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Sean
02-06-2004 11:18:21
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Re: Crawler or 4WD? in reply to Steve Jones, 02-06-2004 10:51:10
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Steve, I recently purchased a tracked loader to log, clear and put in a driveway for my 15 acre lot. I strongly considered a 4WD backhoe because they are so versatile and useful. But once I found out how much they are (good used ones $16k and up), I decided to go with an old crawler loader with a 4-1 bucket (which I bought for less than half the price I would have paid for a decent 4WD backhoe). Since I bought the loader I haven't regretted that I didn't buy a wheeled backhoe. The loader is incredibly versatile, it dozes, digs up stumps, supports trees while I cut them, drags giant oaks in the mud, pushes trees over and hasn't gotten stuck...yet, anyway! Although it did blow a hydraulic line, which kinda sucked. But overall it just has mass and POWER that the backhoes do not have...and I've put it to good use so far with the big trees I've had to deal with. As a matter of fact my neighbor rented a big late model JD 4x4 backhoe for $1000/week and was using it at the same time me and brother first started using my loader. He was using it to dig up stumps and drag a few trees. I wasn't watching him very much because I was busy on my own lot, but I know he hung it up really good. Apparently it took him quite a while to get it unstuck. The soils in our area are pretty soft, especially when it rains or snows. Of course he was an amateur operator and probably not that proficient at using the hoe...but then I'm a novice at 'loadering' too, and my machine did not get stuck. Another neighbor of mine has one of those smaller (30 hp) YinMa (sp?) 4x4 hoes and he hung his up too. Plus his ability to dig out stumps and pull logs is definitely limited. But I think once you have the heavy stuff out of the way, the hoe definitely is way more practical. One thing that stinks about the loader is that after my driveway is paved, I cant use it to plow snow anymore. Even driving the loader down our dirt/gravel access road can be a hassle because when you turn (90 deg or so) it chews everything up. Plus if you live in an area with pretty firm soils and not a lot of rain, then the hoe would be more attractive. The hoe overall should be cheaper to maintain and transport too. Once I get all my heavy stuff out of the way, I'm probably going to sell the loader and get a smaller 4x4 hoe for general maintenance. But for now, Im thankful to have my big ole tracked loader...its an awesome machine!
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