Backhoe replacement

Fools Gold

Member
Livestock Farmer
Hi all currently running an ageing Jcb 3cx for farm use and might soon be in the market for an upgrade, main duties include filling feed wagon from clamp, stacking bales and unloading lorries (pallets, fertiliser etc) loading several thousand tons of dung and some occasional digging
I realise the best tool for my job is probably a tele handler but having never owned one I have never missed any benefits of lift height and manoeuvrability they may bring, in my case a skid steer does all close quarter tight work in the sheds. Plus every man and his dog has a handler these days and I like to be different!
So the question is, what would be a good digger for my use? JCB, New Holland, Case would all have reasonable back up locally, and has anyone any idea of the likely cost of the afore mentioned, I look after my kit and would prefer to buy new and keep for a long time.
cheers
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have been very impressed by a neighbours New Holland, one thing to be aware of is they seem to match backhoe and loader reach to horsepower, hence the multiple models.
 

H200GT

Member
Location
NORTH WALES
Id stick with JCB. Heard opinions from some that others are better, but none have sold in the uk on the same numbers as JCB. I have only really used JCB in anger so cant comment on others.

For long term backup, parts and general knowledge on how to fix them, id stick JCB. You can still buy the many of the main parts for 3C machines to this day from JCB, not sure same can be said for Ford or Massey diggers of that age?

Also I have found I can operate JCB X pattern fine, (jcb was the first machine I learnt to operate), excavator + pattern with leavers on the side again no problem. But put me in a backhoe with leavers to the front on + pattern and I go to pot completely 🤔🤔
 

Lincs Lass

Member
Location
north lincs
Civils guy I know has a newish jcb ,the fitters have had it apart more times than its been running ,,he had a Cat before it and it wasnt much better and had a jcb before that which decided to turn its self off going up the main road out of town ,,plod rolled up and told him to move it ,,sorry I cant ,the computer has locked out ,,they fined him for blocking the highway but the court through the case out after reading the jcb fitters report .
The moral of this is dont buy a jcb or a caterpillar .
Hes an owner driver and changes them every other year ,,new
 

Lincs Lass

Member
Location
north lincs
Was an early morning so I may have been hallucinating but I swear I saw a CAT the other day with 4 equal sized wheels?
Cat brings out new backhoe loader series
 
Do you have a lot of buckets for your 3cx? The NH has a wider hitch so would be expensive to change.
I changed from a 89 3cx with a manual hitch to a 99 NH 95 with a manual quick hitch.
The 3cx was ok but half the dash lights didn’t work and the cab was suffering usual tin rot.
The NH has been a revelation, quich hitch is a must as use buckets as a face shovel a lot of time, has loader suspension as well which when not on you notice. Has been relatively reliable, on 8k hrs and had usual burst hoses and a starter. Parts for the New Holland seem reasonably priced I found compared to JCB.
The controls on stick based NH were the same as JCB so no familiarisation needed.
If I was buying another backhoe would be a LB 110.

Understand they are the jack of all trades master of none but where you need to dig a hole that takes an hour or so to do and transport materials at same time they are invaluable. Bought mines for house build and also had to put in 500m of road so paid itself in no time with its versatility and ability to move location quickly.

Would think you will need at least 50k to buy something relatively new if that’s what you intend.
 

Fools Gold

Member
Livestock Farmer
Than you all for the input so far, I have to say that my current machine has been very reliable over the 20 years I’ve owned it and parts when needed have been cheap enough and easy to obtain
Would a new 3cx have add blue on it? I have a tractor with it and don’t think long term reliability of it will be great
Staying jcb would also make sense in terms of using my existing quick hitch and attachments provided the new machines loader spec hasn’t changed that is.
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Than you all for the input so far, I have to say that my current machine has been very reliable over the 20 years I’ve owned it and parts when needed have been cheap enough and easy to obtain
Would a new 3cx have add blue on it? I have a tractor with it and don’t think long term reliability of it will be great
Staying jcb would also make sense in terms of using my existing quick hitch and attachments provided the new machines loader spec hasn’t changed that is.
You can spec a quick hitch to fit any machine to lift any pin configuration, plenty NH with jcb spec quick hitches, same as there are plenty of jcb handlers with matbro heads. Done right its not a problem.
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Do you have a lot of buckets for your 3cx? The NH has a wider hitch so would be expensive to change.
I changed from a 89 3cx with a manual hitch to a 99 NH 95 with a manual quick hitch.
The 3cx was ok but half the dash lights didn’t work and the cab was suffering usual tin rot.
The NH has been a revelation, quich hitch is a must as use buckets as a face shovel a lot of time, has loader suspension as well which when not on you notice. Has been relatively reliable, on 8k hrs and had usual burst hoses and a starter. Parts for the New Holland seem reasonably priced I found compared to JCB.
The controls on stick based NH were the same as JCB so no familiarisation needed.
If I was buying another backhoe would be a LB 110.

Understand they are the jack of all trades master of none but where you need to dig a hole that takes an hour or so to do and transport materials at same time they are invaluable. Bought mines for house build and also had to put in 500m of road so paid itself in no time with its versatility and ability to move location quickly.

Would think you will need at least 50k to buy something relatively new if that’s what you intend.
I have an NH 85, and will almost certainly change for another one, very heavy back end that takes a bit of holding steady when digging but it just gets in with any job I ask of it. Cone and pin QR and a couple of tie tip buckets are a godsend
 

andybk

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Mendips Somerset
Seen some good low hrs ex army jcbs at witham auctions , problem is they are green lol , we used to buy ex service lorries (usually navy) most were like new for 50% new price or less . and most were serviced to death ie all teething issues sorted ,
They were selling case cx90s (with just a sun cab ) few months back brand new £16-19 ,000 which i though was cheap
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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