Here is my 2nd generation home-made backhoe thumb, designed for
my Prairie Dog 7.5 subframe-mounted hoe. I posted my 1st gen thumb
last year as some may remember, for this same Woods 7500 clone.
First, for you backhoe owners, a thumb of any kind will be a
tremendous addition, at least doubling the usefulness of this already
valuable attachment. A mechanically articulating thumb works way
better than a fixed one, too.
First photo is of my 1st Gen. I learned a lot from it, so I incorporated
several design changes in the 2nd Gen. I considered going to a full
hyd thumb, since I have used them before, but I do not like the
exposed hoses on the outside of my hoe. Also, the work of plumbing in
another spool valve (foot-operated) would be quite significant.
2nd photo is of all the steel parts for the 2nd Gen. I paid a fab shop to
use their CNC plasma cutter to
cut the curved side pieces from my
DXF file. The rest I made and welded (photo #3). Main pivot pin
is 1", and the tip is a piece of plow steel. My 1st Gen used small
backhoe teeth, and even those got quite worn picking rocks.
Finally, #4 & #5 are the fixed thumb, using a std cat 1 adjustable toplink.