Anybody know about backhoes?

Chris said:

New Holland are going to be pricey on parts. But that is usually why they cost less to buy.

If it were me and I own a couple I would stick to John Deere or Cat if at all possible. John Deere parts are much less expensive than CAT, with CAT you are paying for a name. 4x4 is a must if you are doing dirt work or snow removal. Extendahoe is nice for the extra digging depth takes it from being able to dig 11-12 feet to 17 foot or so. I love pilot controls over wobble sticks as they are much more comfortable but you will pay for them. A 4in1 bucket is nice for grabbing but for general dirt scooping and floating of the bucket I like the traditional better. John Deere 310 is a perfect size and what is usually the rental size or smaller construction size.

If you get older than 2007 or so you will be able to work on it without a computer and a fat checkbook. On my 2012 you just hook up a computer and it tells you what is wrong with it but I can't do that myself, I have to pay John Deere to come out and do it for 500 bucks.

Ask Away and I will help with what I can.

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I worked for CNH for about five years. After seeing the serious quality issues and very low skill levels of most of the employees there I reccomend staying away from anything made by them within the last decade and a half.

Just saying.

Thumper said:

I worked for CNH for about five years. After seeing the serious quality issues and very low skill levels of most of the employees there I reccomend staying away from anything made by them within the last decade and a half.

Just saying.

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I agree.........

Sounds to me like you've got 2 competing interests there that are making it harder for you to make a choice. If I'm understanding you right the first is clearing snow for your personal residence. The second is a commercial application of using a backhoe for income. Here is why I think they are competing:

You can clear snow with just about any tractor with a loader bucket. It might not be terribly efficient, but it will get the job done. Here you can shop around and get something for residential use but I use a John Deere 3033R and I love it. I have to clear 3 houses and just under a mile of drive. These series of tractor are utility and have a very large array of attachments that you can purchase for specialty dealing. There is always and attachment for "that". I purchased the Backhoe attachment with it and I've used it for installing french drains on the 3 houses, and various other small projects. It does a little bit of everything "good". It cost a little over 30k for the tractor, backhoe, power beyond kit, mower deck, and a box blade.

BUT

For commercial use... for a backhoe your going to be in and digging all day long your not going to want to mess around. Time is money and realistically I don't think you should even go with an combo and for all day "I'm getting paid by the hour" use you should just get an excavator (the biggest one you can afford).
Now some of the bigger combos backhoes can do a really good job, but they just can't compete in the all day use. I've always rented the bigger ones. I think I've rented 4 different backhoes and 2 different excavators and from here on out I'm going to go right to the excavators.

As far as quality of brand if you want to know what works and how hard things are to work on just talk to the guy that works for the rental company repairing their inventor. They are going to have a lot to tell you about, and more knowledge then most of the rest of us because of the heavy use and extensive maintenance.

I love my JD3033R and wouldn't trade it for anything, and I could safely recommend it to you for snow removal and occasionally backhoe work(few times a month), but it sounds like you're going to need more then what I have. Hope that helps