I like to hear from everyone on what machines you use or know of that I can buy to landscape. I hate to buy a machine then find out I wish I bought another kind. What I have is a 1/4 acre small yard where I'm nearing the end on moving around the entire yard as well as prepping a very hilly yard so I can build a garage when I'm ready, so at first I really needed the JD 310c backhoe, but now its too big (at least for me) to fine tune my yard leveling it out so I can lay down a paved driveway pitching it properly for water run off, and to fine tune the grade to do what ever, like plant seeds or lay down pavers, etc.... So I'll fine tune the yard the best I can with the JD 310c hoe, but I don't know what to get to finish it off... I was thinking either a Skidsteer or a mini backhoe like them Kubota 21 horse power backhoes... Anything else?
The only other tools you should need are a rake and shovel. A tilt ditching bucket would make things a lot easier, but it wouldn´t be worth the investment for a small project.
You have a tilt ditching bucket built in on any backhoe. You can use your stabilizers, or front bucket to change the angle you are working at. Sit back and look at what you are trying to accomplish. You can make it happen no problem. If it looks a little rough when youve gone over everything, spin around and use the front bucket. Lay it flat, and put it in float. Back drag everything and you should be in pretty good shape
Depends how deep your pockets are and what you are going to do with the Kobota later. If your pockets are empty and you want to smooth it up after you have done the best you can with your JD. Find a old railroad tie, I beam, log, 4 or five tires bolted together (I've even used a old bed spring with a log on it) Throw a chain through it and smooth it down with your JD. If you have big pockets and want to spend some money. Are you keeping the Kobota for future use?. Maybe you will need a blade for snow removal or lawn rake for furture use. Then go ahead and get it now. If not you could rent a box blade or York yard rake for a day. I do quite a few yards and alot of septic leachfields, when the contractor wants to move his large eqpt. and crew on. Its cheaper for him to hire me. I have a box blade and a York rake with a flip down blade and ripper and it does a nice job. I have a little NH 1720 4X4.
Its going to be one of the most expensive routes but its really neat. The Ashland scrapers. They make one for a compact track loader. http://www.ashlandind.com/EARTHMOVERS.HTML For a job that size it would not at all be worth it.
Thanks everybody for the advice and tips of the trade. I went on line and looked into what the tilt ditching bucket was, oh geeze! I can't believe how unconscious I am some times not realizing that kind of bucket was out there. I believe luck is on my side, my JD 310c backhoe arm is already set up with a "Wain Roy" easy disconnect 4 tooth bucket. So I'm guessing I can get a nice wide flat edged tilt ditching Wain Roy bucket and hook it right up to the end of my dipper stick, (yes?) I would think the dipper stick end will connect to all kinds and types of Wain Roy Buckets being this is what is on there now? This bucket seems to be the better way to go... before I was thinking to sell my backhoe and get the smaller backhoe, but I feel better to keep what I have, because the larger size backhoe came in handy many times over with moving the very heavy rocks and tree stumps I was running into. No way a smaller backhoe would not have handled what I was moving. So in addition to the grading work thats left, my yard mainly slopes down steep towards the road, so with this kind of bucket you guys are telling me about looks like a great one to have, it will let me build the retaining walls a lot faster and so much more neat, also with stepping down the elevation all around my yard by moving the soil around will make the finish work come together so much faster while everything becomes nice and neat, so I should be able to do the job with out hiring all that much manual labor like I thought, which helps with the cost on getting the bucket. So I was stuck on how to go about stepping up and down my grade elevations with retaining walls, because I was ending up with uneven slopes and crooked edges started where I need to put up retaining walls, hard uneven ground in areas I need to make flat with a pitch, so I was going nuts wondering how to do this with what I have, so I was thinking get smaller backhoe and use the front loader bucket, but now that I got the heads up on the tilt ditching bucket it will be just like I have a nice small grading blade, plus if I have to I'll turn my backhoe around like you were saying Turbo thats what I'll do....