these are about the best pictures I have of it currently and as one can see the one is during assemble of it,
and the other is one of the first test runs of the unit,
I went on to mount a bicycle seat (basically a standing seat) on the platform,
the tractor is a little heavy or the hoe a little light but works for me,
I would not use my design for the out riggers, they are to low and can drag if in a ditch type situation, but easily lift the tractor off the ground,
the frame like said has two area that clip in two mounts on the rear Axle, and then bolts to the loader mount, under the tractor, but easy to get to,
I back the tractor up to the hoe, straddling it connect the hydraulic hoses and then use the out riggers and the bucket to raise the frame up and into the position under the tractor and then back up about 6" and the hoe frame is secure on the rear axle and then a few bolts on the front and it is attached,
I did have to add some gussets on the frame to the hoe, as I was over stressing the area by digging, I think I used 6" C iron for the frame,
it has about a 10 foot reach and can dig about 8 foot down, (the bucket angle was about the most difficult to get it so it would scrape down at vertically and then the floor hormonal and curl and hold dirt,
I made card board templates and use small bolts and washers to make a full scale model of the arms and the joints and how they would function with the reach and retraction of the cylinders,
the cab IMO added some challenges, for space
I had wanted a back hoe attachment for years, and had priced them and finally decided to build, the week I completed the build, (probably the week of the pictures mounted on the tractor, there was a auction with a nearly new back hoe attachment as large as mine sold for about $600 at auction, I spent more on valves and cylinders,
one more thing I discovered on the use with heavy tractor, I ended up adding two over load valves on the cylinders as in some situations you can bend a cylinder by the using the other cylinder action, because of the weight of the machine, yes larger shafts would have worked as well,
but I am now the proud owner of two brand new cylinders with bent shafts,
and the way things are priced today the repair shaft was with in $10 of new cylinders, (the larger shafts on my design would have ran into some interference with out filling and re drilling holes in some mounts,
make your templates and lay out on the floor and work the system and look for binds and clearance issues, ply wood may be better than card board,
I would like to find a little smaller tractor more like a old JD 2020 to mount the hoe on,
or the other Idea I have is to mount the "tractor mounted trencher" I have and join the hoe and the trencher together and then make some type of hydrostatic drive for the unit and make it own unit with some type of push blade on the trencher end for back fill,
lots of ideas with out the time or the money for them, :laughing: