Backhoe Is This A Pipe Dream

[Olympus]

I've slowly been building my equipment inventory since purchasing a new house on 6 acres last year. We have about 3 acres of yard and 3 of thick woods. So thick you could barely walk through it.

So I bought a JD 750 tractor that is FWD, a bush hog, finish mower, grader blade, and box blade. We borrowed my grandpa's big tractor with FEL and used a big mower and have pushed down and chopped up a good portion of the scrub and sapling trees.

The FEL is really handy and I could really use one. But I also have two good size creeks that flow through my property and I'd really like to have a hoe to clean them out and dig up stumps and such.

So my question is whether it's possible to find a decent, clean little backhoe or mini excavator for $8000 or less? Or is this just a pipe dream? I don't want to sell or trade my little tractor and it doesn't have hydros for a hoe attachment.

 

[MIKE R]

I am sure you can get a good little excavator for that price. I would talk to local equiptment rental yards to see when they plan on upgrading their fleet. A neighbor bought one like this for cheap cheap. It needed some new rubber hyrdraulic lines and some other small stuff.

 

[Olympus]

Now that's a good idea. I didn't think about that. Thanks for the tip!

 

[DT86]

I'm sure you could find a older backhoe like a Case 580B, Deere 310A or a Ford 555 for that kind of money.

But those are not very small.

 

[Olympus]

I mean I have access to a big backhoe. My family has a large row crop operation and they have all the equipment I could need. But the farm is about 2 hours away. So is have to borrow the ton truck, borrow the low boy trailer, load and secure the backhoe, drive 2 more hours, do the job, then do that all again to return the backhoe.

I was just hoping to have my own that way I can do one little job at a time at my own pace without having to worry about returning something.