Anyone own or run a John Deere Backhoe??

[Dirtcrasher]

I bought myself a birthday present today - a 1981 John Deere model 500 diesel backhoe. It was time to retire the 17,000 pound 1969 Dynahoe for something with less leaks.



Just wanted to post a couple of pictures of the JD. Now that I have had it for awhile it seems to work very well. I did find one problem which I can't understand how I missed it. The front bucket "floats" or slowly drops down each time I raise it. I believe this means either the fluid is leaking past the cups on both loader boom cylinders or leaking past in the loader valve itself - internally. Not sure how to tell for sure though, anbody know???

[mywifeknowseverything]

Ive never run the 500 but Ive run the 310 and 710's and they are pretty peppy little machines...My comp. rents them for me when my CAT Breaks or goes in for service...IMO,,,The 310's will run circles around most machines...Small enough to get into the tight spaces that I sometimes need to get into and Strong and fast enough to keep up with the bigger machines....JD is a good all around machine...Does it have the 4 wheel drive or an enclosed cab??? Turbo??? Extend a Hoe??? I think you scored anyway,,,,Congrats!!!!!

[YAMAHA_Jim]

I run a 1997 JD 310D.Plenty of power for riding wheelies,,,and it digs nice too.John Deere makes some nice eqipment.

[vartiak15]

being a deer says it all. it is a sweet backhoe man.

[eh_tee_see]

I have drove and worked with my dads jd 500 and its a beast, throw it into rabbit speed and spin brodies around the CATs

[ATC crazy]

My mom used to run Backhoes at her old job. I was too young to remember the models of them though.

[Dirtcrasher]

Yeah, I'm pretty psyched. Everyone I have talked to says good things about John Deere's. It has the most monster inner rollcage I have ever seen!! About 4" in diameter and runs out to links that attach to the front end - very safe. Nice part is although it has lots of hours he definately greased it often and used all JD products on the machine.

My last backhoe a 1969 Dynahoe was impossible to get parts for - I spent 18 hours machining a new exhaust manifold for it as one example. The CLOWN who had it before me ran the starter out so bad that it destroyed part of the flywheel - how the hell was I supposed to fix that?? It had no brakes , leaked at least 2 gallons of hyd fluid a day, someone hacked a front end on it with all the wrong pin/bore sizes, cylinder chrome was fading fast and dozens of other problems I just could not fix at a reasonable price - you know just like the 3 wheelers we buy sometimes......

Best part is I really only bought it to make my MX track even better, sure the yard needs some work but I just want to get out back and make a track thats amazing. It's not too shabby now but just 3 or more 18 wheelers full of dirt and it will be super Southwick type nice :Evil

[DIGGER DOG]

I too have never run a 500 but just about every other backhoe out there well
never really run a ford backhoe either but I have run case 410 const. king
John Deere 310 b, c, and d turbo 4X4 extenda hoe Sweet very sweet..Cat 416c,(daily hoe at the cemetery)cat 416 turbo 4X4.
now the undesireable list JCB =(junk that came from britain) same as the new holland the JCB sux the one I run when I worked commercial construction really sucked it was turbo 4X4 extenda hoe with a clam shell front bucket at first I thought that the clam shell front would be awesome untill I engaged the clam shell the frikkin motor died before the thing fully opened every JCB ive run has been utterly intolerable to operate stay away from the JCB.
On the other hand every J.D. ive operated has been truly sweet even the ragged out 70s 310b the turbo4X4 310d is a frikkin bull dozer you really learn to hold a grade with that machine because if you dont it will literally bury itself in the ground I have a very strong likeness of the John Deeres very awesome machines actually my favorite the 310 d turbo 4X4 runs circles around the cat 416 turbo 4X4 but it too is a good machine.
Bottom line you cant go wrong with a Deere. Even the ill maintenanced,ragged out,non greased wobbly buckets,bald tires,piece of junk looking J.D.s have performed well for me and I have operated some junk.

[PLJ.]

We have never owned a John Deere backhoe, but I have had the opportunity to demo most models of the 310, which I believe came after the 500. John Deere came out with a great sales promotion to the municipalities and cities over the years which gave great rebates and excellent buyback terms if they purchased them, hence the great numbers of them. Our local city DPW took one of our Cat 416's to compete against a new John Deere 310 a few years back. They ended up buying the Deere. I myself prefer the Cat 416's. They have larger front wheels and more visibility to the front bucket in my opinion, but the 310 Deere had more hydraulic power to the stick than the Cat did. I also like the Case 580's but they seem a bit outclassed and out muscled by the Cat and the Deere now days. Anything will be a step up from the Dynahoe though. We also have some ancient iron still around. Anyone interested in a 1959 Link-Belt LS98 35ton 1.25 C.Y. dragline???

[Billy Golightly]

Where are you located PLJ?

[350xsx]

niccce i dunno the exact model but reason being its a john deere its gotta be nice and reliable