Harbor Freight Vs. Honda Towable Backhoes: How Do They Compare?

Backhoes — the jointed digging arms often mounted to tractors or seen at construction sites — are useful and versatile tools, albeit expensive ones. Harbor Freight and Honda both offer more affordable, towable backhoes that must be tugged to the jobsite, but once there, they stand alone. Towable backhoes are powered by small, horizontal crankshaft engines and sit on two wheels.

Harbor Freight and Honda's towable backhoes provide an inexpensive alternative to traditional backhoes and in some cases are less expensive than backhoe attachments for a tractor. Their small size also allows them to access tight spaces that preclude larger equipment, and they're capable of digging well below the frost line in most areas of the United States.

The Harbor Freight towable backhoe is made by Central Machinery and powered by a Predator engine, both brands owned by Harbor Freight. The Honda TE301H, referred to as a comparable model on Harbor Freight's own site, is actually distributed by House of Contractors and powered by a Honda engine with similar specs to the Predator.

Harbor Freight lists the Central Machinery 9HP Towable Backhoe on its website for $2,999.99, though it is currently unavailable for purchase. As a Harbor Freight store brand, Central Machinery manufactures a range of equipment for contractors and serious DIYers, including portable cement mixers and even Harbor Freight bandsaw mills for making your own lumber.

A 9-horsepower 301cc Predator engine powers the Central Machinery Towable Backhoe's onboard 2.7-gallon-per-minute (GPM) hydraulic pump. The backhoe sits on two 12-inch tires and attaches to the tow vehicle via a 1.875-inch ball coupler. The machine weighs 1,234 pounds according to Harbor Freight's specification sheet, making it towable by nearly any vehicle (check your owner's manual for specifics about your car).

When not being towed, the backhoe makes four contact points with the ground — two tires and two outriggers. The switch between towing and operational configurations requires using the backhoe's bucket to tilt the unit to one side, moving the tire and axle assembly away from the boom end towards the coupler, and installing the outrigger. This operation repeats for the other side. Once the engine is fired up, the unit is ready to crawl around the jobsite. 

The Central Machinery towable backhoe features a 13-inch-wide digging bucket with three teeth for ripping through compacted soil. Combined with a two-section boom, the backhoe has an eight-foot reach, capable of digging to a maximum depth of seven feet and allowing 60 degrees of left and right boom travel.

House of Contractors (HOC) lists the TE301H Honda Towable Backhoe on its website for $5,222.00, but, like its Harbor Freight competitor, it's unavailable for purchase at this time. Other than the $2,238 price difference, the two models have very similar specs. For example, the Honda towable backhoe uses a 9-horsepower engine to power a 2.7-GPM hydraulic pump. The only difference is HOC uses a Honda GX270 industrial engine, like the one found in the Honda EG4000 generator, instead of Harbor Freight's Predator engine. Other differences include the HOC TE301H using a two-inch ball coupler for towing and weighing about 250 pounds less.

While neither of the above models are currently available, HOC has a new towable backhoe model available for preorder. The HOCTB360H 360 Degree Honda Towable Backhoe lists for $6,772.00 and offers a few substantial upgrades over the TE301H. While the HOCTB360H still features Honda's GX270 engine, the new model rolls on 17-inch tires, has a double wheel retractable tongue jack, a 9.8-foot maximum reach, and a 7.5-foot digging depth. The most significant upgrade is its ability to swing 360 degrees as opposed to the previous model's 120-degree boom swing. Even with the upgrades, the HOCTB360H has a net weight listed at 1,210 pounds for easy towing.