[cornerstone]

Thanks guys. I haven't put a lot of thought into the mini excavator, but now the gears are turning. I guess the main reason I thought backhoe was because I assumed it would dig with more power and speed. I'll need to do some comparing between the specs of each machine.

The size is important as well. Hauling a mini x would be so much less expensive. On the other hand, I could drive a backhoe quite far... 22 years ago I rented a full size hoe from an outfit in downtown Ft. Worth and drove it with the flashers on roughly 15 miles to my place of business, used it for a week and drove it back without a problem.

I can see another advantage of a mini x. Less stuff to repair/ maintain such as transmission, drive train issues and tires. I presume the tracks on a mini x are driven similar to the system on my zero turn mower, which has been a breeze to maintain.