That's great that such a machine works out for you where you live. I'm yet to come across anyone who owns one. I know of one rental yard who has 1 for rent, but they tell me that they seem to rent it only for a couple hours at a time for someone to dig a small trench or to bury a pet that has passed and discovered that digging in our really hard clay soil is quite a chore if you want to get your hole deep enough where wild animals do not dig up your beloved pet and drag it around. I don't know how they are there price wise, but IMHO the reason nobody has one around where I live is because a fella can buy a backhoe attachment for their tractor or a stand alone used small mini-excavator for about the same money and the latter two have considerably more power and, therefore, more uses. I personally think they are a neat idea, but just never could justify buying one. I only have about $4500 in my little old Tak TB016. It is only about 39" wide with the tracks in yet they hydraulically expand to 52" wide and has breakout power of over 4000 pounds and can still lift high enough to load into my single axle dump truck. For me, in my area, when I compared the two, it was a no-brainer for what I needed to buy. But, as I've tried to be careful and state, I do not know market conditions nor your uses needed so what works for me here may be a bad choice for you in your area. Cool to see someone using one! Best of luck to ya with your digger!!
