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QUESTION:If your land is at all hilly, get a excavator. I wish I had. I need to
sell my
Cat 426 4x4 after getting almost no use out of it because my land is too
steep.
I guess if I were not so scared of rolling down a 200 foot 30 degree slope
I could get more work done on it.
I asked on several websites before I purchased mine and was told a backhoe is
a more versitile tool than an excavator and performs better in snow. Great. I
would have had 3 weeks out of the year where I could not use the excavator, now
I have 52 weeks out of the year where I can't use the backhoe.
There's a guy in town that has a pretty good sized excavator, I think he
said he'd take $16,000 for it. He also has a John Deere Dozer Loader with a
Backhoe attachment for $12,500. I think it's a John Deere 350D crawler
loader with about 75% undercarriage. I'm considering this but it has a
broken spring on a track adjuster on one side, have to see how much parts
cost and how difficult it is to replace a track adjuster.
ANSWER: I'm not saying that an excavator would definately be the right piece of
equipment for you, but it is something to consider if you are working on
inclines. The center of gravity in a backhoe is so high that it will actually
tip backwards when going up a 25 degree slope (been there, done that). It is
actually kind of exciting if you don't look to your left at the 100 foot
drop-off as you are steering with just the brake pedals because your front
wheels are a foot off the ground. The center of gravity in an excavator is very
very low. It would laugh at the 25 degree slope and say "Was that a bump I just
went over?"
Of course as far as maintenence, the backhoe is pretty easy, and possibly
cheaper to fix than the excavator. Tires are not that expensive, and are pretty
easy to change. Not sure about undercarriage work on an excavator.
I have heard the excavator would be a better stumper, and most of the bigger
ones come with thumbs, which would be handy for moving the trees after you
push/cut them. The backhoe's loader would be nice for moving the dirt from your
pond I guess, but of course a dozer would probably make that job quite a bit
easier, or so I have read.
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