I have a chance to buy an old 710 2wd from I guy that my dad has known for 20 years. He bought the machine from our municipality 5 years ago. They did excellent maintenance on it and he has maintained it well since. It has many signs of age, but he did some work for me last year and the machine runs great. any thoughts and idea of a price range
710's are big backhoes. They have incredible reach with the hoe. Problem is are they are very heavy to haul and without 4X4 and having all that weight they are hard to handle in wet offroad conditions. As with any 2X4 hoe loading is not their forte. They work well for citys and utility companys that run on pavement. What it worth is hard to say probably 10-14K for an early 80's model. Whether it would be something you would want would be the question.
I have ran older John Deeres a 310 which dad owns and a 410 that a sawmill owned they operated the same. The biggest problem with older Deere backhoes is the center of gravity is too high they are pretty tippy. I wouldn't go with a old Deere if your looking for a old used backhoe look at Case the newer Deere's might be alright but I would rather have a Case. The 710 is a pretty big machine the hoe part is the size of a small excavator you may not want to have a machine this large other drawback is 2wd. A 710 would be good for utility work where you are working on flat ground digging deep trenches or places where you are digging in hard ground. Large backhoes like that are really not used much now the 590 Case is about the largest a person wants to buy nowwadays.
