Talk me out of a BackHoe Loader

[Barryscotland]

Buy a digger instead, we have an old JCB 3c and a 3t bobcat. In three years The JCB is used to hold up the kids zipline 99.9999% of the time, other than that was used to move a few pallets of slate onto scaffold and to scoop up a few ton of chuckies for dumping into soakaway. Digger is used every other day

[twice round the block]

You still need a dumper. Once you've dug the muck out with the backhoe, what are you going to do with it.

Backhoe loaders are OK if you've got a big plot and you're not trying to put footings or services in close to the boundaries. 

Make sure it goes through all the gears nice and smooth as you don't want to be doing the crown and pinion gear, speaking from experience!

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, twice round the block said:

You still need a dumper. Once you've dug the muck out with the backhoe, what are you going to do with it.

I wanted a dumper but never found a cheap enough one close to home.  But I did find the dozer blade on the digger did a pretty good job of pushing the muck around so I could pile it all up in one corner of the plot.

[joe90]

I made the mistake of buying an old manual (no hydraulic) tipping dumper, trouble was anything slightly wet stuck in the tub and I had to dig it out 🤯. 

[MarkyP]

I bought a 2.5t Takeuchi TB025 for my project, I've had it 4 years now. It is very old and tatty but starts every time and is still a strong machine. Old used machines are risky, if something major goes wrong with the hydraulics, like the pump or a track motor, then it can be a bill of 0,000s to fix. Fortunately, I've only had a replace a few pins and bushes, had it serviced, replaced the coolant and changed a few track adjuster seals. I am running out things to do with it and my wife is enthusiastic about me finally selling it on now (me less so!). Postives for your own machine are using it whenever you want, with hired in you need to have a job to do with it and get on with it and get the machine off hire promptly so it can put you under pressure, particularly if you are oding DIY. If  using your own machine means you can break up jobs over days or weeks, no pressure. Other trades will find it handy having a machine on site, mine can lift bulk bags and living on a big plot that has saved a lot of labour. We've done all sorts with it, lifting steels, lifting large windows onto scaffold, demolising old outbuildings. I've also done a lot of ground clearance of bramble scrub in overgrown areas with it (the grading bucket can skim undergrowth off the surface once you get the knack).

 

I wouldn't fancy a backhoe for house ground works,  a digger can get in and out of tight spaces, is very easy to adjust position, it can cross over dug footing trenches, can straddle trenches as you dig them, and is generally very versatile, I reckon a backhoe is a farm machine really, better than noting but a bit of a compromise on house build site, I'd get a digger every time. I think most people who have bought their own machines have found them well worth the investment.

[Duncan62]

Day light in the pins... this is what worn pins look like presumably?!

 

[markc]

1 minute ago, Duncan62 said:

Day light in the pins... this is what worn pins look like presumably?!

 

That’s either a very worn pin or the pin has moved and come out of the boss (hole). Excavators take some hammer so pins do wear and holes elongate, link rods and bars are easy to change, pins are pretty low cost but stretched, oval holes in boom or arms are an expensive repair if needed

[Alan Ambrose]

>>>  pins are pretty low cost but stretched, oval holes in boom or arms are an expensive repair if needed

 

Your local machine shop may be able to fix these btw. For some diversion, watch Cutting Edge Engineering on YT to see how the Aussies do it .

[Galileo]

On 22/10/2023 at 16:15, joe90 said:

Well it was a gamble but it paid off for me, yes it leaked hydraulic oil and all joints were worn but I got used to it. I think I paid about £6k plus VAT (about 8 years ago) and sold it for £4k after about 4 years work 🤷‍♂️ local engineers supplied parts and mended it when a few things (diesel pump) got clogged. , it’s certainly a man’s toy (tin hat on).  Did I mention it turned up the ground? And ours was very wet at times….. (I did get it out)

 

 

They do that up here very well too, damp soggy peat bog and 6t of Manchester's finest from 1976 was not a good mix!

 

Maintenance costs have been 20l of ISO 32 (one front ram leaks a bit when hot and holding up a few tonnes in the bucket), steering track rod ends replaced as they were a bit loosey goosey and a new exhaust. 

 

It's not perfect though by any stretch, things to fix are that one ram needs resealing, the king pin bushings on the back actor boom have gone a bit oval like above, local engineer suggests it's no drama, they'll just bush it. When I say no drama, it has to come off of course. Incidental items like rear wind screen wiper motor not working, heater stuck on heat (not such an issue at this time of the year), one mirror missing, some rusting under the side windows and it's done enough hours for an oil and filter change all around.

 

Cost me £5k including all the shipping costs to get it up here, drove it 25 miles from the port including one ferry, and it then set to work digging a 200 metre track through peat down to the hard, then moving 400 tonnes of stone that was dumped at the top. My only regret was not checking that it came with a grading bucket. I've had a few people up here ask me for first refusal if I ever come to sell it.