Typical Backhoe lifetime

[ForsytheBros.]

We own a fairly well maintained(in my opinion) John Deere 2WD 310G w/ approx.950 hrs on it.

My question: based on user experiences with various heavy equipment (particularly backhoes), what have you found to be a typical machine life before having to perform major repairs (engine, trans. , hydr. pumps, etc.) I realize that this is a very loaded question, but i've heard some rule of thumb #'s of approx. 100hrs x horsepower, etc. What has been the experience of some of the users out there? I'm trying to build my knowledge base as we don't have years of experience to rely on!

thanks

[tylermckee]

5000 hours on our 580L and its now starting to blow a lot of hoses, its getting a little sloppy, just got it out of the shop because a valve in the trans broke, cost $2,500. Still got lots of life left, but its also still got lots of little stuff thats going to break. Lots of lost time in the field. The $60 hose may not seem like much but the 2 hours that it may take a guy or two to change it, time that could have been spent using the machine, will.

[JDOFMEMI]

I agree that 5,000 hrs is a pretty good pruduction life for a backhoe. With care, it may give much more than that, and even then, it is still a good machine, just not as reliable with more and more small failures. I have had 2 Case 580's go over 8,000 with no major failures, but a growing # of small things after 5,000 or so.
It mostly depends on the use and the care it gets.:thumbsup

[ForsytheBros.]

Thanks you guys for the valuable replies! Very handy for estimation of cost/hr over the long haul!

[dayexco]

we'll run our excavators to a min of 8500 hrs. our front end loaders 12-14k hrs. very seldom have major failure, just have to take care of maintenance

[mflah87]

My Case 580s have gone to 9600 hours without major work and I parked it because I didn't want to push it. I also had a Komatsu PC400 go to 12,000 hours before I traded it in, and that was no major repairs didn't tocuht he motor at all.

[ForsytheBros.]

Amazing track records in my opinion. Hours like those appear to really do well for the company bottom line! Follow up: How religiously do you guys stick to the maintenance schedule? Do you pull machines out of the field for oil and fluid changes on the exact hour or if a machine runs over the scheduled interval, say 30 or 50 hours, before changes, do you call that good enough?

thanks

[mflah87]

i do mine either right on the dot when its due or before just to be safe. Everyday I have the operators throw a few pumps of grease in the machine. On my hammers I have autolubes because to me thats an insurance policy. It also saves on grease to.

[rino1494]

We have a old 580D. Not sure how many hrs are on it, because there have been a couple hr meters in it. It is prettly sloppy and needs paint. The only major repair that we had was we rebuilt the rear. Other than that, it has been a good backhoe.

[tuney443]

I too run Deere.With a good PM schedule and decent care,that 310 should go app.10K hours before major components start failing.As for being exact,I don't sweat it--as close tothe timetable as possible.Common sense--if I'm in sandy stuff,I might grease the bucket area a few times during the day.

[thejdman04]

Company I currently work for really doesn no oil changes, ad ad needed. Fix upon catastrophic failure. We have ahd very mixed luck w/this program. (not im not advising it jsut telling you what we do, I do what im told and when the boss says fix it or do some maintenance thats what i do). Weve had machines blow up at 1,000 hours (motors) and some Just keep on running. We usually run it to the point of failure and then usally its when the truck/machines in use so its a huge rush to patch it and get it back down the road. I dont personally believe in hobbing something. 1/2 the time we spend 2 hours cobbling a 10 dollar part thats in stock at napa but the boss is too cheap(when it cost him 2 hours labor to cobble it and its still not right so it costs him more money) but hes too cheap to actually spend money and give it out.

[Grader4me]

Company I currently work for really doesn no oil changes, ad ad needed. Fix upon catastrophic failure. We have ahd very mixed luck w/this program. (not im not advising it jsut telling you what we do, I do what im told and when the boss says fix it or do some maintenance thats what i do). Weve had machines blow up at 1,000 hours (motors) and some Just keep on running. We usually run it to the point of failure and then usally its when the truck/machines in use so its a huge rush to patch it and get it back down the road.

Sad that a company would treat their equipment like that. Must be hard on the operator knowing that the equipment is being abused, and not being able to do anything about it. Part of being a good operator is taking care of your machine.

[thejdman04]

Sad that a company would treat their equipment like that. Must be hard on the operator knowing that the equipment is being abused, and not being able to do anything about it. Part of being a good operator is taking care of your machine.

Where do you come from:confused: Hard on the operator knowing the equipment is being abused and not doing anything about it theya re the ones doing it:Banghead Most of our operators suck. No I didnt say all of them suck we have a few good ones and im sure there are good ones on this site. Most of our operators wont open the hood check the oil or anything, or even grease their machines because thats a maintenance issue. Most of our boys dont want overtime or are on salary so come 330 the run the machine up to the line (most of the time park them together if reasonable) and shut them off hop in their trucks and they are off. Or they show up 5 min late hop in fire it up wide open and get to work before the boss shows up so they look productive(he wants them going by 7am and heaven forbid they get there at 650 grease it while its warming up and still have htem moving by 7 when the boss shows up. OR my boss is kind of anal about machines idling so when they take their break or lunch usally the roach coach pulls up and they again in a huge hurry its lunch time instad of sitting w/thier machines for 5 min(the boss woudl say ok about that if somone was around them incase they blew an oil line etc somone could shut them down instead of them seizing up) they shut them down right away and go to lunch. The boss doesnt want anythign left running unless somones in the cab. (also liability in some subdivisions if a kid hopped on and started playing. Most operators something fails becuase of their stupidity or fault dont care, go into the lunch room and wait til thier machine is fixed or sit int he air conditioned cab while you bust our butt trying to put the track back on. Most operators wont even help you "not their job". Some are great if theres a problem they hop out of their machine help you anyway they can know how get the machine back up but most wont, either sit in the service truck or the cab and :sleeping

[OzDozer]

The life of a hoe is dependent on the style of useage (light duty, intermittent operation, moderate temperatures, soft soils? .. or heavy duty, double-shift operation, high ambient temps, rocky ground?) .. the operator .. the level of maintenance .. and the breed of hoe.

You can have a hoe falling to pieces at 2000 hrs with rough operators, lack of grease and oil changes, and rocky ground.

On the other hand, you could get 10,000 hrs out of a hoe with careful operation, good maintenance, and easy working conditions.

Most O/O's take care of their hoes, and get long life from them .. the worst would have to be rental hoes. They suffer from the "I don't care - it's not mine", mentality .. are often operated by knuckle draggers who don't have a feel for anything mechanical .. and who consider jobs like greasing, a job for someone else - not them.

As general rule of thumb - with satisfactory maintenance, and care in operation .. 5000 hrs is considered average life for major components of a hoe, on heavy duty work .. 7500 hrs would be average for moderate duty work .. and 10,000 hrs is achievable, on light duty operation.

[CascadeScaper]

Jdman,

Changing the oil and fluids in any piece isn't the responsibility of the operator. It's failure on both parts in your company, operators aren't greasing and the company won't change the oil? Not sure how they can even stay afloat with that kind of practice. Poor managment.

[Grader4me]

Where do you come from:confused: Hard on the operator knowing the equipment is being abused and not doing anything about it theya re the ones doing it:Banghead


I come from a place that management and operators work together to ensure that all of the equipment is looked after. I will stand by what I previously said about good operators. I must have misread your post. I assumed that managment would not give you operators time or care if you looked after the equipment.

[thejdman04]

Jdman,

Changing the oil and fluids in any piece isn't the responsibility of the operator. It's failure on both parts in your company, operators aren't greasing and the company won't change the oil? Not sure how they can even stay afloat with that kind of practice. Poor managment.

No I dont expect operators to change the fluids, should be done by a mechanic, however they should check oil (keep a gallon somehwere, maybe by a tree and hten in the cab overnight when needed, and grease their own machines. Its jsut so imparctical w/the number of machines we have and as scattard out as we have to think of sending a man around (sometimes as far as an hour away) to grease and check oil daily, even every 3 days. We have a huge "show room", ie old junk machines. The boss will go buy 6 no working 710 bakchoes and keep them around for parts, its how we run. JUst today somone broke the starter bolts off and the mechanic we have tired welding the starter on, to get it up and running cause the boss wanted it running now anyway anyhow. Whatever, he told me (when I chewed the other mechanics butt when I saw what he was doing) its not my job to think or reason, that is for the pwoers to be. DO what im told. OK buddy as long as my chekcs good on friday and your happy whatever,I would never do that on my own machine, or a customers but if its your machine and thats waht you want, go for it your money spend it maintain it how you want. As for the topic, stay so far away from hoes that ran jack hammers or compactors, they beat a machine and the vibrations seem to rattle them apart, esp the extenda hoes w/hammers, they really arent made for that. Also yes rental machiens. The company I work for does sand and gravel, cement, truckning, and rentals. (All different divisions but owned by the same guy). I could tell you 2000000 stories about homeowners renting machines and what they do to them. Usually the rental division gets fairly new or brand new machines and then thre completely unreliable and beat up worn out junk the get moved into the sand and gravel part of it. (except for the lifts when we get done /wthose , those get sold as the other parts of the company cant use them.

[thejdman04]

I come from a place that management and operators work together to ensure that all of the equipment is looked after. I will stand by what I previously said about good operators. I must have misread your post. I assumed that managment would not give you operators time or care if you looked after the equipment.

Im giving you a hard time, managment is the owner and his sons (who are as bad or worse then the owner). They arent strict w/maintenace and let things get lax and so the operators are very lax and now have gotton the attitude "its not my job, or somone else will do it" were a very duct tape, bailing wire operation tie it together,t ape it togther to get it to hold together. Our operators ahve grease guns etc accessible to them jsut rather sit in the cab then grease their machines and complain when its sloppy and uncontrollable. Recently we had to get rid of some of the old terex pans cause the operators wouldnt run the open stations. They are as whiney as union guyslol. I always tell them that, gets a huge rise out of them but they know Im funning them. The boss always says he could train a monkey to pull the levers too the operators love those comments. At the end of the day though we all usaully go home w/our health and a few pennys in our pockets so all is good.

[mflah87]

my neighbor wanted to borrow a bobcat and a mini from me to do some work at his house, i kindly told him they were all busy, so he went to united rentals. The first day he ripped the track off the Bobcat T300 the next machine he got he bashed the bucket in, and finnally when the third one showed up he rolled it over. No matter what i told him he didn't want to listen, I was just waiting for him to get hurt or killed. I think any rental company that rents to homeowners gets what they deserve renting to those morons.

[thejdman04]

We got some contractors that are worse then homeowners. Most homeowners are good and know they ahvent run it before and are very very careful because of this but some are unskilled and wreckless like your neighbor. I dont care if your first time or a vetern no need to tear stuff up like that. Common sense isnt so common anymore. But some contractors are as bad or worse, we got some guys who purporsly rent certain items beacuase they know they beat them up or tear them up. Also, some guys purposly only rent jackhammers and skid steers from us as they reather their machine is busy on a bucket and rent one of ours to get beat to deather and shook apart. Ill bet united charge him out the back for rolling a machine. Did he shut it off or did it lock up (from running upside down???) hope he got it shut down and no motor damage.

[tuney443]

We got some contractors that are worse then homeowners. Most homeowners are good and know they ahvent run it before and are very very careful because of this but some are unskilled and wreckless like your neighbor. I dont care if your first time or a vetern no need to tear stuff up like that. Common sense isnt so common anymore. But some contractors are as bad or worse, we got some guys who purporsly rent certain items beacuase they know they beat them up or tear them up. Also, some guys purposly only rent jackhammers and skid steers from us as they reather their machine is busy on a bucket and rent one of ours to get beat to deather and shook apart. Ill bet united charge him out the back for rolling a machine. Did he shut it off or did it lock up (from running upside down???) hope he got it shut down and no motor damage.

Sounds like your company really sucks not to put too fine a line on it.No offense,but why don't you leave them for a better one because it sounds like you care about the iron you run? My English teacher GF would have a field day with you by the way.:) :)

[mflah87]

he shut it off right away and asked me to roll it over and i told him i had to run out to look at a job. but hed get in the thing start it up at full throttle work for a hour or so then shut it right off at full throttle. If he had worked for me I would have killed him. Anyways I remember him b*tching about United saying that the track shouldn't had fallen and the bucket was like that when he got it. And then about the machine going over he had told them if they had brought him the machine he wanted he wouldn't have rolled it. All they had was a rubber tired one instead of a track one so he took the rubber tired one after he ruined the track one. Talk abouta bonehead

[thejdman04]

Sounds like your company really sucks not to put too fine a line on it.No offense,but why don't you leave them for a better one because it sounds like you care about the iron you run? My English teacher GF would have a field day with you by the way
I do care about it, and a lot of days it really frustrates me to 1/2 way rigg it, esp when I know itll come back to bite us in the butt but what do you do when the boss says hey git r done. It really frustrates me to spend 2 hours doing a patch job on a 6 dollar part I could replace in 10 minutes, esp when the trucks broke down in the middle of town in the center lane. I really wish i wasnt soooooooo stupid and would have learned to type, and run computers alot better. I get around them but not well, and dont type, I hunt and peck. I know community colleges offer classes but who has time for anything anymore. :bash

[thejdman04]

he shut it off right away and asked me to roll it over and i told him i had to run out to look at a job. but hed get in the thing start it up at full throttle work for a hour or so then shut it right off at full throttle. If he had worked for me I would have killed him. Anyways I remember him b*tching about United saying that the track shouldn't had fallen and the bucket was like that when he got it. And then about the machine going over he had told them if they had brought him the machine he wanted he wouldn't have rolled it. All they had was a rubber tired one instead of a track one so he took the rubber tired one after he ruined the track one. Talk abouta bonehead

I can tell you that a track machine is no better or worse then a wheeled machine. True a bigger longer wider machine wont tip as easily if they brought him a big tired machine, but still commmon since must prevail. United doesnt run junk (like my company), they do do a nice job and keep stuff up to snuff. They ahve to w/a I think 3 hour gaurentee, theyll fix it /swap it in 3 hours.

[Countryboy]

I get around them but not well, and dont type, I hunt and peck. I know community colleges offer classes but who has time for anything anymore. :bash

We all hunt-n-peck, some can just look at the screen while they do it. :D


I hunt and peck too.

See.....even Digger does it. :eek: :bouncegri

[Grader4me]

I get around them but not well, and dont type, I hunt and peck. I know community colleges offer classes but who has time for anything anymore. :bash


I hunt-n-peck two. I used to type with one finger...now I am up to two! but I can't type and look at the screen yet:crying ...maybe in a couple more years :thumbsup Your typing is just fine.:)
We are all here because of our interest in equipment and sharing idea's, helping one and another...we are not here to judge each other's typing skills.:wink2

[lgammon]

we always traded our 580s around the 5000 range we have never has a motor/tranmission/hydrulic pump problem and we have been running the 580s since 1976. the only problems we ever had was my uncle rolled the 580b over in to the lake and after that it was just crazy stuff all the time, and the other guy we had working back then kept breaking axles in it beacuse he would run full speed in to piles of dirt to laod the bucket....glad he quit

[surfer-joe]

OzDozer has it pretty close I think. I found that Case 580's were good to 5000 with fair maintenance, Cats could get out to 8000, Deere 310s somewhere in between. I believe that if taken new with excellent maintenance, Cats and Deere's could do 12000 hours, especially with O/O's. Believe Deere has best engine, Case next.

For oilfield work, tight and precise boom and bucket control is vital, and these can be very expensive to rebuild. Our oilfield operators mostly preferred Cat, Case next.

Bet deal I got was 3 years with guaranteed buyback at around 5000 hours for Cat, with preferential 0% percent financing if we wanted to buy outright. Our maintenance and cost records indicated that maintenance downtime and cost went way up after 5000 hours on all backhoes, so for us it made sense to move em out.

Auction values are best for Cat, Deere comes in 2nd and Case next. The Cats hold their value better, even if with more hours and in worse condition.

[nedly05]

We service every 100 hrs, and grease as needed usually daily depending on how many ours get put on. We have a 410-D with 5000 +/- hrs on it. It is still a very good machine but little things are starting to happen. It's probably time to change it out but it hard to swallow the prices of the new ones.:eek:

[tuney443]

Almost 5900 hours on my 510B now--runs like bran new.Think I finally have it sold to a guy who's building a house up in Vermont.Told him if he gave me full price,I'd deliver it free.He was impressed with every item of maintenance I've done since I bought her new 24 years ago.Will miss her greatly.

[Bob t]

I agree if you maintain your equipment and run it reasonably it can run 7-10k hours. Had a neighbor in the construction business, took very good care of his equipment, ran it for years. During the slow time winter he manage the town equipment which resulted in less breakdown time and cost for the town.

[gvette85]

My father in law runs nothing but Deere and has a 310 D with about 6000 hrs. on it. It is very well maintained and used daily in a wastewater treatment plant business.No problems what so ever so far.A lot has to do with maintenance.

[Bob t]

lots of used hoes out there not many maintained well.

[pinesd3400]

Oh for my two cents , the most at one time I spent since new on a 755 Ford was last
week I hit somthing in a snow storm and blew a rear tire for a mere $650. Other than
that Its really been good to me. So for a Chrismas present I bought her a Electric
Lincoln grease gun. I bet there is many with out one. I took that old grease gun and
flung it so far the FBI wont find it. It rules.

[Case 580e]

my 1986 case 580e has 9,080 hours on it i think and never had to do and drastic repairs but after a while working in sand with it the radiator leaked so i fixed it took me one sunday to put it together

[Miller2706]

The FBI will probably find it and send you a bill for cleaning it up!

[Bob t]

:beatsme
Miller 2706, I don't understand this reply about the FBI finding it and charging for the cleanup ????????????

[Deere9670]

:beatsme
miller 2706, i don't understand this reply about the fbi finding it and charging for the cleanup ????????????

epa....lol:d

[BOBDOG]

Jdman,

Changing the oil and fluids in any piece isn't the responsibility of the operator. It's failure on both parts in your company, operators aren't greasing and the company won't change the oil? Not sure how they can even stay afloat with that kind of practice. Poor managment.

Most of the companys in PA require operators to clear the tracks and grease the machine at the end of the day. I cant see equipment lasting to long if your not pushing the dirt out of the machine with fresh grease. The grease just turns into lapping compound as the dirt mixes in.

[Jeremy/case580c]

That's a really good point.

[Jeremy/case580c]

Yeah, I would love to fling my old grease gun too and get one like yours.

[W8KT]

I agree, daily greasing adds life to bushings and bearings by helping to keep them clean.

[Dominion 410]

Bought a 310D John Deere new in 1990.It now has over 12,000 hrs on it.Original engine,torque and transmission.Shell Rotella T 15w40 in summer,0-40 synthetic in winter months.Had a cross pin break in the rear diff and destroyed the rear housing,that was a little expensive but worth the money.It is now a spare machine but see's fairly steady use in the summer months.Compared to our new 420E it's a little smaller,but the visibilty is much better than on the Cat.Narrower cab,much better sight lines to loader bucket,albeit not as fancy as the 420-but hey we're construction workers not bankers.:D

Dominion

[irockOK]

I bought a 03 New Holland 75b used with 3k hrs on it. Mostly for pleasure and use around the farm. Everything works perfectly except the AC, I understand it`s hard to find one that does have working AC, Just recently my battery went down. Had to be replaced . Which I found a new for around 1/3 of the New Holland price at battery`s plus. I thought it was simply a case of a bad battery until I hooked up the new one. It instantly started getting hot and smelling of sulfer. OMG! I unhooked my alternator thinking it may have something to do with it. It still did the same thing , Does anyone have any idea`s that I could try? My wife is thinking I have a $30k barge weight!