Thought about redoing my home made excavator to make it drive with mower transaxle

[chad22]

When I'm done with the modification of my excavator it's gonna be somewhat similar in design to the harbor freight one as in the I Beams gonna set in the middle like the piece of the metal on the harbor freight one.

It's also gonna be both towable and drive able. One reason I thought of having towable is the ability to just hook it up to my truck if I need to take it somewhere and a trailer isn't available.

We have trailers but sometimes we're using them for other things.

Until I get to Kansas it's gonna be strictly towable. I'm gonna remove those temporary stabilizers that I made with the pipe and rims. And in place gonna put some hydraulic stabilizers as I was gonna eventually put hydraulic stabilizers on it anyway.

I may be going to Kansas sooner as the town my parents are living in at the moment are getting ready to replace the water lines to the meter at their house and I know we're gonna need the backhoe to replace the old rusted away steel water line from the meter to the house when they do that.

So I'm gonna have it at least useable where I can leave it hooked to the truck or mower and dig with it.

My welds are staying together as when when I was digging in Kansas for my water line I grabbed a big rock and I had the backhoe hooked up to my truck and when I was trying to loosen that rock up the backhoe was sliding my truck around and at first I thought some of my welds were gonna break because I was pretty new at welding.

But now I know that if it can hold up to dragging my truck around then my welds must be pretty good. lol

I also have 4 new gallon cans of IH yellow paint that came with the trailer house that a friend gave to me. So I was thinking once I get it modified I'd paint it IH yellow.

My new grinder is supposed to arrive here tomorrow sometime so if it arrives during the daylight I'll start grinding and cutting on the excavator.

It won't need to be completely tore down as the boom and bucket and all that can stay on.

I just need to cut the current piece of metal that's in the middle out and replace it with the I beam then mount the hydraulic tank engine and pump again and a hitch and it'll be ready to dig again.

Then after that getting the transaxle underneath it and hooked up won't be all that bad to do.

Chad

 

[Relic]

Function is more important then looks,and it looks like it functions real well.Good job,keep the pictures coming.

 

[chad22]

Function is more important then looks,and it looks like it functions real well.Good job,keep the pictures coming.

That's the way I look at it too. As long as it gets the job done that's all that really matters. After all it's gonna get dirty and scratched up anyway. lol

Got my new grinder in today so I went out and started cutting it with it right away. Had to play with my new toy "The grinder" lol

Here's a few pics I took today after I cut it in half to get ready to place the I beam in the middle.

The yard here is muddy. And it seems about the time it gets dried out it starts raining again and fills the yard back up.

 

[chad22]

I was going through the photos on my android phone and found a pic I forgot I took.

It's a pic of it sitting by the burn pit I was digging.

I actually got to close to the pvc sewer line and ripped a hole in top.

I temporarily covered it with a plastic folgers coffee container. I cut the bottom out of it and cut it down one side and made it so I could slip it over the pipe and make a temp patch.

The attached pic is of the excavator before I tore it apart. And this pic was taken here in Cove Arkansas.

 

[chad22]

By the way. If anyone is interested and needing a cheap grinder the one I got is the one at the link below.

Free Shipping Wel Bilt 4 1 2in Angle Grinder Kit 1433781 | eBay

I bought it for $19.99 with shipping included from Northerntool.

It's a pretty decent grinder for the price.

It came with a wire brush, grinding disc sanding paper, discs and a cut off wheel.

They even threw in one of those bottles of 5 hour energy. I guess to give me energy to run the tool.

Chad

 

[BHD]

dumb question, here, but do you have a tractor? if you do you could build a under carriage for the hoe, and attach it to your tractor, mine takes about 10 to 15 mins to hook up and less to unhook.

I started out with the idea of making some what like you have a towable unit, and went through the same thought process of trying to figure out how to move it around, and ended up building it so I could attach to my tractor,

I have on the rear axel a clip that it sets in and then bolts to the under part of the tractors loader with two bolts, (original had it so the area where the real axel clips are could be bolted but found out it was not necessary, the biggest part of hooking it up is positioning it, or the tractor over it, the height and other is done with the hoes hydraulics, as putting in he two bolts is not a problem, usually if it is lined up right,

 

[chad22]

dumb question, here, but do you have a tractor? if you do you could build a under carriage for the hoe, and attach it to your tractor, mine takes about 10 to 15 mins to hook up and less to unhook.

Nice Backhoe you got there BHD.

I don't have any tractors that I could mount it too. Otherwise that would be a great idea. I did think about mounting it under the old heavy built sears lawn tractor but figured I could use the backhoe for more projects if I were to make it driveable using the axle out of the mower.

I sometimes load up some lightweight scrap metal and being able to pick it up with a thumb attached to the backhoe or a grapple would help out a lot making loading the scrap metal a much faster process than by loading it by hand.

An advantage to making it drive I can pick up the metal and drive it right over to the trailer and load it and then repeat the process.

Also I could use it to load a trailer with firewood and then by having a hitch on it I could just use the excavator to tow the trailer with.

I got the beam cut off the rear end today and got it lined up on the excavator and ready to weld tomorrow.

It got dark out too quick so I couldn't take a pic tonight. But will get a pic tomorrow.

I'm probably going back to Kansas Before Christmas to be with family so I can probably get to mounting the transaxle sooner.

I'm gonna temporarily weld the current hitch that's attached to it in the other pics so I can use the mower to back it up onto the trailer.

Then when I get to Kansas I'm gonna redo the hitch.

Chad

 

[chad22]

Well. I got the beam welded to the excavator and got the wheels dropped.

I cut the tubing where the hubs were welded too and welded the hubs underneath the tube

It raised it up to the right height.

I welded the hitch to it. So now I just need to get the engine mounted again and I can operate the hydraulics. It's already ready to be towed.

The attached pics are of it before I welded on the hitch.

I also temp welded that hand winch on to raise the boom up until I get the hydraulics going again.

I'm heading out to Kansas sometime next week so I'm trying to get this ready as soon as possible. What I plan to do is raise the boom and bucket up and back it up onto dads little trailer. Then when I get there I can just hook it to the riding mower and pull it off.

By the way. That axle with the sheared off hub and spindle is the one my dad sheared off on his trailer when he hit the bridge.

I'm gonna cut it down and reuse it for something later. Probably make a shorter axle for a log splitter or something.
Chad

 

[unclebilly]

That is quite the excavator you have there.

Another idea you may not have considered is mounting it to a cheap pickup or car. This would give you the weight you need for serious digging in hard clay. You could also drive it to where you want to work at highway speeds. Possible you could run the hydraulics off the engine in the car or truck too.

 

[chad22]

That is quite the excavator you have there.

Another idea you may not have considered is mounting it to a cheap pickup or car. This would give you the weight you need for serious digging in hard clay. You could also drive it to where you want to work at highway speeds. Possible you could run the hydraulics off the engine in the car or truck too.

Thanks.

If I had an old vehicle I'd do that.

I'm thinking now instead of using the trans axle and steering. I'd just order a couple wheel motors with hubs and make it drive like a skid steer.

I could then just rig up a couple foot pedals to operate the valve.

I kind of like the way I got the front wheels mounted so I think that may be the way I'm gonna go. Just leave it tow able for now and order the wheel motors and another spool valve and a few other hydraulics. After all I've already got $2,000.00 in it and even putting another $1,000.00 into it would be worth it.

The wheel motors I was thinking of going with is the ones a surpluscenter at this link. 28.3 cu in HYD WHEEL MOTOR W/5 BOLT HUB

I think it'd be a lot easier that way and a lot better too then I wouldn't have the steering wheel in the way.

Here's a few pics I took today. The engine is now at front. I put a different engine on it. I had the engine laying around and it doesn't use as much fuel as the opposed twin.

And yes that ball couple is tilted and not sitting straight as it's bent so I had to purposely weld it at a slight angle like that. I jackknifed the excavator one day and bent the hitch. But it'll do for awhile until I replace it.

I bought those safety chains around 6 years ago and never have used them until today. So I figured I'd weld them onto the excavator.

Those chains aren't coming loose nor is the hitch. I've welded those suckers on good using my 180 amp arc welder set at 160 amps.

I almost melted the chain link into. But I stopped before I did. I had a friend who does professional welding look at it and he agreed those welds are some good welds.

Chad