of level in there too that you could see with the camera to tell when the forks are level vs. not, but with varying grades of ground it may not work properly. I initially mounted the camera, statically, up between the middle 2 fork hooks, but while I could see the forks better it still made it tricky to see where the tips would engage things like pallets. The magnetic monopod camera holder worked out great. I've managed to sneak a pallet into an overcrowded shed with just inches to spare on any side and was almost as accurate as a forklift would be.
That sounds like that would be well worth the investment. I just happened to order a 2 wireless cameras with a 7" monitor for a truck I've been wanting mount the second camera to a 50lb magnet so I could move it where I need it for backing trailers, etc. If it works out I may grab another setup and copy your setup
my boo-boos did not involve running over things, oh no. It was tools IN the bucket I forgot. I got so lucky I grabbed a load of rock with a Stihl hot saw and some shovels and whatnot still in the bucket and did not crush anything. Funny "stuff In the bucket" story. I was digging in power or something at the neighbors with a backhoe, and tippy the fainting goat got in the bucket and did not want to leave it. I'd either move slowly when going forward or get somebody to lead her out of there. She was a loveable PITA.
A goat in a bucket is pretty funny.
she did not give a care about the backhoe noise or anything. We only saw her faint with a big thunderstorm. It was pitiful. Boom! she'd go over. Then she would get back up and run for the comfort of her house only to BOOOM! and over she'd go again. It took a while to get back to her house.
Thanks for the coffee all over the monitor! LMAO!
Hilarious story!
My mother in law had a goat..... she was very playful with her rearing up and head butt your hand.... for some reason she would go after my wife... I guess she knew she could 'get her goat' ..... anyway, one fine day I hear my wife yelling and when I get outside I find the goat had her 'tree'ed' on top of the car. Should have thought to get a pic....
I reckon, if you had stopped to get a picture, you might have ended up under the car and wouldn’t be with us anymore. lol
I think it'd been worth the risk to have picture of that!
So, here's how the forks look on and off. You get used to them. they are on my bucket most of the time. Old beater of a 410B, but it works fine.
We have a 310sk I think! Worst backhoe we've ever owned. Nobody wants it on they're job site so it sits in yard till its REALLY needed , like if a loader goes down. Has constant emissions problems. Its been like this since 1yr old, they've changed everything. It almost acts like the fuel filter is clogged up, looses power, it'll start loosing power if u try to do 3 functions at once, or say unlock coupler for front bucket, if u dont hold it at steady rpm, it'll die. Only thing I found that seemed to stop the loss of power is shutting off the automatic regen process. But then after a couple days use you have to let it do a parked regen. 2nd gear fwd rev selonid has been replaced twice, and a few pain in the ass hoses that go under cab and up to steering column. Other then that, its mint with 2900hrs lol
On the dash u can go into screen and check codes and see if they have auto regen disabled.
Looks like the weld on forks would be extremely handy to have, even with a dedicated set of pallet forks. I think every backhoe I've seen on a pipeline job has had a set of these. I can see why
Is this common with all these machines or do you you think you have a lemon? I'll go through the screen when I take a look at it on Monday to see if they shut it off, is there any way that you know of to push the machine to find out if it has the same problems? Really don't want to buy into a lemon, but I can't spend 150k on a new machine and don't want to drop 30k fixing up something with 10,000hrs either
I like electronic doo-dads as much as the next guy. But they belong on heavy equipment as much as chrome bumpers do. If this is a home owner thing, and you like fiddling with your own gear, stay away from tier-3 and newer. Just my two cents. I like my older machines - one is a 1983 410B backhoe, the other is a 2001 50ZTS excavator. There's nothing on those machines that's overly fragile, nothing prone to plugging up because it feels like it, I don't need to let it idle and rev up for an hour for no reason... I usually let them come up to temp at 1.2k rpm, that might take up to 15minutes, time enough for bacon and eggs. but.. then it's time to work, and they don't slow down because some effing bureaucrat thought it would be a good idea to put fragile electronics into a hostile-environment machine. With a good maintenance crew, it's OK. if it's just you... be super wary.
I thought I was just catching the end of tier 3 with that machine. Looks like it's the first year in the hp class and I honestly couldn't find much on emissions problems here or elsewhere online, and I've done a fair amount of research over the last few weeks. I'm assuming this is why the 410 sitting next to this machine with 10k hours was close to the same price and already pending sale. Moving forward I'll call the local deere dealer and see if they can run the machine history so I have a better look at what I'm getting into and what's been replaced/serviced/etc.
I wish I could like that twice laidback.
Yeah, my methods are not for everyone. I buy stuff ideal for my skillset. There's some electronics I can work on, so I do that... but I'm not good at dealing with encrypted communications in CANBUS, and i see that horrific system is invading heavy machinery in a big way. so... I say keep looking till you find a tier 1 or tier 2. Those systems typically depend on mechanical methods of being efficient - which totally makes sense to me. Burn your fuel better by warming it in the block - decent idea. it's when you have a second brain in the machine trying to determine what to do with throttle and valve pressures, etc. when I'm working the machine, I want to have 100% control (via remotes) to make it do what needs done. Having a machine with a mind that is divergent on the idea of the work... that just bugs me. The new machines, their primary focus is keeping the exhaust at a certain chemical composition. at the cost of just about everything else. At least... that's how it looks to me. I'm not a pro user, and I don't do this for any reason other than that i like heavy machinery. just not the new "smart" stuff.
I'm honestly somewhere in the middle myself, I started with 70s era ag equipment and couldn't understand why anyone would run the newer stuff that was 3X the price or more. Then the guy I had been working for for 10yrs upgraded, the machines were a game changer. You could bale almost twice as fast and at the end of the day fatigue wasn't a thing. Efficiency definitely comes at a cost; however, finding that middle ground is where I like to be. All the construction equipment I've run, for the most part, has been less than 10yrs old so I'm used to that style of equipment operation. I'm aware of the issues with emissions and I absolutely don't agree with it, but there are workarounds. I haven't taken a deep dive into it yet but I'm sure somebody has figured out how to delete these machines and take a little bit of the crazy out of them. I actually like the use of the trouble codes to some extent for troubleshooting purposes, and that's how I've come up in the industry. I mentioned the tier 4 emissions to a friend who is the owner of a dirt contractor, and he said if you could buy things right you can absorb some issues if they arise and it might be cheaper to delete them if possible, if things get to deep sell it off and find something else. I'm not sold on the 310, absolutely not a fan of the tier 4, but I don't think it's prudent to dismiss the last 20yrs of machines all together. I could've bought that 410 next to this machine with twice as many hours and blow the motor as soon as I get it unloaded; still end up upside down. Buying anything used is always a gamble, you just have to find something you're comfortable with. I'm not saying anyone is wrong or that I don't agree with 98% with what everyone is saying. I'm just thinking 5000 less hours on a newer machine for a few grand more might be worth the risk.