What size equipment are you looking for and what is your budget?

I own two tractors that I use for similar tasks on my ranch.
A Mahindra 6530 w/ loader and back hoe. I purchased this last yr for about $40k.
A John Deere 790 w/ loader. I purchased this used (lease return) with 42 hrs on it 18 yrs ago for $12k.

 

Tractors I think are more versatile. Put on a front end loader with various attachments and for the rear you can use a box blade for your road, hook up to a bush hog, and just about anything else that you need. For road building or serious repair I can see the use of a backhoe. I will not buy anything that I will not use a lot unless I absolutely need it and rentals are not convenient.

 

For what you describe wanting to do the tractor would be the better machine. Keep in mind that small farm tractors are not as stoutly put together. Get a front end loader with a quick change connection and you can swap out bucket, forks, hay spikes and skid steer type equipment.

 

I used them for landscape work. Machines change everything. Whenever we had tough conditions like compacted indurated soil and rock, renting a machine changed the morale a lot. It is great to have them available whenever you need one. I use my neighbors and pay him something each time.

 

Another vote for the tractor option. An excavator would be really handy for a few things every now and then, but I can't live without my tractor.

 

The issue I have is I watched some video of a guy on the little $16,000 Kubota tractor trying to pull a stump (no thumb) and it took him forever plus the digging depth was like 6 feet. He was constantly repositioning and adjusting the stabilizers.

Vs a $31,000 Kubota U25 mini excavator with thumb and 9.3 foot digging depth plus the obvious ability to swing 360 and dump the spoil pile in a convenient area without moving.

I think it is a tough call. Either machine could probably eventually do what you wanted to do, except the mini is going to be able to get into tighter places maybe. Both sound a lot better than a shovel and gloves.

 

If your goal is digging out many big stumps then neither the tractor nor small excavator is a good choice. A 20,000# excavator would do it quickly. The mini-ex might do it in a hour.

The backhoe attachment on tractors, while handy, is simply not up to the task of heavy excavation. The mini-ex digs better but having a top of speed of 3mph means taking it anywhere is a slow crawl.

 

YESSSS! Another tractor thread!!

 

It is money but if you note the resell value on these machines it is almost an investment.

A machine that is 8 years old and has 1500 hours might sell for $19,000 to $22,000. If you paid $31,000, then it cost you $1625 per year plus the opportunity costs of the $31,000. At a 2% return, that would be another $620 per year.

So $2250 per year ownership cost along with the convenience factor of saving 2 hours+ driving time every time you need to rent. At about $200 a day rental cost you need to use the machine about 2 weeks a year to justify it. Again, this is discounting the convenience factor. There is also the opportunity to make good friends of neighbors by having a useful piece of equipment available to help them out.

If you use the machine two weeks a year at 8 hours a day then you will have 900 hours on it when you go to sell it. Quite a bit less than the 1500 I was using in my estimation so you might get closer to $23,000 out of a machine that originally cost $31,000 (plus the new machines will cost $40,000 by then).

 

I rented a mini ex. for digging stumps and it was worthless- had to practically dig under the stumps to get them to pop out. It wa a JCB, had a thumb and push blade. it really didn't do that good of a job pushing the dirt back in the holes. I would buy a 4x4 tractor with a front end loader and rent a large ex. for digging stumps, get it for the weekend and use it nonstop then back fill with the tractor.

 

Ya a u25 is worth less for stumps , even digging in the county is slow at best .
That size unit is used when it is the only unit what would fit .
About 6500 lbs is the smallest ex you can reall work with .
The work starts with 12000 lbs u 50 is workable for small stumps 2' wide.
But it takes a lot of technique .
The ex is no good for plowing at all , rubber just slides on the ice .
You could swing the boom back and forth for the deep snow then push with the blade .

A skid steer is good for plowing , loading dirt but the rubber slips on the ice.
I have studs and chains on my skid steer for plowing .
Over the tire tracks for dirt / mud and a back ho unit for digging .
6500lbs and up work ok .
If you want to dig with the blade you need to go up to 9000
Lbs the backhoe unit for a 9000 lb skid steer will have have some power .

Tractors are a nice tool but the small one don't dig / push very well .
I had a old ford tractor with a 7' bucket and a 24" hoe on the back .
The tractor is good for plowing .

The thing is you could get a old International backho for the price of scrap Metal , they are very heavy.
No one wants to pull them around with a truck but the are good on a farm .
We have a few old backhoes around here for 5000 bucks they look good for a 80s Machine glass cab heat ac every thing works .
A small farm tractor is running like 6/10,000 bucks .

That's what I would do look at old full size backho .
Small equipment is $$$$$

 

I really want a new machine. I like to fix stuff but really want to get working on other things besides rebuilding a 1995 Case 580 with 3000 hours or something.

I kind of hear you on snow plowing with the excavator. Would a Kubota backhoe/loader be really any better or are they too small?

Hard to chain up a rubber track excavator for working in ice/snow Take it to Les Scwhab and tell them to put studs in the rubber :

As far as using a mini excavator to dig stumps, the videos I watched were fairly impressive for such a small machine but I hear you. Certainly getting a 20,000 pound machine in there would be nice but it looks like the 6000lb machine might be able to do it with a tooth ripper. The U35 8000 pound mini excavator is just on the edge of what I would be willing to spend at $38,000.

So what model brand new backhoe/loader can I get in the $30,000 area?

 

After reading your post describing what you want to do. I would probably buy the largest heaviest highest horsepower 4wd backhoe I could afford. Horsepower and weight are your friend when digging stumps. If it turns out to be to big you can always sell it and get something smaller after you are through clearing stumps. :thumb:

 

From the videos I have been watching of the mini-excavators it looks like they are very fast for taking out trees, especially with the ripper tooth instead of a bucket. I just don't see a little tractor backhoe in the same price range being able to do this but maybe you guys could gofundme and I could rent both to test them out

It is not fair to compare a 15,000 pound TLB to a 8000 pound mini-excavator because the TLB is going to be $80,000 to $90,000 new while the mini is $38,000. I am still digging around looking for the 8,000 to 9,000 pound small tractor in that $30k price range. John Deere used to make a 310 but quit making it.

But anyway, look at that tooth in action! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smcj5QKbMEo

 

My Mahindra 6530 is very good at digging with the front bucket, trenching, and lifting rocks up to 4,000 lbs.

The backhoe tears out the stumps here, but the land had been logged before I bought it, and the fresh stumps I've been dealing with a less than 12" dia. You want to look at the break out force of the backhoe, and you need enough vehicle wt as leverage.

John Deere makes a very similar unit in the 5000 series. JD uses the exact same planetary front axel on the 4wd tractors, but the wanted another $10k, and the backhoe attachment was not as solid.

I would not consider anything smaller than my 6530, which is 4wd, about 8,000 lbs, and has a 65 hp turbo diesel.

Another option is to buy an older D5 dozer to remove your stumps, and a smaller 4wd tractor for the other jobs.

 

It isn't just stumping or I would go with the chainsaw idea (although it is not particularly fun to run a chainsaw through dirt and rocks). There is trenching, footings, grading, maintaining road drainage, constructing new roads, moving dirt, digging culvert tunnels (oops, opsec), and possibility of some snow removal depending on the machine type. Plus I like toys which is probably 60% of what we are discussing here.

The larger the machine the better it will perform (unless tight situations like making trails) but then it is heavier and more difficult to transport. I could probably get a smallish tractor/backhoe or mini excavator on our RV platform, which is a Isuzu NRR 20 foot flatbed with about 10,500 pounds of payload capacity (19,500 GVWR). A 3 ton mini-ex would be easy, 4.5 ton would be pushing things. A Case 580 TLB, no way.

 

It isn't just stumping or I would go with the chainsaw idea (although it is not particularly fun to run a chainsaw through dirt and rocks). There is trenching, footings, grading, maintaining road drainage, constructing new roads, moving dirt, digging culvert tunnels (oops, opsec), and possibility of some snow removal depending on the machine type. Plus I like toys which is probably 60% of what we are discussing here.

...

For all that no one machine is going to be ideal. So why not have two or more? Pick up a small tractor without backhoe attachment (save about $6K) Buy a good used small excavator (I enjoy Machinery trader https://www.machinerytrader.com/ for looking at dirty pictures) and maybe a baby dozer of less than 10,000#s like a Mitsubishi B3F, Komatsu or similar. I owned for many years a Furukawa CD5PB (10K#s) and it did a lot of clearing work including stumping, pond digging, road grading and the like.

 

It still sounds like not much of a need for a trencher. You can do quite a bit with a tractor loader. They are decent at moving snow also. How about a track loader? But digging footings and grading land are not really that easy for a compact tractor.

 

My wife is putting her foot down and it is the Kubota U25S 5400 pound excavator or a shovel. She won't go bigger and I would not want to go smaller.

I think I know why she wants it. She wants to modify it to be remote controllable and write software to make it an autonomous guardian for our property. This is what happens when you marry someone who is a software engineer with a background in AI

As long as she doesn't mount a mini gun to it...

 

My wife is putting her foot down and it is the Kubota U25S 5400 pound excavator or a shovel. She won't go bigger and I would not want to go smaller.

I think I know why she wants it. She wants to modify it to be remote controllable and write software to make it an autonomous guardian for our property. This is what happens when you marry someone who is a software engineer with a background in AI

As long as she doesn't mount a mini gun to it...

If she can get a mini-gun, then she is truly gifted.

 

I have a small Kubota out in the jungles of PNG that used to build a grass airstrip from virgin jungle. It was given to us and I never thought it would be nearly big enough to get the job done before it tore up. To my surprise, though, it made it and finished the job. It's been one heck of a little machine. It has the ability to use a front loader thought I never put it on. Would be handy though. I joke that duct tape, bailing wire, and Jesus kept that thing together during the airstrip build, but that's not to take away from the fact that Kubota makes a good (but pricey) machine.

 

I almost had a BX-25 Kubota. A friend had one up for repo and I offered to pay the last 9 grand off. He agreed and called the creditor but they sold the note. He then called the collections but they refused to take payment and wanted the tractor. They said I could buy it at auction. The whole month he was going back and forth I had the tractor at my house. I destroyed and entire acre, most fun I ever had. You find yourself doing stupid things like running water and electric to you chicken coop.

 

The small excavators are nifty, yet lack the weight to do serious work. Yet with time they can be more cost effective if you aren't planning on dying any time soon. I would vote for an older regular size backhoe personally. Tractor loaders are great and certainly back saving. But they are not as heavy as a commercial piece of equipment. The small excavators are putting a lot of backhoes on the used market. Should be easy to find a good low hour machine. IMO!

 

It should be easy but it isn't. A 20 year old Case 580 is going for $25,000 with 6000+ hours on it.

Great if it works, but expensive and time consuming to fix if it develops a problem. Old hoses, old pump, leaky cylinders.

Vs a small mini ex which has a 2 year warranty and really should just work.

If I could get a brand new 15,000 pound backhoe for $35,000 or so I would be so all over that.

 

Looks like you just picked up a nice Kubota. Good choice.

I've been in the equipment business for 15 years and rent and sell a lot of gear. Was going to mention that I have a nice 2012 JD 310J, 4x4, extendahoe and 4&1 front bucket with QC rear buckets and hydraulics to the dipper and with 3 buckets for Approx $42k. Approx 2900 hours on it.

We actually have about $1 billion in OEC we need to sell this year. You or any one else looking for gear, let me know.

 

If this were still "the good old days", I would say get the tractor and use dynamite for everything else. My grandfather used to do quite a bit of dynamite work. Removed stumps, did ditches, and removed field stones.

 

Kubota just left california for Texas.

 

We took our homebuilt RV and garage pods off of our flatbed truck and loaded up a new Kubota U35-4 with thumb, 12", and 24" buckets! Drove it 300 miles to our property. I took it quite slow on the 4200 foot Stevens Pass and around any curves or steep grades but the truck did quite well.

This is why we designed the RV the way we did. Not many other RV's can haul a 9000 pound excavator without using a trailer.

 

Green with envy. Nice truck also! Yeah going over Stevens Pass on Hwy 2 is quite the pull. Don't know if the highway has been improved since the last time I drove it though. That was 1990. Always loved dropping down the pass to Leavenworth. Absolutely beautiful area.

 

I remember going on a trip with my folks when I was kid. We drove to Levenworth, via the then-brand-new North Cascades Highway.
Back then, they had large wooden "doors" on each side of the road that welcomed the traveller to The North Cascades Highway.....gotta picture of me standing in front of it, some place.

I'd be interested to hear how Fermion made out with his Kubota Excavator, but since he hasn't been here in 5 months, I doubt we'll ever know,