And another reason is that some of us are not professional operators. For example, I am a home user. I bought a place a number of years ago on a steep, wooded slope. I thought that's what I wanted. A few years ago I thought it would be nice to have a back and side yard. I sat there with an envelope and roughed out how many hundred cubic yards of fill I would need. My assistant put an add on Craigslist for fill. I started looking for a machine. My first machine was a Case 1816, mostly because that was all I could afford at the time. I thought that was Big Iron! I took down a 100' red oak right by the garage, and I put the arms up on the Case "just in case". Well, the tree was rotten and went the wrong way. The little Case sacrificed herself to save the garage. The cylinder rams were bent at 30 degrees. The cage was crushed. The wheels were flattened as they were pushed down into the driveway. I was crushed, too. I immediately went onto the interwebz and found another Case 1816. It turned out that one had some issues with the electric clutch, and I had to have that fixed. Even though it's a little machine, it just about flipped over on flat ground when I engaged the clutch. It was a scary ride. It turns out the first one was fixable. i bought a new cage and lift arms. I found four wheels and new tires. I replaced the engine, and it worked again. I traded the second machine and money for a beat up T200 that barely ran. I found a great shop that got it running for a not much money. By then, I had a dozen tri-axle trucks bringing mud the consistency of soup to my property. I have bought a number of attachments, and used them all. My kids have become excellent operators, and I've gotten pretty good myself. I follow these posts so I can figure out how to operate my machines efficiently, and most of all, not cause them damage. My project is almost done, and every morning I look out the window at what I've accomplished. It's a great feeling.
