[fatjay]

I grew up on a cub, they are mean mowers and pullers. Lately i've been put in the market for a backhoe, and found cub 149 in my price range with loader and backhoe. That got me wondering, can that little 14hp really drive a hoe in my dirt? It has an 8gph pump on it and is a PF design I'm told.

I found a youtube of a guy with a 149 and hoe and digging his engine bogged hard when he dug, and hte dirt didn't seem that packed. I don't expect to get the ability of a case 580 out of it, but could it go through roots of bushes and such? I have a good deal of dirt to dig and there is the remainder of bushes that I cut out in there. Also, we have red clay about 18" below the brown dirt.

Now, assuming I go forward throwing caution into the wind and get this little hoe and it does what i need, but in 3 years I have a bigger project and it struggles, is there a more powerful engine that I can put on it that would be able to drive the pump better without major welding? And if not, is there a horizontal shaft 20-28hp engine that will fit between the loader arms?