Guys, I've been an avid permies looker for a long time but have never been compelled to post as much before as now. I'm on 125 acres of hilly terrain in Kentucky with the dream of of building my house, designing and implementing this place from the ground up. The house is up first and we will start this fall. The types and number of tasks to be done in the long haul are a mile long. As for what equipment to get given all the considerations I couldn't agree with many of your assessments more especially since I've been cleaning up and living with the same decision I made three years ago. I agree that if you can only afford one machine (which was me as well) then versatility at reasonable maintenance costs are your friend; the loader backhoe as the best solution was the conclusion I came to and has proven to be over the past three years. Now, for the ultimate in versatility there is one type/brand machine that none has mentioned but I decided to go with. That would be the Kubota M59 or their smaller cousins are the L-47, L-45 and a couple others. Now they have the M62 which was just for compliance purposes and didn't add any significant capability to the M59 except a 2ft longer backhoe. No other manufacturer makes equipment for a niche such as ours which the possible exception being JD's older 110's which I looked at but not for long. Here's what you are getting with the M59 that you can not get with the Case 580 or similar machines: I take my backhoe off in about 15 minutes, install the 3 point hitch and I'm off and running any 3 pt Cat 1 or 2 implement including PTO implements. I've got every option on the M59 including 16gpm of hydraulics on the front so I can run my fork grapple or rent any skid steer low flow attachment I want, the hydraulic thumb on the back. I've handled large trees and rocks, dug big stumps, pulled out old and leaking septic tanks, handled huge piles of brush with the forks and grapple, a number of three point implements even including a log skidding winch to get out the 300 logs I have and a three point PTO 8 inch Woodmaxx chipper. It is really an industrial grade machine and when you look at the specs, its not that far of a cry in capability from the full size loader backhoes but at 8300 pounds if I have to haul it somewhere I can even with a 3/4 ton. I've really tested the nearly 4,000 pounds of lift on the front end with huge trees/logs and the backhoe is a beast with 7,600 lbs of bucket breakout force. If I had the money to get an older descent 60+hp farm tractor for all the three point work would I do it; you bet. Would I like to have a 8 to 16 ton excavator to handle all the digging projects I have in mind? You bet! One day I'll buy the extra tractor and buy or rent the excavator when the finances work out. For now, the M59 or its Kubota cousins are the true jack of all trades but make no mistake; at their heart they are loader/backhoes. The most aggravating three point implement to use is the chipper because it must run at 540 rpm whereas a bush hog you can run it slower than that if you want. Well, the engine rpm needed on an M59 to generate 540 rpm at the PTO is 2550 which is wide open. I do not like to do 3pt ground engaging work to amount to anything given that its hydrastic drive. So the little bit of plowing I need to do for the garden or perhaps plowing swales I bought a subsoiler to break it up first. I do not want the bill to replace the hydrastatic drive so I protect it. The only negative I see about it is although its 4 WD the R4 tires are useless on our clay hillsides when its wet. Frankly it can be dangerous then so it stays parked. That would probably go for any R4's in those conditions though.
Just thought you should know about a more specific equipment option given our niche circumstances and the fact that I'm happier than I thought I'd be with my choice. It's unbelievable how much work this machine has done.
