New Member Saying Hello, With a Question

[TopherVT]

Saying hello as a new member to the site! I am a member of the Kioti pack with a 2010 (I believe by the SN) CK35 HST. Bought it as a holdover at roughly the same time we bought a new house in the countryside in Vermont. Our house is situated on 4 acres. We have a long (roughly 100 yards) gravel drive. With the exception of the "lawn" immediately surrounding the house, we have no back yard (overgrown, trees, stumps from the land clearing, ledge and rocks). Between the 18k for the tractor and the 1.5k for the 64" 3 pt. blower I could not afford a backhoe. Now I'm starting to second guess my purchase. With the exception of using the blower and FEL in the winter, the occasional FEL task in the summer and driving the 3 year old up and down the driveway it basically sits in the garage as is apparent with only 70 hours on the meter (and I bought it with 10). With 2 kids in daycare I really hate to dive into another loan for a backhoe yet it seems to be the missing link between what I have now and really enjoying/ using this tractor to it's potential. Is the Kioti KB2475 capable enough for removing stumps (most 8-10" in diameter)? Do I sell the tractor and put the money towards a used mini excavator? But then I lose the bucket and FEL. Do I sell it and put the money towards a used Case or Deere backhoe and have the best of both worlds? Absolutely love the tractor but feel like it's under-used. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[mguitas]

I have a compact because I'm in town. But most of the people out in the valley have a industral backhoes on there farm. An even a koiti not going to out do them. If i live out of town, i would have a industral hoe too. Maybe you should get a case or deere.

 

[gkh7890]

Curious.....how many trees/stumps do you have? Can you post any pics? Would it make any sense to rent a backhoe/trackhoe for those and keep your Kioti? I would think that once you get the backyard cleared, the CK35 and finish mower would make quite the equipment to have on hand???

I understand the budget issue all too well. I think you have a nice setup now and renting or borrowing the equipment to do the clearing may be your best bet in the end once you evaluate what the costs will be to trade out/sell & buy the equipment for clearing and then going back to get something to maintain the 4 acres you have. Just food for thought.....best wishes!

 

[jerrybob]

Curious.....how many trees/stumps do you have? Can you post any pics? Would it make any sense to rent a backhoe/trackhoe for those and keep your Kioti? I would think that once you get the backyard cleared, the CK35 and finish mower would make quite the equipment to have on hand???

I understand the budget issue all too well. I think you have a nice setup now and renting or borrowing the equipment to do the clearing may be your best bet in the end once you evaluate what the costs will be to trade out/sell & buy the equipment for clearing and then going back to get something to maintain the 4 acres you have. Just food for thought.....best wishes!

Yea....I agree.....look into renting a small excavator or backhoe......get rid of your stumps and keep your tractor.

 

[rjwerth]

Buying a bh specifically to pop stumps seems like a bad idea to me as there are several cheaper and faster ways to accomplish that task. If you have some additional tasks for the bh, that's a different story.

 

[Gil Case]

I hear all of the above, but I have never regretted putting the 2465 on my CK20Hst. I have dug out stumps and planted trees, dug drainage, dug up sink hole in driveway (3 times) and on and on. The beauty of owning the BH is not that it can't be done another way (maybe even cheaper), but that you can do it your way on your time schedule. Every time I rent a machine or tool, it is a big rush to get it done and get the machine back before I have to pay for another day etc.
So it depends how much convenience is worth to you. The 2475 would have no problem with 8" to 10" tree stumps. I have dug those out with the 2465.
Topher lives in VT, like in CT, there is no soil up there, just a little bit between the rocks, so any "digging" is more rock removal than digging and much easier with a BH.

 

[chemteck29]

I hear all of the above, but I have never regretted putting the 2465 on my CK20Hst. I have dug out stumps and planted trees, dug drainage, dug up sink hole in driveway (3 times) and on and on. The beauty of owning the BH is not that it can't be done another way (maybe even cheaper), but that you can do it your way on your time schedule. Every time I rent a machine or tool, it is a big rush to get it done and get the machine back before I have to pay for another day etc.
So it depends how much convenience is worth to you. The 2475 would have no problem with 8" to 10" tree stumps. I have dug those out with the 2465.
Topher lives in VT, like in CT, there is no soil up there, just a little bit between the rocks, so any "digging" is more rock removal than digging and much easier with a BH.

I think this is a good point right here and it's also the reason I'm currently looking for a bigger tractor. I have 3 acres, 2 of which need to be cleared of junk pine trees and brush. In addition down the road I'll likely inherit another ~5 acres. We just had our place built 2 years ago and like in your situation just had enough cleared for the house and a decent back yard. When I bought my Husqvarna GTH27V48LS I fully planned on just buying that and renting larger equipment to clear the rest. I also did not know at the time I bought my GT that the additional acreage was coming. Well, after completing a very small portion of what needs to be done and further calculating the cost of renting to finish what I want done for now at least it became blatantly clear that it's just not cost effective to keep renting. For one I can't possibly get everything done in a weekend. Believe me stuff happens, bad weather, family obligations, being called into work,.....the list goes on and on and at the end of the day you still have to return that machine on time or spend more money whether the project is done or not. And if the rental place is any distance away, buy the time you unload and reload the equipment and travel to and fro you've burned up 2 hours of rental time already. You could have it delivered, but believe me that isn't cheap. For me to have a backhoe brought in (because I don't have a truck large enough to haul it.) would be darn near $100 bucks "ONE WAY" That adds up quick on multiple rentals. Which I would have to do because I can't work on the project for 8 hours a day for weeks at at time.

After all the clearing is done if I rented I still wouldn't have the proper machine to maintain the property which if I didn't do I might as have been throwing money in the trash because it will just get grown over again. That is why I'm shopping for a tractor. You have already got the worst part of the big investment out of the way by already owning the tractor. In short, I would get the backhoe for your current machine. That hoe will serve you well and at the end of the day, you can always sell it after you've done your clearing and not lose much if you got the clearing done in a year or two. Just my 2 cents!

 

[Ted Summey]

I disagree that renting is not cost effective. For most of us our equipment is often idle with money tied up. Adding another piece of equipment with additional money tied up and sitting idle for the convenience of having it when you want isn't necessarily cost effective either. That is especially difficult to have money tied up long term in machinery that was purchased for a specific task that is long over. Recovery of that money in total is rare.

I say rent the machine you need for a week or two and commit to doing he work that needs to be done.

The alternative is to hire the heavy work done and finish the job with the equipment you have or add for a small relative price. We have four tractors and still hire heavy equipment when needed. The job gets done quicker and is done right.

 

[chemteck29]

I disagree that renting is not cost effective. For most of us our equipment is often idle with money tied up. Adding another piece of equipment with additional money tied up and sitting idle for the convenience of having it when you want isn't necessarily cost effective either. That is especially difficult to have money tied up long term in machinery that was purchased for a specific task that is long over. Recovery of that money in total is rare.

I say rent the machine you need for a week or two and commit to doing he work that needs to be done.

The alternative is to hire the heavy work done and finish the job with the equipment you have or add for a small relative price. We have four tractors and still hire heavy equipment when needed. The job gets done quicker and is done right.

On some level I agree, if you have the money up front it does make some sense to hire out the initial clearing. But there again the OP already has the expensive part in the tractor and the difference between adding the backhoe and hiring someone to Doze, Load everthing in a dump truck and then haul it away probably isn't going to be much at all. For example it's approxiamately $2,000-$3000 and acre to have the lot completely cleared where I live and that doesn't include finish grading. It's probably more than that where he lives. I would bet that he could add just the hoe for darn close to that depending on how much he wanted cleared and then he still has the hoe afterwards to use as he wishes or sell and recoup a good portion of what he spent on the hoe. So there is a trade off there. Hiring it out is more often then not going to be faster and it might even be cheaper initially but in the end if he chose to sell the Hoe after he'd come out ahead. In my case, I would still need a proper tractor to maintain the property once it's cleared. So it makes little sense for me to hire it out either. Not too mention I'd personally love the seat time!

 

[daschluck]

I guess I am in the camp of owning vs. renting for all the reasons already mentioned by Gil Case (I agree completely). It is not only an economic decision, if all those that own pools and rv's relied on the economics they wouldn't own either. It surely is cheaper to belong to the Y or rent a cabin somewhere. The way I look at it, I don't use my backhoe that often, but when I do, man it is nice to have. And I can use it on whim, when ever I feel like it.

If I were some sort of contractor and only needed it for one specific job, by all means I would rent. But living on 10 acres there is always something that pops up where my backhoe is real handy. That's my humble opinion.

 

[madmax12]

Has the OP considered a tow behind backhoe? Plenty of YouTube videos of various models. I'm not certain it would be strong enough. Harbor freight has a brand new one for $2500 sometimes. Certainly wouldn't break the bank vs renting, and probably cheaper than attaching to tractor.

A recent mahindra max28 owner (Madmax28, I think) found a used hoe for $700 and fabbed a frame mount for it. That was cheaper than renting. Any thoughts?

 

[Gil Case]

If you look in Craig's list there seem to be quite a few 6'-7' BHs for $2500 to $4500. Admittedly they are three point hitch models and that is not ideal, but for light work they are fine, or as stated somewhere on here, a frame mount can be fabricated. We are all aware I am sure that a new BH is $1,000 per digging foot.
I had a 3 pt Kelly 6.5' BH on my old Benye (Rhino clone) and never had a bit of trouble. The frame mount 2465 I have now is pretty nice and better than 3 pt mount.

 

[Ted Summey]

I suppose everyone's experience is different. I can count on one hand the times we have needed (vs wanted) a backhoe on our 250 acres in the last 24 years. For that level of usage, it is much less expensive to hire BH work done. The last job that required a bh here was installation of 12" x 20' drain pipe for a driveway behind my shop. It cost $100 for me to hire it done. Took him longer to drive up here and unload than to install the pipe.

I needed two plots of land cleared of small pines and brush that grew up in some fields on our place due to neglect from the previous owners. For $500 I hired the work done by a track loader in about six hours vs what it would have taken me days to do. I couldn't justify having a track loader or a backhoe for that job either.

So need vs want is my perspective. Would the OP need a bh on his property after the backyard clearing is done? That's for him to decide I guess. If I had enough disposable income to have a backhoe, I might want one but it wouldn't increase the need for one here. I'm sure I'd find stuff to do with it whether that stuff needed doing or not.

There's a lot to be said for having a professional do the bigger jobs instead of spending days, weeks or months trying to do what they could do in hours.

But to each his own, some people do love to spend that time and gain satisfaction from doing those sorts of large jobs. It's not for me.

 

[ritcheyvs]

My thoughts... If you have a continuing need for a backhoe, then get one. But don't get one just to do one job that will be faster (and probably cheaper) to hire out. A CK is not a bulldozer and clearing will go slow, even with a backhoe. But don't get rid of your loader, you will find it extremely useful for all kinds of things.

 

[Gil Case]

Ted- You live in a great part of the country and things are pretty reasonably priced there. Here in the CT, I cannot get a machine moved to the property for $100 (each way). That $100 job of yours would be $500 here and your $500 job- I just had that done at my daughters house and it was $2,000. He wanted $2500, but I talked him down to $2,000.
Little story- last time I played golf in NC, the starter at the course said his son lived in CT and paid $16,000 per year in property taxes, the starters taxes in NC were $600. He thought we were all nuts to live up here, and he is probably right.

 

[rmorey]

Saying hello as a new member to the site! I am a member of the Kioti pack with a 2010 (I believe by the SN) CK35 HST. Bought it as a holdover at roughly the same time we bought a new house in the countryside in Vermont. Our house is situated on 4 acres. We have a long (roughly 100 yards) gravel drive. With the exception of the "lawn" immediately surrounding the house, we have no back yard (overgrown, trees, stumps from the land clearing, ledge and rocks). Between the 18k for the tractor and the 1.5k for the 64" 3 pt. blower I could not afford a backhoe. Now I'm starting to second guess my purchase. With the exception of using the blower and FEL in the winter, the occasional FEL task in the summer and driving the 3 year old up and down the driveway it basically sits in the garage as is apparent with only 70 hours on the meter (and I bought it with 10). With 2 kids in daycare I really hate to dive into another loan for a backhoe yet it seems to be the missing link between what I have now and really enjoying/ using this tractor to it's potential. Is the Kioti KB2475 capable enough for removing stumps (most 8-10" in diameter)? Do I sell the tractor and put the money towards a used mini excavator? But then I lose the bucket and FEL. Do I sell it and put the money towards a used Case or Deere backhoe and have the best of both worlds? Absolutely love the tractor but feel like it's under-used. Thanks in advance for any advice!

Welcome! I had the 2475 on my CK25 HST. It is amazing what you can dig up. Will dislodge rocks, half the size of a Volkswagon! (almost) Seriously, it is not a toy, with an 18" bucket, it can do serious damage to a field of stumps. Dig all around the stump, then "pop" out she comes! :thumbsup:

When we bought the hoe, my wife said "are you sure we "need" this...thing? What are we going to use it for?" In April this year, we upgraded the tractor to a DK40 and she says "too bad there isn't a "bigger backhoe".....BOOM 2485...done! :cool2: It's even more powerful!

You will be very surprised at the number of times you find a use for it.