I have been looking for a TLB to work on my property to build a house and misc road maintainance and general landscaping chores. have pretty much settled on a 4wd 580SL or a 310E. depending on what comes up with the best deal. I have a freind that has a pipe line company that deals with many differnt types of iron and he is telling me that backhoes are not as versital as a regular tractor with a loader, and box scraper then get a mini excavator to do all the digging. my property is pretty slopped and he claims between the weight and slope I would be far better off and safer I was going to sell the hoe when I was done construction and get a tractor with a loader, and 3 point hitch anyway. but I am resistant to spend the extra 10-15k on a mini I figure the tractor and the hoe are about the same $. What do you all think about this concept? Dman
Your friend is right about the versatility issue. A tractor with a loader and a mini excavator would be more versatile - provided you had BOTH. It sounds like you are thinking about buying a excavator, using it, and selling it and getting a tractor with a loader and box scraper. If you do this you will not have the loader when you need it to move and pile dirt. Also, if you can get to the point where you can did with the bucket instead of the hoe, you will be able to dig faster. I did this when building my house. I have a walk out basement. once I got the basement dug to the point where I could go in through the walk out - I could dig faster with the bucket than the hoe. If you are doing this for your own home, and it will be a one time deal, you might be better off buying a good industrial tractor with a loader and pto and renting the excavator as needed. When I dug the foundation for my house I did not have a backhoe. A friend of mine brought his backhoe and skid steer over and we dug the basement. After the hole was finished he took the backhoe and left, leaving the skid steer for me to use for the duration of the project. This along with my tractor (without loader) and box scraper worked nicely for the remainder of the project. John
Gday Dman3998 i run a tractor based rig, the main things that i have found very good are, front 3pl, remote connections to the front, FWD, 40km/h speed gearbox, min of 100hp. Any of the better brands such as case, john deere, mercedes, ford, new holland, deutz, fendt and such. The tractor i run is a MB Trac 900 turbo. The front linkage with a good type silage grapple will allow you to grab huge piles of branches and such, you can use a post driver to put posts in, box scraper for driveways, the list is just about endless. Then with a high road speed you can tow a trailer with your mini x on the back and go home. I find the combination unbeatable for the work i do. My two cents worth anyway any questions please feel free alex
I have a rental company and we rent backhoes and mini excavators amongst other equipment . In our oppinion you will never replace the tractor backhoe . yes the mini ex is more versatile in a lot of digging situations , but keep in mind with a mini ex comes a trailer and a large truck to move it .The mini ex can not grade or back drag as well as a back hoe , as well the backhoe can have many more attachments to it. With backhoes you can remove the hoe from the tractor if thats what you want . And who hasnt used the loader as a work bench.One last thing and I could go on for ever SNOW try moving it with a mini ex . Yes we have a large lot and snow removal is a big concern
You can have the best of both worlds, and save money too. Look for either a good 580E or a 310C backhoe. Those models are fully mechanical, are very reliable, and for your use, each has a removable backhoe unit that can be replaced with a box scraper custom to those machines. It is probably a bit of a chore to change over, but you'd probably get good at it, and you'd just have one machine to purchase and maintain.
I reckon something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220750998900 perhaps a bit bigger, the backhoe can be removed pretty quick and then you can put just about any three point implement on there.
Was looking at the green tractor with the backhoe on ebay. Just incase you haven't already had the experience. A smallish 4 ton mini excavator can almost handle the job you would do with a full size backhoe like a JD310 but the green farm tractor with a add on backhoe is quite weak and jerky and hard to do good work with. I have a JD310D 4x4 with extendahoe and its like being in heaven compared to a farm tractor with a backhoe attachment. A small excavator and a farm tractor for loader use is one thing but a farm tractor backhoe, well you should operate one for a while before you buy. They are not as nice as one would expect.
I agree with Deon, I would rent an excavator before I would purchase a backhoe hanging on the back of a farm tractor. From my experiences, way underpowered, jerky and hard to do a nice job with. Might be ok for the plumber who is occasionally digging a sewer line 3 foot deep, but that is about it.
From personal experience I would buy the tractor with a loader minimum of 40 pto hp and 4wd. I would rent everything else. I have skids and a full size hoe but they are almost always used at a job site opposed to the farm. For the few things the tractor wont do you can rent a machine for alot less than the maintenance of a big machine. The backhoes that hook to a tractor 3pt are almost worthless. A good tractor will be in the 15-20k range and will last a lifetime.
I have a Cat 416C tlb, and a mini/skid steer combination. If I had to choose one or the other I think I would go for the tlb. My mini/skid combo is made up of a 12,000# Bobcat 435ZHS and an8,000# A300 (all wheel steer AND skid steer depending on switch position). They are versatile but they will take longer to do most jobs than the tlb. The tlb is more widely accepted in industrial applications and will dig deeper,faster, and in harder ground. If you will have an employee the mini/skid becomes a bit more appealing. The only thing that the mini/skid combo can do, that the tlb can't, is dig in tighter access areas (though the mini is not much narrower than the tlb, maybe 12") and in situations that you MUST have full rotation of the digging machine. If your primary market is small residential or landscaping than that will make the mini/skid even more appealing. In your OP you were talking about a skip loader and a mini. IMO that would be a little less versatile than a mini/skid combo and I can do most things, that the skip loader can do, with a tlb, and the tlb will weigh more thus move more dirt. The skip loader can fine grade a little quicker than the tlb but the box blade can be difficult to master and it will be another machine to learn/master. No matter which way you go it will be a long while before you become proficiant. The more machines that you have to learn the longer it will take to learn. These are my thoughts on the matter, for what it's worth.