Backhoe Attaching/Detaching the Backhoe.

[Reg]

I have an 8 1/2 ft Amerequip hoe.
It is fairly easy to attach & detach, as long as I back the tractor to exactly the right place left/right.
It is "self assisting"; that is to say I get close, hook up the hydraulics, which I then use to raise the hoe on it's stabilizer arms, back up the tractor a bit more, then when the back hooks are engaged I extend the boom to swing the sub frame up. All OK as long as I'm not 1/2 inch or so too far right or left.
I would like to be able to "just nudge it over" an inch or two and since the stabilizers are ripping the heck out of wherever I park it I thought a couple of dollies might be a solution.
How would these work ?
Northern Industrial 1000-Lb. Capacity Dolly with Pneumatic Casters | Dollies | Northern Tool + Equipment
It seems their wheels are big enough for hard dirt and they would just roll in towards each other as the stabilizers lift the weight of the hoe.
I thought of a pair of rails, but swivel casters would also allow some fore/aft wiggle room.

 

[sandman2234]

The hardwood of those dollies won't be long in life subjected to the great outdoors. A complete coating of some sort of weather resistant paint would be required, and then you still have to worry about the bearings in the casters rusting up. For a short term, or indoor storage, no problem, but for the long haul, I am having doubts about them. The other thing to worry about is the casters allowing the hoe to move when you try to hook up to it. What used to be a simple "bump" will now send the hoe rotating away from your hoe, and you have to get off and move it back, or reposition the tractor again, which is what your trying to avoid.
Maybe you can get something that will handle the great outdoors, and allow for a little bit of slide, instead of using the casters which are really more for moving things several feet instead of a few fractions of an inch. If ripping up the ground is a problem, maybe a piece of steel(thick enough to handle the weight without bending) or such which would allow you to slide the hoe and yet not dig in. Not digging in would make it slide easier.
David from jax

 

[Reg]

The hardwood of those dollies won't be long in life subjected to the great outdoors. A complete coating of some sort of weather resistant paint would be required, and then you still have to worry about the bearings in the casters rusting up. For a short term, or indoor storage, no problem, but for the long haul, I am having doubts about them. The other thing to worry about is the casters allowing the hoe to move when you try to hook up to it. What used to be a simple "bump" will now send the hoe rotating away from your hoe, and you have to get off and move it back, or reposition the tractor again, which is what your trying to avoid.
Maybe you can get something that will handle the great outdoors, and allow for a little bit of slide, instead of using the casters which are really more for moving things several feet instead of a few fractions of an inch. If ripping up the ground is a problem, maybe a piece of steel(thick enough to handle the weight without bending) or such which would allow you to slide the hoe and yet not dig in. Not digging in would make it slide easier.
David from jax

I agree on the weathering issues, SOMETHING would be needed to weatherize/winterize it all.
A chunk of road plate would be nice, maybe the DPW has some scrap ? (-:

One thing that makes this awkward is that I can raise it close to where it needs to be, but then find that one side needs to come up just a little more, when I raise it just that little more on the stabilizer for that side of course it rotates and moves right/left just a little too much.

The hoe only weighs a little over 1,000 lbs., I think I can get close, say 6 inches away, hook up the hydraulics, raise it and push it around by hand. There should be no need to bump it with the tractor - I can't see it spinning off into the woods if I do (-:

I would like to do the final positioning OFF the tractor, i.e. once I've set the brakes and got down; hook up the hydraulics, adjust the height and left/right level, shove the hoe to the tractor, swing the sub frame up, pin it, raise the stabilizers, get back on the tractor & go. Maybe asking too much, but dollies seemed a reasonably cheap and easy way to do all this and at the same time not rip up the pallets that I tried, or the ground.

 

[sandman2234]

To get the left/right heights correct, maybe you could let the air out of your tires to fix that problem (just kidding)
Going with the casters and bumping the hoe will surprise you as to just how far it will move, or the casters aren't going to work as they will be too hard to move by hand. Kind of a drawback to it being easy enough to move by hand, makes it move really easy when a big tractor bumps it.
David from jax

 

[wedge40]

Would an engine hoist be of any good?

Wedge

 

[sandman2234]

It would take a pretty good sized engine hoist to p/u the whole hoe, and too time consuming to do it by hooking it up to the leg that happened to be too low "this time".
Maybe an overhead crane rail would work, but that is getting a little on the complicated side.
David from jax

 

[john_bud]

I have one word to discribe what will probably happen sooner rather than later....

"TIMBER!"

That is, the hoe will fall over if you try and push it around on the ground. 100% guaranteed. The only question is when. Better solution would be to put the sabilizers down onto some 3/4" marine plywood and if you want to move it around, use 2 dollies and 2 jack stands. Use the dollies under the stabilier feet and the jack stands under the body of the hoe. Raise the body with the stabilizers, put the jack stands in place. Lower the body, raise the stabilizer feet and put the dollies under them. Raise to remove the stands. You won't have much mobility, but will have some side to side. Just be sure that you are on a dead level spot and keep out of the fall zone.

I've been around when a hoe fell over. It ain't pretty. Especially when you realize that the hydraulic lines are too short so you have to figure out how to muscle it back to shiny side up with out using it's hydraulic power. No fun - none. And dangerous. Keep an image of an arm or leg crushed to mush and trapped under the hoe in you mind every time you do this. Melodramatic? you bet, but still real.

 

[Reg]

I have an engine crane, it has the capacity, I doubt that it has the reach - unless I build a tree house in the willow tree and drop a chain through the floor (-:

I don't think stability (toppling) is likely to be an issue, though I do appreciate your concern.
I would ONLY be nudging it around by hand when the stabilizer arms are down on the dollies (or whatever else I come up with) and most of the weight is on them, so it would be stable side to side. The sub frame goes up to somewhere around the foot pedals, so that is long enough to prevent tipping forwards and would trap under the tractor to prevent any tipping backwards. This is ONLY for the last couple of inches, probably less than 1/2 inch in the majority of cases. I won't be trying to walk this thing across the yard.

A detail that I would add - some sort of barrier wall around the stabilizer feet so that they sit in a "well" and don't slide off.
Yes, a stabilizer foot sliding off the dolly would likely result in a tip over, crushed and bloody body parts, etc.