I Bought the CHEAPEST Backhoe I could find. Will it Drive Home? 

Used a machine like that before, if you take the hoe off it is useless as a loader. It needs the counter weight to make it dig.

@@davidweigle5241 counterweight can be a lump of concrete, doesn't have to be steel and high-pressure hoses.

@@ralphhowes That's a lot of extra work to add counterweight when it already has the correct amount. Simply pin/chain the boom up, bypass the lines, and run it as is.

I think you should keep it a whole machine. She was ready and willing to go to work for you…

@@davidweigle5241 You are absolutely right that it needs that counterweight. That hoe probably weighs 3500-4000 lbs. You would need to probably build a steel box and fill it with concrete the size of a pallet of cinder blocks to make it usable. With the weight of the engine in the front, lifting a full bucket of gravel weighing another ton would put all the weight on the front tires and axle. You would have trouble driving it with the 2wd rear. It would be very tippy and dangerous.

Love to see her in Purple People-eater Purple!

Yeah, Id keep it for the same reason.

That’s why I’d like to get my dad’s backhoe working again, the one my dad has is a mid 70’s Case 580BCK

@justinbieberthefirst5290 who?

@justinbieberthefirst5290 okay Bieber

I totally agree !

Now that is a classic and classy comment, well done sir.

Yes, counterweight is good. If you take the backhoe off it will be alot less weight on the rear axle. This will give you less pushing force to load the bucket from a sitting pile, and alot more weight on the front axle with a full bucket.

Fact!!! 😂

Yup! me, too!!

Yuppers

One of the first tractors that I learned to drive as a kid was a John Deere backhoe. The other one was a Massey Ferguson farm tractor. When I started running excavators I hated backhoes.

Facts, I’ll do Calc later😂

It would be convenient for small jobs else Matt would be lugging some huge machine or two with him on a really long trailer.

Sell backhoe for parts and keep front

The backhoe should stay only if there are jobs where it's truly more convenient for access than an excavator. They're easier to move, but they're objectively not great to work with. If Matt still has his PC75, any money spent on the back hoe would be better applied on refurbishng the Komatsu. It's pretty easy to move and works so much better than the best of backhoe, once on site.

Might want to keep it around until at least after the engine swap in Fat Alice.

Sell the backhoe keep the loader

Me too see how easy it started, they were a great make of tractor.

Yes that is right,restore hydraulic line and change all oils,that machine is good find,i wish i had same too...

I second this. I think its a short term expense but if you at least get the stuff you are currently using, it will pay for itself in the machines in his current fleet.

Absolutely, yes. Down the road it may turn into business that is easy to run in you older years.

I think it makes sense for this specific project. Buy the crimper and hose. The fittings on this specific machine are likely almost all the same. Just need the males and females. It really will boil down to the cost of the fittings. Need to price them. Might be those on each end plus some hose is close to the cost of getting one made....then. I think you would need to save at least $100/hose to make it worth the effort, though.

Buy the hose in bulk. Main cost is the fittings and labor.

100% - Hydraulic hoses are premium /expensive because they're valuable in a time crunch and they have you over a barrel - You have the luxury of not needing to repair a blown hose on a working piece of kit where downtime = $$$$, finally you said it yourself, a hose shop keeps $10,000's of stock, and YOU pay for that dead inventory every time you get a hose made! Don't have to have the inventory - pre order what you need on an 'ad hoc' basis - job by job... You run older kit, there must be shed loads of surplus 'New Old Stock' sitting on shelves - I know you said you didn't want to keep the inventory, damn right! But you could save time and money blitzing the hoses on e.g. this backhoe - make a shopping list 5/8 hose, 16 female JIC 90's, 24 female 135's - and so on. Your paradigm is you don't want to spend a fortune replacing all the hoses to make the backhoe reliable, but it's un-useable unless you do, in house hoses is the way out. I used to buy in high pressure pneumatic hoses piecemeal, bought a parker/eaton crimper and had an automatic search on ebay took me 6 months to get the fittings I used regularly, but at that point I figured I'd broke even at about the 20th hose, also got some good deals on fittings which were shop soiled and scruffy.

Do not separate it! It won't be good for anyone..you can always sell it for what you got in it..backhoes Rule..digging with a single wobble stick 6 inch bucket sucks..

Outriggers get in the way of everything. Can't move without picking them up and picking up the bucket. They get stuck constantly.. like Matt said. If you needed one machine occasionally, a backhoe is the ticket. Other than that, a backhoe is NOT a production machine. Very very limited in what it can do.

A bunch of excavators also have a pivot to do just that.

That's a pretty outdated machine of it's type. Vertical stabilisers are pretty much the norm' . Those don't get stuck. The swivel slides under power instead of being loosened and manually shifting the turret then retightening. A modern cab will keep the insects, dust and weather off ya too. At least you can drive it to work without a transporter if you don't have one available.

I thought it a bit suspicious .!. It cranked over right away - it had adequate fuel/oil's - the tires were all aired-up - hydraulics were fine! I think they wanted to get Matt 'in & out' ASAP & the $ in hand before Matt would find other things to consider? "Just say'in!"

@@charlesirby9222 Nobody is that lucky.

Hi Matt, I think I am correct in saying these machines replaced a model called 3500, did this model not come out about 1979 were they not manufactured in Doncaster ? and I also believe they had a viriable displacement hydraulic pump as well which would have been pretty good for the time.

Nice little get up

The cost of new as opposed to a rig used is worth the fix

​@@gerry-p9x❤😊

100% agreed.😂😂😂😂

Should clean it up and give it a new coat of paint and it would look presentable.😅😅😅

Half the stuff in his fleet doesn’t run 😂

The hoe will allow you to get out of stuck situations, curling the bucket gives mechanical advantage when the boom power is not enough! You put a thumb on it, pick a lot of stuff up.

Yep keep it together and fix it up!

"Adjustable Hammer" --- I love that term, I'm a'gonna steal it!

I would rather have a skid steer and an excavator than a back hoe. Skid steer is far more hand on the controls and moveablity and a exavator is far more hand than a back hoe. If the only thing you have is a backhoe then that is just fine. If you scale up to a double or triple the size of this unit then a backhoe is fine.

did you have a wee tinker with it mucker ?

@@jamesstenhouse2674 We fired it up but we had lots going on but I'm sure we will have a play when I go back

If Mukka likes it I’ll definitely give it the thumbs up.

I would call it a Japanese watch then. Swiss watches are overrated for accuracy and durability.

@@akhtarkh get invited to many parties ?

I agree. You will lose a lot of traction weight. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was a 4X4, but it’ll be next to useless without the backhoe attachment. So, if you want to keep it, then fix it all. You could also sell it easier if it is fully functional.

Same here, the trade off is that transporting a backhoe is easier than transporting an excavator since you don’t necessarily need a trailer to do it as most backhoe tractors are able to drive on road

I don't know much about machine's but how would he move forward with just the legs for lifting it, is that what u call outriggers, I'm just interested to know thanks.

Agreed on all that

Couldn’t agree more, he has no use for an old clapped out loader/backhoe

I agree. The biggest backhoe manufacturer in the world is JCB. They must be useful machines or no-one would buy them.

Pretty much have to go all in or just sell it

You forgot, scafolding, elevated platform, ladder, the list goes on. everyone needs a backhoe in their life!

Due to the options you currently have with excavators I would save the time and money on the backhoe part to put into the machine itself. Don't get me wrong tho, that backhoe would make for another good video for all of us.

I learned on one of these, it was my uncle's and tried to kill it but never succeeded and believe me he tried,but still running today. I've asked to will it to me when he crokes it,coz I'm going to restore it back to original as possible but keep it working around the place.

I agree. I'd just pressure wash it (ideally, also clean off the rust and repaint it!), do the maintenance work on it, maybe replace the rotten hoses if it's cost-effective, then sell it on. With all the specialized machines you already have in your fleet, I don't see a role for this other than as a collection piece. Some small farmer or landowner will get a lot more use out of it than you would, I suspect.

I agree as well. I have a smaller 50 hp tractor with a backhoe and loader but my backhoe is on a sub frame which I can easily remove and I have a 3 point hitch which makes it much more versatile than one of those old school construction backhoes. I'm sure it has no 3 point hitch in front of that hoe.

Yes, a modern backhoe is an excavator that can quickly go anywhere. I only run modern equipment and use the JD pattern since my brother learned on a backhoe and taught me. From a miniex that goes through a 36" gate to the Cat 420f2 backhoe that our company has, to the 349 excavator with 78" bucket that we rented, they all work the same with the same controls. Each job or part of it has a certain piece of equipment that is best, but the back hoe is kind of universal for the medium size work. It is a lot cheaper to move than big excavators, although a miniex and tracksteer are two of the most useful tools for smaller work. They can be moved with our dump trailer so it is fast and economical.

A full restore will never happen with this guy, halfass at best.

@@RussCarey Patina, it doesn't need to shine!

And he hauled ass down a busy road! Irresponsible

That's what I was thinking about the cable kill. I've got a Kubota tractor from the 70's the key is just a power switch. There's a starter switch and a plunger to shut off.

Agreed. It would be a shame to part it out….😢

I would keep it together.

If he doesn't he's going to be flying all over the place. I think he's going to be finding all kinds of uses for the backhoe attachment, though.

I would definitely keep it. But it's an idea.

The backhoe is good trading material at the very least. Totally agree though… Matt will need something in back to offset the front loaded weight.

Yeah, funny how it hovered perfectly still. 🤣

I'd agree - this one has a lot going for it. And the small hoe could open up the ability to do jobs where getting an excavator to the job might be more expensive than it's worth. I have to image you could transport this thing around more cheaply than your big excavator. Not that you do a lot of "jobs" these days but it would give you options.

Haha - you mean pump the tyres up?

@@GHOOGLEMALE Guessing you didn't watch his series restoring his grader?

@Tom1k9 you mean Christine? yes I did watch it. Yes he went the whole hog on that one, probably 60psi 🤣

Flip it

Great point, you can use the backhoe to pull or push, level to place timbers underneath tires etc to get unstuck.

Yes, access to the parts is very poor on modern machines. I couldn't get a screwdriver to the filter on the top of the lift pump on my M.F./ Terrex excavator.

If you own an excavator and a skid steer, there is absolutely no job that will come up where you need a backhoe. Lol

And now the filters are!

Yea we'e had one since 2014 and I compare them to a swiss army knife; they will do several things but nothing great; very cumbersome especially in tight spaces.

Yeah they are mine is an Huddig 10Ton backhoe use it for everything here at home. even as a car jack its awsome. @@deannelson9301

Yup, backhoes are great for farms, golf courses, municipalities and maybe schools for grounds maintenance. Maybe even apartment complexes. But you’ll never see a backhoe on a commercial landscape project. Or at least a dedicated backhoe. You may find subframe backhoes to throw on the back of your Deere or kubota. You don’t even see backhoes of this size any more because they’re so easy to mount and dismount from modern tractors. There are some niche markets that JCB offers some small machines as well as kubotas l47 and m62. But most modern backhoes you’re gonna see are monsters like cat 420s or Deere 310s.

@@_P0tat07_ Maybe stateside you don't but the JCB backhoes were and I believe still are, the back bone og many construction projects in the UK. Simply because they can do such a varirty of jobe, from digging to loading and unloading materials. Not perfect in all situations, but 1 man and 1 machine can do a lot of work.

@@deannelson9301 Huddig machines - backhoe loaders with waist control (and which is lockable) and at least one crane for loads together with a lift so one machine is enough for electric lines work - the electrician has the lift while the crane handles a transformer. Railway maintenance companies uses them for almost everything.

Maybe it would make sense to price out all the new hydraulic hoses and do the math from there . If hoses are going to be $6000 0r 10 maybe you can find something for that price plus what you could sell this one for with way newer hoses .