Have you looked at the IRONPLANET.COM auction site? I'm also "green" at this and am looking to buy a backhoe/loader as well as a 4wd 40+ HP tractor/loader with a 3 pt. The thing that looks good at the Iron Planet auction is that they do an inspection of the equipment and say they will stand behind the inspection results reported. Of course, it would be better to find a local machine and hire your own inspector - but after 2 months of looking I have not found any used equipment that fits my purpose AND budget. Try IRONPLANET.COM and see what you think. I'd like to know if anyone out there can tell how they did by using Iron Planet. Thanks. Dabney
I was wondering about the situation in your area where you live, when you said after two months of not having any luck finding a machine, did you mean what you had looked at would have suited you're needs but was in bad shape and/or over priced?
I ask because I believe in certain parts of the country a good hoe is more readily available than other parts of the country.
Because what I was dealing with for a long time here in my town and state in New England while looking around local for a hoe was they were all mainly owned by private people like me, who were not in the business but needed a backhoe to do the few projects around the yard, or people who had owned a hoe for a long time but never took care of it, so now it was time to sell it.
So when I was looking at them units I was finding minor and major issues wrong with them, so as I would kept talking with these people I was figuring out more about what was wrong.
It was hard looking for a decent backhoe priced fairly.... when I'd call about a hoe that seemed like it may have been a good unit to buy it would be sold the morning it hit the paper, I was never fast enough, I'd call the very second it appeared in the paper and I'd either got no answer, or nobody was there to help or give me the location to look at it, I'd even call back as little as an hour later and it would be sold.... :Banghead
After looking at about 15 units I finally realized I need to find the people that know the business, but there are none near me that are big with retailing heavy equipment, just a few but its hard to get into them circles...
So as luck would have it I finally ran into some guy who has three other brothers who are all very heavy into the construction business, it was hard to find these kind of people where I live, they do jobs like 12 million dollar shopping centers, etc... So this one brother I ran into only buys and sells machines for a living, so he got my machine at auction in Jew Jersey and dragged it all the way back 90 miles back to Connnecticut where he sets up shop. it was from a construction company that put up a few backhoes at auction to unload.... So I was happy that the guy I met and bought from knows all about backhoes and what to look for when buying a backhoe.
When I was first looking at the hoe I ended up buying I realized right away it was going to be mine, finally after looking at so many... it was in decent shape and I thought it was a fair price..... but of course I missed a few things wrong that I could have used as a bargaining chip, that the hydraulic lines under the seat were all worn down pretty good from rubbing together from swinging the arm left to right, and that the brakes chattered, which now are not a problem being that I've kept changing the hydraulic fluid, so now the brakes still chatter but just a little bit that less than normal....
Good luck and take your time buying a hoe, I'm sure glad I did.... I can't imagine being in the same boat as the people that I've met that were trying to unload a hoe they paid too much for that still have issues wrong that cost an awful lot to fix...