Lotta people saying hoes are obsolete, but you sure could not tell that by the prices!
I tell the parable: My customer is not an operator. He likes to rent machines. Local rental company is famous for renting broken machines. He drives his truck & trailer 1-1/2 hours each way to rent good machines. He pays $350 per day for nearly new 4-1/2 ton excavator, about as much for a mid size CTL. He would make four round trips, 12 hours driving to rent machines for the job. He would then use 2 days of an employee pay to operate.
He had a foundation hole for a wind turbine tower to dig. He wanted 15' square hole, tapering to 17' square at bottom, 5' deep, with a level bottom. He wanted the spoils from the hole placed on a 5' high terrace 150 yards away.
Including hauling equipment to & from the site, setting up the lazer level, fine tuning the floor of the hole ready for concrete pour, I spent 7-1/2 hours with a backhoe. Is that obsolete?
My backhoe reaches 22 feet from the swing tower pin. It lifts 9500 LBS each scoop. I can see, & reach the opposite side of a 15 foot hole easily. If the ground isn't level, I can lift front & either side to level the machine. Mine can move 22 MPH on the highway. Moving dirt with the loader bucket, mine moves 1-1/2 cubic yards at speed. The compact track loader must make three trips to move that much.
Mine lifts to a height to load the tallest dump truck, most Compact skid loaders or compact track loaders can't.
Can you really call this obsolete?
It is true, trenching on flat land, 46" deep, 8 ton excavator will dig faster than an 8 ton backhoe. It is when you do all the rest of the job the backhoe dominates.
