One of the local contractors I know has been running backhoes since he was about 17 or so man he can take a rubber tired hoe where I wouldn't dream of going. He can do alot of work with the 590 Case he owns there isn't many other guys around that have 30 years plus on a backhoe. Most operators now run nothing but excavator (trackhoe) and don't have the finess to run a rubber tired hoe to its max capability.
Some of the older guys that learned and used nothing but backhoes could walk the machine on the stabs,front bucket and backhoe bucket to get into the tougher spots where newer operators would only use a excavator. This was back in the early 80s when 90% of the backhoes were 2wd.
