That looks good! So you're thinking about buying a used backhoe. Well, my
name's Ben Krentz co-owner of ConEquip Parts and I'm here to help you out
about looking at a used backhoe. Couple pointers and some things that you might want
to look for. Ok? We'll start up front here. First thing, there's a lot of
hydraulic cylinders on these machines and with hydraulic cylinders there's a
couple things you want to look for just solely on that. I'll kind of go through
these pretty quick, some might be basic to some, some others might say hey you
know what thanks for that and that's what we're going for.
So, hydraulic cylinders. First off, want to make sure that the seals aren't leaking
all over the place so you'll be able to visually see it. Just a bunch of
hydraulic fluid coming out underneath the cylinders we got some other
cylinders back here these would be the lift cylinders. So these cylinders up
here would be the bucket tilt cylinders you want to see if there's a lot of play
in the pins and bushings inside the hydraulic cylinders kind of a simple way
to do it, see how loose she is here you give it a little little (TUGGING)
She's got some play in her. It's all right it's a used machine you chose to pay
thousands of dollars less versus a new one that's a consideration. Pins and
bushings we got them available you can arrange them between a hundred some of
the big excavators a couple hundred dollars. Next thing up front here
double-check the loader arms okay? You got to really look at these. These things
crack. A lot of stress gets put into these things so please be vigilant on
looking them over. They have some factory welds that seems together, those are okay
but typically up by the pins and the connection here there'll be some
fractures you can see in it likewise up in this area and down where
the bucket connects as well. Next thing on the front end here you have to decide
what type of material and conditions am I going to be using this machine for. Do
I need a two-wheel-drive? Do I need a four-wheel drive? Well, up front here this
particular JCB backhoe is a four-wheel drive unit. It can go through snow like
we have here in Buffalo we get a couple feet or so a year.
It could go through some mud as long as the tire tread is good just another
thing to look for. With four-wheel drive there's some components up front because
it has a front axle assembly so let's take a look at that again shall we?
You got to get down and dirty! Oh look, that's a beauty!
Yep, that's a solid front axle assembly center differential doesn't look like
it's leaking too much. I'm also looking at the swing, or the swivels. The swivels
are good and there's no cracks in the swivels. Tie rod ends and steering
cylinders look good. You got to check that over that stuff can get expensive
So it depends on what you're looking for. If you got a landscape yard you're just
gonna use the backhoe for loading mulch and a couple odds and ends, two wheel
drive might be okay for you that'll save you a few thousand dollars in initial
cost up front but also thousands of dollars down the road when you have to
buy a rebuilt front axle assembly. So four-wheel drive versus two-wheel drive.
The next thing too would be the bucket up in front. Some machines come like this
one has a four in one bucket combination bucket whatever you want to call it. You
might not need it for your application but these buckets are expensive and they
also have hydraulic cylinders on them as well. If you, again, maybe you're at a
landscape yard you need a bigger bucket a one-yard bucket one-and-a-half yard
buckets you can load customers efficiently and quick that might be an
option for you because a bucket alone probably be about twelve hundred bucks
good used. If we move on back center part of the cab we actually have the cab
depending on where you're from Buffalo New York I would want a cab that has
glass and a thing called a heater! Yes we need that very, very important for this
area up in the Northeast. They do have ones that have just open ROPS, we have
to hold on for UPS here, yeah hey buddy! Ain't nothing wrong with UPS okay, they
do a lot of shipping for us. Cab glass, if you're looking at one with the cab on it
we can get cab glass fairly inexpensive typically under two three hundred bucks
a piece. The other thing to look for on a cab itself is the floor of the cab and a
button to even open the door. If you look on the cab of the floor it could be
completely rusted out. You know you think about it up here in the Northeast again
you guys that are running heavy boots that got a lot of salt in them from the
wintertime it's just gonna rush the floor out, okay? Out on the ocean side you
got a lot of salt out there too it just happens so you got to replace a cab now
you're talking four or five six grand sometimes to get a cab replacement let
alone the labor to do so. You got hydraulic tanks one side typically the
diesels on the other side. A side note, when you're doing it make sure your
operators know how to read hydraulic versus diesel, you don't want to switch
them, bad things happen. They get rusted on the inside so it's kind of hard to
tell just on the outside you can't open the cap and look in and say, yeah it
looks good, there's fluid there, okay? Just visually look at it on the outside maybe
tap it maybe a little bit of tappy tap sounds pretty solid this one's good to
go. Moving on to the rear part of the machine we kind of mentioned the tire
tread double check on that make sure it's pretty decent for what you're going
to be doing. We've got a rear axle assembly again check in the final drive
hub area making sure there's no fluid leaking out. The other part of the rear
axle assemblies you got to get up underneath there and you got to look
under there at the differential section, okay? You're
like, well, how do you do that? Let me show you. You just do one of these. Oh, that looks good!
I like it! Get all up underneath there, okay? All up
under there! Checking those seals, looking at the axles on the inside! We're
checking the swivel joints! No cracks! That looks good! After you're done doing
that, I don't care if it's humiliating, you know what's humiliating? Is when
you've got to call us for a rear axle assembly and you just said you know what
I should have done what new video said I didn't get all up underneath there!
Stabilize your cylinders, again double check the fluid leaking. Important when it
comes to the swing frame. We do get a lot of calls for swing frames and well again
a lot of stress, a lot of pressure going on back here. Got to make sure it's not
cracked. Make sure, it's kind of hard to tell when the machine's just stationary,
that you want to check the play in these pins up here so the way to do it is
you've got to have somebody run the machine and just move the hoe part
back and forth slightly and you'll be able to see the play in the pins back
here. Backhoe, we're checking the pins and bushings all through here like we
said in the front loader part, we got to check this to make sure there's no
cracks in the dip or in the the dipper part and or in the boom cylinder or boom
section. Now make sure to boom section is good no cracks
make sure the dippers in good shape no cracks on that
again a lot of the trigger points are gonna be where the pins are where all
the stress is at. Make sure there ain't no cracks. The other thing especially on
these making sure that where the pins go through that this it's all circular and
it's not oblong and so forth like an egg. That'd be a real bad shape.
The other thing you got to be thinking about is what type of hoe do you need?
How deep a dig depth do you have to go? This particular model has an extend-a-hoe
option which allows it to go down about another two to four feet so you
have to decide on that. It is another expense, it's another hydraulic cylinder
inside. It's some more moving components that could go wrong but hey you do that
or you got to rent an excavator all those times you need to dig a little
bit more so it's an option you got to think about as an extend-a-hoe or not to
extend-a-hoe. I think that came out right. Stabilizers! If you're gonna be on the
streets these steel ones are going to ruin the street. It's alright, you get a
fine for it you just pay it and move on or you buy some street pads that we can
sell we have occasionally aftermarket ones are available. Sometimes you just
got to buy it right from the OEM dealer but call us first of course we'll
certainly beat the dealer's price get it shipped right to your door. The next
option would be how many buckets and what sizes buckets are coming with this
backhoe I might buy? Are you gonna be digging ditches out with this? Maybe,
maybe not, you should buy a ditching bucket or see if it comes with it. Maybe
you're just doing some backyard drainage you want a 12 inch 14 inch bucket. So, a
lot of things come into play anytime you see pins, bushings you just got to wiggle
it around a little bit. (WIGGLES) It's got a little play in there. Feel that? Little play. It's a
used backhoe. It's the things that you look for in to use backhoe it's gonna
happen pins and bushings aren't too, too bad but overall just depends on how much
money you want to spend versus how much money you want to put into it.
Are you mechanically inclined enough to change out pins and bushings or is
this all stuff that's just gonna get bought and then sent to a dealer. The
very first thing that you should do however, if I can point this out, as soon
as you get to somebody's yards that you're gonna be buying a machine at,
the first thing you should do, one, check the oil. Two, check the radiator fluid.
Things are good there? Check the hydraulic tank right on the
side, we talked about that earlier. If all the fluids are good, start the machine.
You got to start some machine you want it to run for at least 45 minutes, an
hour. The heat has to get through a complete cycle a couple of times for the
engine. The diesel engine's got to warm up they take a while. It's not like a gas
car where it takes 15 minutes, 45 here in Buffalo when it's snowing. But, you want
to get that engine running. It's got to get running it's got to get hot because
when it gets hot then the seals start expanding and then it exposes some leaks
that you might have. Obviously moving the machine through all the gears of the
transmission all the reverse gears in the transmission has to all get run and
I mean hey if you're gonna buy it you might as well use and abuse it in their
yard before you start forking out the money. Okay, so, we're here to help out
anything else you need give us a call 888-983-7847.
ConEquip Parts, used, rebuilt, aftermarket parts, ready for
you when you buy your used backhoe. I'm Ben Krentz, co-owner of ConEquip Parts,
until next time, thank you!