[Mark Henry]

To me the thing with the "swiss army knife" small tractors is although they do an OK job, they're not outstanding at any one job. A sports car is outstanding in the twisties, an RV you can live in, but a sports car RV would fall short on both ends.
The "swiss army knife" small tractors are too heavy for soft ground lawns, too light for scraping and loading, backhoe is a PITA seating and moving and again too light, tilling would be maxing it out...etc.


I bought a new (then) JD x320 for my lawn, and a 60hp Fiat 640 4x4 (white 2-60) with a FEL, 7' snowblower, bush hog, blade,etc., for less that a commercial zero turn. I can lift a small car with the loader, I can also dig in and fill the 7' bucket and dump into a dump truck. I blow my 400' driveway in two swipes, bush hog 10+ acres, built a road, push down 10" round trees plowed 4 acres, hay round bales, lifted trusses, etc., etc.
But I've never expect my tractor to mow my lawn, that's what I have a lawn tractor for.

I thought about a backhoe attachment, but decided to just rent a mini excavator ($250 weekend), I've rented one twice in 8 years.
Last time in one weekend I dug a 400' water pipe trench, dug in 3x75' for new weeping tiles, 100' of drainage trench and a 50x80 pond and I still had time on the meter. Way faster and so far way cheaper than a backhoe attachment.