Yeah. I've driven one of those relatively tiny backhoes you see being
towed behind a pickup truck, and I managed not to kill anyone or destroy
the equipment. Love to try a full-sized ecavator.
Full size is lots different than a Bobcat sided backhoe. For one, the cab
will rotate 360degrees. So no moving the tracks when digging. And do not
have to turn around to go backwards while facing forward. Just rotate the
cab and pull back on the track control instead of pushing forward.
That is how excavators work, even the little mini Kabotas. Loaders
like a bobcat are usually skid steer until you get real big. Then they
are articulated.
A backhoe is like you are talking about but that is actually a loader
with a "back hoe" added on it. The seat is reversible.
My niece's hubby was an operating engineer, as was his whole family
and most of the Harley guys I knew. They were sticklers for
nomenclature. I was also chastised for calling a concrete mixer a
"cement truck" ;-)
An awful lot of folks confuse concrete and cement, so don't feel badly.