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QUESTION:I've posted previously about our acreage in rural Massachusetts and
about how we're eventually going to be building a house there and
maybe raising llamas, raising vegetables, raising Cain...
Anyhow: we're going to be doing a *lot* of the construction work
ourselves. We have a friend with a backhoe who can come over and
do some of the digging for us, but anything we have *him* do takes
time away from his own schedule. We figure it might be nice to
have a backhoe of our very own 8-)
This friend of ours has two tractors: a Case Construction King
backhoe/loader, and an International farm tractor with a front-end
loader and a 3-pt hitch. He said he *used* to have a backhoe
for the International, but that he got rid of it because it
couldn't come *close* to the performance of the Case.
While this may be true, and while it may be true that a giant
Komatsu excavator could do an even better job than the Case,
there's a question of how much machine I *need*.
I've been thinking about getting a used farm tractor and getting
a loader and backhoe for it... Is this a good or a totally ludicrous
idea? The advantage is that I only have to get one tractor and
I can put *other* implements on the 3-point when I'm not doing
construction... the disadvantage is that I probably can't get that
*powerful* of a backhoe on a 3-point....
ANSWER: Three point mountable backhoes are not toys, but they are much slower
than bigger machines. On the other hand, I expect they are more useful
for planting mountain laurel (or whatever). Size needed depends on how
much time you've got & whether any boulders are uncovered...
We recently built; I was very involved in some phases of construction,
and finish. If we did it over, I would do all the utilities (800' trench) and
the road (400') but I wouldn't touch a cellar excavation unless it was a
walkout with reasonable grades (too dangerous). I would also hire out any
work that needs to be done on a significant slope.
I second the comment about the utility of a skidsteer loader/backhoe which
is what I ended up with (International Harvester 34XX). In doing a fair
number of test drives I found manuverability very important and the only
machines I've tried that come close to a skidsteer are the recent vintage
4wd tractors. The only 3-pt attachment I really miss is a grader blade to
crown our driveway. Has anyone out there seen (or made) a 3-pt frame for
a IH skid-steer loader? At least I can steer while back-blading, unlike
a 2wd loader/backhoe.
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