Backhoe preference? New Holland LB115 or JCB 214 S Series

I've owned a JCB 1550B and had good luck with it. I sold it to get something newer / more modern. I will use this on the farm to clear fence rows and repair tile. Will also be pushing out fruit trees in an old orchard. In researching a new machine, I've discovered the JCB 214 "S" series with 4 wheel steering. I really like this feature. I've also found a 2003 New Holland LB 115 that is very similar. Having had a JCB, I'm fairly confident about their quality. However, I haven't found one yet at the right price.
I am not familiar with New Holland backhoes, and there is a lot of "Bad Press" on this forum about New Holland backhoes. However, the LB 115 that I am looking at only has 1700 hours on it and it really looks like and awsome machine. Does anyone have experience with these machines?
Thanks in advance for your help!!

well, for my experience repairing and maintaining heavy equipment, i can recomend you the jcb as one if not the most reliable backhoe loader. in my country the 46% of the backhoe market is owned by jcb the last 10 years. you can find in machinery trader or equipment trader some offers on these backhoe loaders, since you are going tho use in a farm, the 4 x 4 x 4 is the correct choice. i think that in the states after the opening of the Savanah manufacture plant, jcb has a good support for their product. hope this help

Well i guess one person was bound to like JCB products. I'd stick with a Deere, Case machine myself. Your in michigan and I'd be willing to bet your local Case/Deere dealer is a loooot closer than your next JCB dealer.

Burnout said:

Well i guess one person was bound to like JCB products. I'd stick with a Deere, Case machine myself. Your in michigan and I'd be willing to bet your local Case/Deere dealer is a loooot closer than your next JCB dealer.

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I agree with Burnout, ask any of the kalamazoo county or calhoun county guys that have to run the JCB's and you'll run away. IMHO In michigan you'll get the best service from cat and deere, but I'm not sure who supports case up your way (down by me it's southeastern and they're pretty good guys).

I have never owned a JCB but I have used and worked on one from time to time. I now own a JD 310. From my experience the JD steering is 2.5 turns hard right to hard left and the JCB is about 10 turns (or it seems). Next is the backhoe controls (regular sticks) are easy to run on the Deere but hard to operate on the JCB. Also a real scary thing is every electrical on the JCB I worked on was yellow. I mean every single wire. What a nightmare to trouble shot. Also parts are hard to get and cost is high. $550.00 for one fuel injector.

Either a 214S or the LB115 are good farm machines. You will really like the large front tires / 4 wheel steering modes when loading / leveling. If you can get the NH for a similar price over the JCB the ability to get service and parts should be better. You also shouldn't have to deal with the British Std. Pipe hyd. fittings used on the JCB. I looked at both when I bought my JCB 217S, at the time I couldn't locate a NH in my price range. Some 214S's have powershift trans and others do not. A powershift is the way to go if you do a lot of loader work. A 4in1 bucket is real handy for farm work, pulling posts, picking and carrying stumps, trees, rocks etc. Covering tile ditches is also nice with the bucket open, especially if the soil is sticky.

I'd swear only by deere and case. Company I work for has just bout all brands working having so many owner ops. Company owns mostly deere, bunch of case, and one pos cat. 90% of the subs have case, few deere, and couple others(terex and NH).

All the guys from Ireland ironicly wont touch JCB, mostly case. I do know one guy who has a New Holland lb95 I think it is. Always had Ford/NH and loves the hoe he has now.

Deon said:

Also a real scary thing is every electrical on the JCB I worked on was yellow. I mean every single wire. What a nightmare to trouble shot. Also parts are hard to get and cost is high. $550.00 for one fuel injector.

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All wires on any JCB machine are coded with alpha-numeric numbers telling you what harness they belong to, as well as where the begin and terminate. Any competent dealer should be able to provide this info. Just FYI in case you ever run into anything like this again.

Also largely dependant on the dealer, parts aren't "hard to get" like everyone thinks they are. In fact, JCB offers a 48hr Parts Guarantee (participating dealers only). 48hrs, or they're free.

I will admit that some parts are on the expensive side, but there are always exceptions to that as well. I have had numerous occasions in which Case parts were more than JCB parts.

Just my 2 cents.

I am a newbie here and I also have an interest in what is being said about the 214s JBC because I just bought one. I have a thread just below this one about the Bad forward reverser lever. I have a question for JCBiron what do you know about my lever problem?
I have a older 580 Case and is been a great tractor its just to old and to wore out, so far I like this JCB other then a few problems that I have had with electrical gremlins. I got it so much cheaper then the Case, Cat, John Deer counterpart that I am not complaining to much yet

The jcb 4cx (214s) is a nice machine, parts are cheap. We have had jcb's for years, we found the best of them give little problems. Over here jcb is all people think, ive driven the fiat hitachi which is same as the newholland and its a great machine. the lb115 is a nice machine also, and prts are cheap. I dont like the jublee clips holding hoses on rubber blocks personally as working in trees or bushes could get caught. Ive driven the cat backhoe and absolutey love them, great power and nice to work. The Volvo BL71 is nice, I dont know what the 2002 model on jcb is like but one thing i like about Cat, Case, NH, over Jcb is there hydraulic pump is driven off the gearbox............ Just my opinion and i know of a case 2006 and it has 6500 odd hrs and is as dry as bone and has done majority of rock breaking and ripping up old concreate roads,

JS580SL said:

I'd swear only by deere and case. Company I work for has just bout all brands working having so many owner ops. Company owns mostly deere, bunch of case, and one pos cat. 90% of the subs have case, few deere, and couple others(terex and NH).

All the guys from Ireland ironicly wont touch JCB, mostly case. I do know one guy who has a New Holland lb95 I think it is. Always had Ford/NH and loves the hoe he has now.

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You talking about Ireland as in Rep Ireland

Guy I work for is from Galway area I beleive and theres many other guys from Ireland as well were I work.

I have always been a JCB fan and have a 99 214s. I dont have any experience operating a new holland but i have climbed in a lb 115 before and the one thing that i did not like about it was the foot clearance when you spin around for the backhoe seemed very small. I only wear a size 11 boot and squeeze my feet around.

Look at it this way, JCB is popular in Europe which is all well and great. John Deere, Case andf Cat are the big three here. If your going to use this machine rarely and have time to wait for parts... you'll be fine. If your going to throw on 1-200hrs a year then the JCB or the NH is gonna do ok I would imagine. You might have some sitting/dry rot issues but oh well thats gonna happen on any brand of hoe. I will be honest I have never understood the 4 wheel steering. Oh my god you can turn tighter... WOW. So can I... there is a reason the brake pedal is split in half. You can crab steer.... WOW.... when has anyone ever used it under normal circumstances and it probably took you longer to crab than it would to just back up and drive ahead the 10ft.

I have run a couple JCB machines... they impressed me so little I thought I was willing to run a shovel. I don't know what engine the machine you are looking at runs, but take the 310 for example. You say JD 310 and people know what you mean. You know its going to have the 4.5L 4cyl in it, you know you can get parts for it at any green dealer as long as you don't tell em its for yellow. Hoses can be made anywhere and things are rebuildable. Same with Case... Cummins engines are pretty popular so I have heard. Cat... well I don't like their backhoes but Cat is always going to be Cat.

I am an iron snob, I like my backhoes to have a leaping deere on the hood. You might pick up a 2002 NH or JCB machine for great money, it might be a great backhoe. But where I sit now.. (southern Ontario) I can walk outside and KNOW that our 1979 310-A is going to start and do what I need it to do. Same with the 310-D sitting out there, and the SE and even the poor beat up C thats sitting in the healing pile. There is a reason you see guys on here buying Case 580 B/C/D's, JD 310/A/B/C's, Cat 416/B's. Here they are easy to get parts for.

If you went to Europe well... buying aa hyd pump for our 310-A might be a different story.

We have a lb115 at work, works great for us, no real problems with it. In my area dealer support is not the greatest so parts can be slow.

Dealer support in michigan is really not much of an issue. AIS equipment has dealers spaced out pretty well and are very quick for parts.

I have a 215s 1997. I like it, it works good for me on the farm.

The standout things i like, the wheels are the biggy. Tiling is always done in the mud, that's why i wanted those big tires. It works well for that. Visibility is reduced with those wheels out front, but you get used to it. Huge bucket, powerful loader, high lift height.

Strong out back too.

Shortcomings are an odd seating position that makes my throttle foot go to sleep all the time. That's just weird.

Also, rear boom is the widest around. I think they made it this way to give greater downforce for hard digging. Lots of extra weight. However, you are constantly straining to see around it, which isn't good.

Heat is nothing great, but it works.

Perkins starts well in the cold.

Good luck

Hello:
Have been following this forum for a bit, finally signed up last night. We are going to be moving to a farm in mid-state TN in a couple of months, and I have been looking for a backhoe. Planned tasks include fixing our driveway, dealing with some creek issues, doing some building and installing a geo heat pump, building a pond. So after quite a bit of reading and thought, here is what I think we are looking for in a machine, working front to rear:

4 in 1 loader bucket - for picking up rocks, logs and stumps
4WD - lots of off-rd use, rough terrain
EROPS with heat and AC - winters are cold, July & August get pretty hot
Extend-a-hoe with - better reach into places where it would be difficult to take the machine

Budget is up to $30,000. After looking for a while I believe my wants and budget are not well aligned - nothing new there! So far I have found a:

2000 New Holland LB110B that has all of the desired features and based on the sellers description is ready to go to work.
1999 Cat 416C, good tires, has a leaking stick cylinder, scratches on an outrigger piston and the AC clutch does not engage.

Both machines have ~3,000 hours on them. Looking at our location, we have 3 New Holland dealers within 50 miles (nearest is 23 miles away) and a couple of Cat dealers. Much less coverage for Case and non-green John Deere.

I am leaning toward the New Holland, but would welcome commentary from the forum one way or another. Could keep looking for a couple of months, but need it by June.

Thanks
Steve

Welcome to the forum!

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Catback said:

Welcome to the forum!

You may want to start your own thread with this post. It will receive more hits (and comments).

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Being a newby, I couldn't start a thread, but I am 2/3 the wat there now