Stuck backhoe pin

4570Man · Jan 13, 2020

fatjay said:
The footer is 24" wide and 3' deep so that's why i figured it would be easiest with a 24" bucket. Then after the footer I have to take a foot of topsoil off the entire thing which is going to be a proper pain in the *** with anything but a 24" or larger bucket, and it's going to be quite a bit of dirt being that the garage is 1056sq ft.

Take your time with the layout. I dug a footer a while back and that was way harder and digging it for me. Although mine was for a house and with an offset porch and attached garage so it was more complicated than a simple rectangle. Also do your best to time it without getting rained on. Mine got rained on before I was able to get it poured and I had to shovel it out. And give it adequate time to cure before driving over it to take out the topsoil so you don’t crack it. I had a CTL for that part which is a lot better tool for the job but it can be done with a backhoe it’ll just leave more hand work.

hawkeye08 · Jan 13, 2020

Glad you got it done!

Daughter/SIL bought a used TLB (Volvo) at auction, got it delivered and lucked out, the delivery guy was the operator for that unit and taught them how to run it. I had told them grease is cheap and make sure to keep fluids checked/topped and lube on schedule. He told them the same thing. When they went to dig foundation for their house (daylight basement), the guy doing the concrete said, let me do it with excavator, I can do a better job. If you want to save money, you can use TLB to move the dirt out of the way.. Working together, they got it done.. They have rocks so you never know when you are going to get a big one that takes hours to deal with.

Sounds like you have clay and perhaps no rocks... Take your time, you will get it done fine.

Code54 · Jan 13, 2020

Just wondering - cant you strip all the top soil with the front loader then go and dig the footers afterwards?

fatjay · Jan 13, 2020

The excavator guy was $5750 to dig it and $2500 to move the dirt away. I said leave the dirt and bouht a bobcat for $2500 to move it myself. My backhoe's loader isn't it's strong suit, it's almost weightless in the front and a bit of a pain to opperate with bucket. I have a ferguson TO30 with FEL i used to move 3 triaxles of fill dirt to the back to level things out but it has no power steering and it was not very maneuverable.

The backhoe is strong, I've uprooted entire tree's with it. I can put the boom in the air, come back a week later and it's exactly where I left it. The control valves leak like a siv but I rebuilt them already when I replaced the hoses, new seals, and they still leak so I'm chalking it up to wear.

fatjay · Jan 13, 2020

Code54 said:
Just wondering - cant you strip all the top soil with the front loader then go and dig the footers afterwards?

It's real rainy right now and topsoil is about a foot down. The tractor's steering is vague and if i get to close to either side it locks and i have to reverse. It's very back heavy, so maneuvering isn't great. Great on hydraulics with the backhoe, everything else, not so much.

4570Man · Jan 13, 2020

A front end loader is about a necessity to take dirt away but you can move a lot of dirt in a hurry with the boom.

fatjay · Jan 13, 2020

4570Man said:
A front end loader is about a necessity to take dirt away but you can move a lot of dirt in a hurry with the boom. View attachment 636914

That's why I bought the bobcat! Easy to maneuver, moved a lot of concrete pretty quick and without any problems.

4570Man · Jan 13, 2020

fatjay said:
That's why I bought the bobcat! Easy to maneuver, moved a lot of concrete pretty quick and without any problems.

You should be in good shape then. You really need 2 operators. Start digging with the backhoe and moving the dirt with the bobcat. Cutting 1000 square feet a foot deep is only about 40 yards. That won’t take long. I dug and moved 5 loads ( 8 loose yards per ) out of this hole in a couple hours.

fatjay · Jan 13, 2020

Unfortunatley I'm a one man show. It took quite a while to become proficient with the backhoe and the bobcat is a death trap if it rolls, also it's fairly temperamental.