555B on the Job, Billy NY

Had the machine on the job today taking out a driveway. Hard for me to operate it's so tight. not use to that.
Ron

Nice.
If you need a place to store that for a while let me know.

does that have ford controls,or two stick,,,my brothers ford has the two sticks I like them,dont know if I could run the others

Re-paving ? Nice to do some light work for a change. Must be the pins/bushings, or the work area? Definitely a well kept one for sure !

I dug a basement for my addition last year with my 555B. I don't have a lot of experience with heavy equipment to compare it to, but I had no complaints about it. That thing moved a whole lot of dirt.

Good lookin machine! How many hours are on it?

I got a 555D with 4200 hours on it. It needs a few bushings, but other than that, it's a good machine.

Those high capacity ford 24 inch buckets will move a lot of dirt in a big hurry, just got to be careful not to curl the bucket into the boom if the crowd is too far in.

1300
Ron

It's a two stick, I learned on a four stick 5500 Ford and we have at least one four stick machine for the last 30 years. The only one I never learned to operate was a case that had foot controls. We rented it with a hoe ram to break up a big foundation. It was the longest three days of my life.
Ron

It's just a tight machine low hours.
Ron

If we dug that deep around here you would have water up to your neck.heavy looking supper stick on that machine.
Ron

Will do. Brother keeps it at his house he is always lifting something. Every time I hear that three cylinder I always think I would like you to listen it run.
Ron

i loved running that model hoe, but was a nightmare to road anywhere seemed to be pretty much balanced over the rear axle but would really wade the mud, got a 655 later with extenda hoe

We sold 4500-6500 models knew, those were all 4 stick machines, and if I recall so were many others. I never cared for them later after 2 stick models were available, but I can recall having those from the shop here on occasion and no one was all that smooth with them, of course we never used any of them long enough to get used to it. Years later, while supervising a 3500' dual temp pipe line project, the contractor had mostly DynaHoe backhoes, all those had 4 stick controls, with large cue ball size handles, it seemed one could get used to that. I had to run them every so often and at the time it been a long time since I ran a 4 stick machine.

In the 5+ years I did this work on a full time basis, I ran just about every manufacturer, Cat, Deere, Ford, Case, JCB etc. and several models of each, none really ever stood out as being lame or what have you. Whatever task I needed to do with one, all performed just fine. At least that is my memory of my experience with these. Some were a pain to load on a tag trailer, had a 555 fwd go sideways on me once while loading. Maybe some were not as agile, like side shifting the machine using the hoe, or something like that.

The one that DID stand out and was a real challenge to learn was the CASE foot swing !!! Who the heck invented that LOL ?

I went to take a test at the Operating Engineers School Local #825, and I tested on all the various earth moving equipment. None of what I operated was anything new, I was well experienced by then. However that foot swing Case was something, I had to learn on the spot. I told the person observing me that I never ran a foot swing backhoe before. I was told to excavate a deep trench and bench it down once to get to grade. It was a bit rough at first, but I did complete the task, albeit... slower than someone experienced on one of these, but still as was directed. I have never seen one of those since and wonder if it was the machine they used as an excuse to weed people out, (you know ones like me that did not know someone in the local) I tried numerous times to get in that local with no results.

Years later I did small jobs with a Cat 420D, through a rental house, was a great arrangement for me, unfortunately he went out of that business, but is now a dairy farmer instead. Couple of photos of one of these on jobs I did.

We had a 5500 2 5550s and a 755A. The 755 was a great machine we had it for twenty or so years. We have a 710B JD and I hate it It has ended up at the farm and it can stay there. We had a 3400 IH, loved it, big six cylinder engine, hydrostatic transmission,and 4 stick controls. Trans messed up and we couldn't find anyone to fix it and we finally sold it at auction. This is the smallest flb we have ever owned and it really is handy. You do some nice looking work.
Ron