918 Backhoe

Hey guys, I was wondering if anybody could give the pro's and con's of a 918 backhoe. There is one coming up on an estate auction close to me in the beginning of April and we kind of been looking for a backhoe for the farm. What are they worth and did they have any weak spots? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by 190XTJR - 06 Mar 2011 at 7:52pm

We never had any trouble with comming out of gear or anything. We have a 24 inch wide digging bucket , that if stressed enough well cause trouble where the pin goes through the boom. Ours had a hairline crackthere and whenmy brother tried to dig out a silo footer it failed.  This was an extreme case though. We paid 6000 for ours.

Like a lot of backhoes that size and age, those machines are a little clumsy and very heavy.  I think my brothers paid $6500 for one about 15 years ago.  It had the 36" bucket on it so it wasn't real handy for digging close to anything.  The loader could lift around 10000#s if I remember right.  Not very easy to haul anywhere due to the weight, they are very heavy.   They work very good for pulling out tractors that get stuck.  Smaller hoes are more useful around the farm. 

Hey Tom, the guy that bought the backhoe lived down the road a couple miles, he farms a couple thousand acres and knowing him he would have kept bidding. I was there and thought the other stuff was kinda rough what did you think?

There were a couple really nice MF drills that looked to be in really nice shape.  I didn't look too hard at the White or Oliver tractors.  We have a bunch of stumps at our farm and a lot of stuff that needs clearing so the backhoe and loader would have been great for that, I can't justify lots of money for it though.  They didn't build many 918's so it would have been fun to had it, although its weight would keep me from bringing it to a show.

While I agree that it will rut things up compared to a lighter machine, its not any more likely to get stuck since you just pull/push yourself out same as with other backhoes.   For general farm use you can't beat the 580 Case, wish I had one, but having friends that do own one works for me.  We do have a 918, but it is sitting til we get time to overhaul the motor, maybe this summer.....

The 918 has the 2800 series engine which is the same as a one ninety (non turbo).

Dave A wrote: tom if you don't mind a JD 350 crawler.a while back ran across one for $7500 with good rails buckets and bach hoe can write the guy and see if he still has it  located in   northern  wiscosin looking at a 1984 case 580 right now in good shape for 7500. Might part with 816 for around $5K if I can make a deal on the Case. Will talk to the Case guy next week

We have a JD-350C and just a little heads up here. You do not want a 350 or 350B because they do not have the 6 way blade (trust me it's NICE and you WILL come up with a reason for it). Now as far as power and performance I would put our little 350C up against anything (ya know, no D11's). In fact our little Deere pulled a heavy log chain in two (actually pulled the link in 2) at IDLE.


Edited by AllisChalmers37 - 10 Apr 2011 at 9:32pm

My 918 is a great tractor/loader/backhoe and VERY strong digger.I am fortunate enough to have bought the city of Pittsburgh's 918 back in 1993 and have enjoyed it ever since.

Kind of wish now I would have bought one of the ones I looked at but the 715B I have is a good machine also . Just the bigger machine would have bee nice to have also.

  Like Calvin said above it's based on the 190,BUT the frame on the 918 is probably half again heavier. The machine is built like a tank. don-ohio (:^)

Edited by don-ohio - 25 Jan 2013 at 9:41pm