[Mowing monkey.]

I’ve had TLBs and I have a mini and skid steer now. You really need a mini and skid steer to compare to the TLB but if you do have both the pair is vastly better at virtually everything.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

so for the first machine a skid or a mini? instead of the backhoe

I started with a TLB because I couldn’t afford a mini and skid and then I bought a mini. I sold the backhoe after the mini purchase and bought a skid steer. Or CTL actually. The order you buy things really depends on what you’re doing.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

I have a good bit of seat time with a bobcat E35 can model. Very smooth, quick and quiet machine. 2 drawbacks for me were the tightness of getting into the cab (I'm 6ft 225lbs) and the proprietary bucket attachment.

A pin grabber coupler would reduce those concerns but virtually every mini excavator suffers from both of those problems.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

That's the only mini I've run with an enclosed cab. All the rest were open platforms. Honestly if I worked with a helper or had crews running the machine I'd stay with an open cab. Cheaper, easier to communicate with a ground guy and the glass is easily busted out by everything. Another reason not to run with a bobcat is not being able to put the bucket on backwards. Very handy feature for concrete work and backfilling.

A cab machine is nice. You can always work with the front window up with a helper which I do most of the time. But you can’t turn on the heater with an open station. A pin grabber coupler is the only option I know of that can go on backwards and have some degree of freedom of bucket choice.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

I used to have a Deere 310j and after I sold it I bought another Deere 410. I’ve since sold it as well because it wasn’t doing anything besides watching my skid steer and mini do all the work. The plus to a full size backhoe is they’re cheap enough to buy. Much more so than buying a mini and skid steer combined. They’re also strong. The downside is they’re heavy enough to require a CDL to haul them and they’re also too heavy to large to do much in yards. The other big downside is that you’re pretty much stuck with the front bucket and a pin on bucket for the rear. The quick couplers on the skid steer and mini adds a lot of versatility.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

For 40l you could get BOTH machines?
That sounds like a scam or rusted junk that’s not going to move

40k definitely isn’t going to buy the nicest skid steer and mini pair but it would do better than non operating equipment. I’ve seen decent wheeled skid steers for $20k. That’s about what I paid for my Komatsu and it’s a nice machine. A 20k mini will be harder but if you’re looking for something fairly small and 20 years old it’s possible.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

I looked for 5 minutes so I’m sure you could find something better given enough time but here’s a pair for under 40k.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

I mean at this point 20 years old would be early 2000s. also question can you even get parts of a komatsu skid steer anymore?

Komatsu is still in business and they still make skid steers they just don’t sell them in America so I imagine it wouldn’t be a big problem. With the help of the internet you can get generic replacements for almost anything anyway. The Komatsu is a 2006 so not even 20 years old. I’ve never needed parts to find out.

 

[Mowing monkey.]

How many hours
What kinda problems are coming up soon that will be costly
How much are you actually using that daily?

we sold a 763 two years ago for 28 , which we nick named barely bobcat , because it was barely adequate
any decent skidsteer is going to be mid 40s rn
Unless you doing it in a barn in West Virginia or know a guy who knows a guy

The Komatsu has 1900 hours, and it’s a 9500 pound machine with 88 hp. A lot bigger than the 763 bobcat. The Komatsu is basically a jobsite wheelbarrow it’s not logging a ton of runtime. My 2017 Kubota SVL75-2 blew a head gasket at 1100 hours and cost over 2k to repair. And that’s letting a 3rd party mechanic do the work. The dealer would likely be 2x that price. Even if the Komatsu were to suffer the same problem which it hasn’t the labor to repair would be drastically less. Just because a machine is older doesn’t make it a pile of junk. The Komatsu needs a new seat and the tires foam filled because they leak. Beyond that it’s in perfect mechanical shape. All the pins are tight, no hydraulic leaks and no engine or transmission problems.