home made back-hoe -sort of

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Land-Tech

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May 13, 2008
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In the early ninties, Keystone and other concrete block wall systems started to become availible in Anchorage and since we were building a lot of hillside homes, chances were that alot of these house needed something to retain the cut banks and the foundation transitions that were used to place a house into a slope.At the time ,I didn't even visulize a mini-ex at that time, but a friend of a friend had a 800 series bobcat with a backhoe attachment provided the inspiration.
What I had was and old skid steer, a mobile tow behind excavator and a bunch of metal I had scavaged from various places.The skidsteer was wore out and the owner was getting rid of it because it was taking up space. I got it for a small trade. He saw it as a rusting pile of junk, I saw it as a gold mine for parts for my backhoe project
The tow behind excavator was the type you used to see in the back of magazines, and was powered by a 12 or 14 hp gas engine. A electric utility had originally bought it in the eighties to fly to remote sites. It was never used much and was sold to another friend who flew it into his remote cabin and worked it there a little bit.He brought it back and it sat at his place for a couple of years until I bought from him for less than $500.This machine in it's original form is a pain in the butt to use and worse to operate.And like some of the the women in my life, it had things I needed and couldn't get anywhere else so I forked over the dough.
I used a backboard off an auger attachment that came with the JD. Augers don't do well in my area because of the rocks.
mustang058.jpg picture by LANDTEKK

I cut the arms of the skid and made a hybrid sort of outrigger. I wanted it to be as narrow as possible. The rams had long enough stroke to lift the machine quite a ways. The front of the frame had a foot below so that I could set the machine on pavement and not damage things.I often used it this way without the out riggers down.
The frame metal was off an old boat dock with heavy plate to mount the axle housing of the JD, Time has run out for me so I will add more next post. Scott
 

perry

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Aug 22, 2006
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Very good job Land, I take for granted the three salvage yards near me where they have most anything you need for fabricating. I can only imagine the limited options you have. High five....
 

Tazza

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Very good job Land, I take for granted the three salvage yards near me where they have most anything you need for fabricating. I can only imagine the limited options you have. High five....
Very impressive indeed! and its even better when the parts are the rite price :)
 
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Land-Tech

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May 13, 2008
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Very impressive indeed! and its even better when the parts are the rite price :)
Thanks , the 331 put this thing out of business.Then I used the rams to make a lift gate for my dump truck, but that another story
The original backhoe's mast only rotated about 75 degrees so I took the bearing and axle pack off the JD and bolted it onto the plate in the frame and welded the backhoe frame to the axle flange. Before I had done that I welded the drive sprocket to the bottom of the wheel flange and mounted a drive motor on the backboard with a idler gear to to keep the chain tight. Very low tech and very dangerous but it allowed me to dump material along side the skid.I never trusted the welds on the axle flange so I made a removable link to the backboard to get the rigidity for hard digging. I originally had the backboard attached to the skid frame so there was no stress on the tilt rams but unhooked that most of the time so I could lift the attachment when Iclimbed banks. The 940 with OTT's would climb around pretty good
I changed the dipper cylinder with lift ram on the JD. With the longer stroke I was able to increase the rotation of the bucket
I had a 30" plate that attached to the bucket for grading that worked real well. It worked best for me as something to break up the hard ground or shallow trenching. The controls were a cheap so you had to apply a little cordination to use. The teeth worked great for breaking up glacierated ice in the winter.
Here are a few more pics. Scott
mustang053.jpg picture by LANDTEKK

mustang055.jpg picture by LANDTEKK

mustang038.jpg picture by LANDTEKK
 

perry

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Aug 22, 2006
Messages
869
Thanks , the 331 put this thing out of business.Then I used the rams to make a lift gate for my dump truck, but that another story
The original backhoe's mast only rotated about 75 degrees so I took the bearing and axle pack off the JD and bolted it onto the plate in the frame and welded the backhoe frame to the axle flange. Before I had done that I welded the drive sprocket to the bottom of the wheel flange and mounted a drive motor on the backboard with a idler gear to to keep the chain tight. Very low tech and very dangerous but it allowed me to dump material along side the skid.I never trusted the welds on the axle flange so I made a removable link to the backboard to get the rigidity for hard digging. I originally had the backboard attached to the skid frame so there was no stress on the tilt rams but unhooked that most of the time so I could lift the attachment when Iclimbed banks. The 940 with OTT's would climb around pretty good
I changed the dipper cylinder with lift ram on the JD. With the longer stroke I was able to increase the rotation of the bucket
I had a 30" plate that attached to the bucket for grading that worked real well. It worked best for me as something to break up the hard ground or shallow trenching. The controls were a cheap so you had to apply a little cordination to use. The teeth worked great for breaking up glacierated ice in the winter.
Here are a few more pics. Scott
Dang!, that doesn't look like the Alaska I visited, paved roads and nice homes. I gotta go back for another fishing trip....soon.
 
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Land-Tech

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May 13, 2008
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Dang!, that doesn't look like the Alaska I visited, paved roads and nice homes. I gotta go back for another fishing trip....soon.
This was twenty years ago, you can imagine what been built since.As far as fishing, Perry I've always had to work when the fish are in. The hardcore will be at the fishing at daylight and back to work by 8 am and then go again after work.We do take off a few weeks in August an go exploring.What part of Alaska did you fish? Scott
 

sig556

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Nov 17, 2009
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This was twenty years ago, you can imagine what been built since.As far as fishing, Perry I've always had to work when the fish are in. The hardcore will be at the fishing at daylight and back to work by 8 am and then go again after work.We do take off a few weeks in August an go exploring.What part of Alaska did you fish? Scott
cool modification..nice job
 
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