For Wayne Dowd, W. Dowd Excavating, Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, it’s how the Case 580 Super N backhoe stacks up against two competitive machines.
One competitive machine is “not as nimble or balanced” as the 580; another machine is “too big and bulky, with a large boom where you can’t get in and out without making all kinds of turns,” Dowd says.
In comparison, with the 580, he can “zip around the jobsite. The maneuverability is just not comparable with the other machines. I‘m just comfortable.”
In comparison to Dowd, who uses his machine regularly, Gerald Karr with Folsom Well Service, Folsom, New Mexico, doesn’t use his 580 every day. “I can run it for three days straight and then it will sit for weeks,” he says.
Karr is glad for the joystick pilot controls on his machine, even though he says they don’t give him the feedback of his former sticks. “I hit some water lines I know I wouldn’t have hit before because I would have felt them. Still, the joysticks are super comfortable and I wouldn’t go back. I can sit wherever I want and bring the joysticks to me. On my old 580D I had to hunker over the controls and I was just beat at the end of the day.”
Another thing Karr had to get used to in comparison with his old machine: needing another person to guide him back on to a trailer. “I can’t see right down like I used to, but the only time I really need it is when I’m loading, so I’ve learned to adapt,” he says.
