Need advice....

[KeithInSpace]

That's the trouble with the whole 3PH argument...what is "more than leisurely work"? I can work my BH for 1 hour and push it to the absolute limit for that whole hour. If it were a 3PH mount, I would destroy it by the end of that hour, I'm quite certain. Not to mention the safety element (of the BH popping up and possibly squishing you between it and the tractor...a real, documented fear when using a 3PH unit).

What's the alternative? Happy use for 400 hours but all you do is scrape the daisys off the ground and pick up, what? Balloons? A scoop of loose mulch? That's useless. A 3PH BH is a notch better than the junk backhoe toy-thing you hang off the reciever hitch of your pickup. Good for shuffling sand around but not much good for digging anything out of the ground...that is if you love, you know, life.

 

[rdsaustintx]

So you think tractor weight is NOT a very important factor when considering a backhoe attachment?

Where did I say that?

Why don't you try to justify such a bizarre position?

Um, 'cause I didn't say it?

The point of my post was the 3ph mount is scary. Interpreting it as saying weight doesn't matter might be a little "bizarre".

The same hoe on a 3500# tractor/FEL will be considerably more effective.

Well, yeah. It might be even more effective on a 7000# TL.

Russell in Texas

 

[dfkrug]

rds:

I quoted your post in my post. You said you "disagree about the
weight", without further explanation. I only asked what you meant
by that statement.

 

[geoffburnham]

My thanks to everyone for taking the time to read and post.. after reading everybody's post, I am convinced that putting a backhoe on a 1750 3ph is not the way to go.. as some of you noted, there is a great potential for cracking the frame of the tractor and then I would be out not only the backhoe but also the tractor... that is not an acceptable risk.. even from those of you who were the most optimistic, it was a marginal thing at best... so I will not put a backhoe on this tractor... again, my thanks to all of you...

geoff

ps... as an aside, if any of you have had any experience with the trencher type of backhoe that you can tow around, i would be interested in your experience

 

[crbr]

....but 3pt bckhoes are only toys if they don't have a subframe.. IE.. if you do anything mor ethan leisurly work.. you can break your tractor in half.

Soundguy

Sums it up quite well.

 

[dfkrug]

......if any of you have had any experience with the trencher type of backhoe that you can tow around, i would be interested in your experience

I started with a home-built CADDigger 728. You can sort of see it in my
avatar. It was approx 900 lb or so, somewhat bigger than the Northern
"Trencherman", which is no longer sold. Harbor Freight seems to sell the
same unit for $3K.

The 728 had 3" cylinders and exerted a lot of force, but what you
could do with it was very limited by its weight. Starting a hole was
difficult as the action of the boom and dipper would often just lift
the whole machine. Once a hole was started, the force of the machine
could be brought to bear by pinching the bkt between the back edge
of your hole and your firmly planted spiked outriggers. It served me
well to do some things I could not do with larger heavier equipment.
One project was to excavate a bench on a 40% slope hillside for a
water tank. It dragged itself up the slope with the aid of a winch.

Like most tools, it can be useful in the right application. At the time
I had no tractor. Owning a tractor, a backhoe attachment is more
useful and does not cost much more.

I sold it on Ebay and recovered my costs of about $3K (not incl my
labor).