Backhoe Feet

[3RRL]

Being that my Nardi Backhoe is mounted kinda tall on the big Kama, the stabilizer legs could stand to go down farther. On uneven ground they don't give good enough support 'cause they're too short. So I decided to cut off the feet to make them taller.

[3RRL]

I've been so darn busy I hadn't really thought everything through. I'm just going to put some spacers in between the pivots and the feet and see how that works.

I milled off the feet so they were flat again. (flat feet for more height )



Then squared up some 3/4" thick plates to use as the spacers. They are 4" tall, but I figure I lost some from the OEM parts when I sawed and milled the feet and pivot parts. Net gain should be about 3-1/2" or so.



That's all for now. I was trying to think up a more elaborate mod like making the feet self-leveling? But this one is pretty straight forward, huh? Better keep it simple for now. Tomorrow, if I have time, I'll mill the pivot parts flat and weld them all together and see what that looks like. Maybe I should drill another pivot location in case I want to move them lower again? What do you think

[hazmat]

Rob - I'm going to start keeping metrics on how much of your tractor is custom vs. stock. You're probably at 30% custom so far - I'll bet in 5 years you'll be 75% and in 10 - 100%...

So, when are you going to turbocharge the thing and chrome the wheels? !

PS - I'm very jealous of your fabrication skills. The tent at your property is better outfitted for metal work than my basement...

[3RRL]

Hazmat,
You are too cool man ... thanks. That is one of the reasons I bought a Chinese tractor in the first place. I knew I would be doing mods like this and the others no matter what kind I got. It gave me a bigger budget for my add-on toys. It's almost like my Harleys. I bought them stock and have about twice as much into them with mods and upgrades! Except the stock Harleys are expensive to start with.

I got a little more done on the feet...
This is what the extensions will look like, giving that added 3-1/2". You can see the difference in thickness between the material I chose and the stock steel. I will add the gussets later after I fixture weld all the plates. If I screw up, I can use my hydraulic press to straighten any crookedness. They are just sitting there but I'm not ready to weld just yet.





I'll add chamfers for welding and do it all later....assuming I have time. I guess I'll HAVE to make time if I ever want to use the backhoe again. They are fixtured and clamped pretty good though with all the right clearances and the pin holes all line up.

[3RRL]

I dragged myself out of bed this morning to look at my rusted backhoe feet project. I decided to weld them up. But first, I had to fixture all the pieces properly to insure
a) Good line up of the existing brackets so the pivot pins go in and out.
b) Good center position of both the existing and new spacers.
c) Good clamping of ALL pieces forcing them together during welding.

Here is the set-up I came up with:







It was a good set up but difficult to tack all the welds due to all the spacers between the loose pieces and all the clamps holding it all together. My intention was to not only tack everything first while clamped, but also run as many beads while fixtured like this.

[3RRL]

Some of the welds came out really good and some I got sloppy on. On one bead, my glasses slid off my nose so my vision was blurred but I kept welding anyway ... duh. ??? The difference in spacer thickness made for a natural ledge to weld to. I don't have one of those fancy MIG welders. These are all from my 30 year old Forney stick welder. I used several passes with Ø1/8 6011 rod at 150 amps for good penetration. I burned through some paint and dirt, but they are solid.







I am still debating on putting in gussets or a spacer bar between the spacers. They are so thick they may not need it? The skinny old 3/8" thick ones did not have any, and my spacers are 3/4" thick. But I will probably add them anyway to insure the spacers don't buckle or fold up sideways. On the other hand, I don't want those feet to become a small bucket full of dirt. Dirt gets lodged between the pivot pin and the top of the feet. When I raise them up and hit home, they kind of "snap" up and toss dirt all over me now. Right now there is a chance for the dirt to fall off first? I'll post more later on what I decide to do.

[mboulais]

Looks really good so far. You might be right 'bout gussets leading to buckets o' dirt, but I would still think about some, It wouldn't be fun to see them fold over at the welds while ripping a stump out.

[tommu56]

Rob
Next thing you know you will be on Pimp my tractor show on speed tv

what about angeling the gussets sort of like a tire chevron so they will be self cleaning?
tommu56

[john_bud]

Rob,

Wouldn't it have been technically better and even easier to lengthen the stabilizer tubes ? ?You would have gotten more height and more width, which you probably need with the big tractor. This looks like you've got a set of '70's high heal disco shoes for the tractor. Maybe a fashion statment?


jb

[schmism]

my concern is they are high compresson members and as such any side force is going to want to buckle them (rack... trapazod) them quickly as you have very little to prevent them from just folding over.

in short... id ad some gussets at the bottom to help prevent fold over.