So I went and bought a backhoe off CL. I burned under 4K on it, but the engine had a complete rebuild. After putting a new radiator(leaking bad) in it and some other hoses she runs great. The passenger kingpin is bad but that will be another day. It is a extend-a-hoe so I get that 23ft reach.

We bought the backhoe to start digging a 29x47 foundation for our log cabin. Sadly I can never get to it now because the wife has me digging out old stumps and moving rocks/pushing trees over. I'm starting to wonder why I do such things. I was hoping the motor was a 4bt but it ended up being the larger model case 207 diesel. The 4bt was an option on these rigs but no such luck.

Hands down our best investment. I would say the skid-steer would be a good option but there is way more power in a full size. I pushed my luck with some rather large pines(had my doubts) and it snapped it like a twig.

 

looks like you're going to be having fun.

Buddy of mine is a wrench, and he just took apart one of those to replace a hydraulic line in the hoe. What a PITA.

As long as your lines are good that machine should last you a long time. How many hours on it ?

 

Wench?

 

Yeah, as well as being a wrench, he can be a real wench....

Wrench = mechanic
My electrician is a "sparky"
My plumber is a "flushy"
My wife is a pain in the donkey

But I digress.....

 

That's the way to go. smaller machines are often handy but have limits.

 

Looks like we too will be moving next year. My wife wants to be closer to her family and this state is getting harder and harder to live in.

 

What state?

We may be heading down to Kentucky to flee the nuts in Illinois ourselves.

 

Kentucky is a good place to live! But it's too crowded already so we are only accepting immigrants that drive 1st Gens.

 

Missouri or Eastern Oklahoma.

 

Yeah, that extend-a-hoe is all inside the hoe. The owner said he just replaced the hoses and the entire cylinder in there. Was a huge pain. I think there are 700 hours on the new motor and 4531 on the meter.

 

I heard you had a no discriminate law.

So long as it is a 12V, second gens need love too!

 

Missouri is cool, but man, the hottest I ever have been was in Ok. in June.......

100 degrees and 100 percent humidity suck large. I can't even imagine how they survive in July and August.......

 

Ha ha, yea nondescrimination but our county clerks don't have to sign off on same sex marriages if they don't want too, go figure.

We have high humidity here too and on days with no breeze it can be a bugger.

OK, all 12 valves welcome then! And maybe more, we're mostly laid back...

 

NJ gets a few days like that, but Florida was horrific in August when we visited a buddy in key West. His 2nd home is there, and we went to see the nutjobs. Horrific humidity and temp

 

I am leaning toward Missouri. I think when it comes down to it she would be happy to just be closer to her family.

The last round of gun laws is enough to convenience me to get out of here. then there is the aggressive homeless problem. They are taking over the place and the cops can't enforce many laws against them