Hooking up backhoe??

Richard · Apr 17, 2020

My wife's cousin lives next door. Bought a shiny new Deere with ABOUT 45 HP. (I don't know the model number)

He's got a BH on it with the subframe.

He's left it on for about 8 months of ownership, took it off several weeks ago and now looking to put BH back on.

He drives to the BH, connects it to the undercarriage but the problem is hooking the hydraulics.

"this hose goes here, that hose goes there and this one ....."

The issue seems to be there is a male hose that goes in the LEFT remote (as looking at tractor). I think this is the return port. The problem is the male end is let's say, one inch long.....but the female adapter accomodates only a one HALF inch fitting.

So, it seems that they clearly engineered this to be a bit idiot proof.....but, they didn't account for us!

I've only had 4 minutes of trying to diagnose the issue, he finally got his instruction manual and indeed, on the glance, it looks that this 1" hose goes into the 1/2" port, which is impossible. You can feel it hitting the "shoulder" (I don't know what to call the angle on the ends)

So it clearly seems that THIS specific hose is NOT the one that goes in there (yet he maintains it is).

He's gotten water on his instruction book so it's somewhat distorted & fuzzy to read.

Anyone able to offer any clarification on how these hoses mount?

beenthere · Apr 17, 2020

Post some pics of the situation with hoses showing that are in question..

Eric102 · Apr 17, 2020

On my JD 3320 you unplug the short power beyond hose at connector "A" and plug in the male BH hose into it. The female BH hose goes to connector "B". Your layout is probably different but the concept should be the same.

IslandTractor · Apr 17, 2020

Even if you hook it up backwards, the BH will work but with backwards controls. If that is the case, just switch the hoses.

Richard · Apr 17, 2020

IslandTractor said:
Even if you hook it up backwards, the BH will work but with backwards controls. If that is the case, just switch the hoses.

I had actually suspected that however, he already had everything in place and "knew" that "this hose" went into "that port"...so I wasn't going to argue. He bought this brand new last fall and of course, is making payments on it.....now with the Covid thing biting us all in the ankles, he's lost several renters so his income is down.

I'm not going to barge in and just move things around when he "knows" they're right (in spite of them not fitting!!!)

Here are some pictures. This is how machine is sitting this moment with BH unattached.

What he told me when he was trying to put it back together, is the current hose connects P and R together to make a loop. I think he said he unplugs on of those, connect it to one end of the backhoe hose and the other backhoe hose goes to "T" on the left side. (or something similar)

Evidently it is NOT as simple as just plugging BH into the ports because you have two hoses on BH and only one open port Port "T" is currently capped off.

Richard · Apr 17, 2020

Also, given the pictures, is this a frame mount or a 3-pt mount?

It looks like it has a subframe however, I think he attached it to his 3-pt to raise it (and latch it to the underside)

I've never seen either format in person so have nothing to go on.

I would have thought this was frame mount.

beenthere · Apr 17, 2020

Sounds like you have a task that needs his backhoe.. or did I guess wrong?

Eric102 · Apr 17, 2020

Unplug short hose from P and let hang out of the way (put dust cap on it). Plug male BH hose into P, then female BH hose into T and you are done.

Richard · Apr 17, 2020

beenthere said:
Sounds like you have a task that needs his backhoe.. or did I guess wrong?

Nope, you guessed wrong. I've got the JCB (industrial) so anything his can do, I can do three times faster....anything he can dig, I can dig twice as deep, anything he can lift, I can lift twice to three times as much...

I actually used his tractor to mow the field today (my mower is waiting a part and it's getting tall out there) I was going to put his BH back on his machine when I was done using it.

I told him we need to get a family portrait.... his IH 444, his JD, my IH 1066, my JCB.

Richard · Apr 17, 2020

Eric102 said:
Unplug short hose from P and let hang out of the way (put dust cap on it). Plug male BH hose into P, then female BH hose into T and you are done.

Interesting... he had taken one end of his "loop" hose and connected (I think) one of this backhoe lines to it rather than let it dangle.

I'll look into this tomorrow if it doesn't rain, thank you!!

Richard · Apr 17, 2020

Richard said:
I told him we need to get a family portrait.... his IH 444, his JD, my IH 1066, my JCB.

Oh, and I forgot, my JD 430

IslandTractor · Apr 18, 2020

Richard said:
I had actually suspected that however, he already had everything in place and "knew" that "this hose" went into "that port"...so I wasn't going to argue. He bought this brand new last fall and of course, is making payments on it.....now with the Covid thing biting us all in the ankles, he's lost several renters so his income is down.

I'm not going to barge in and just move things around when he "knows" they're right (in spite of them not fitting!!!)

Here are some pictures. This is how machine is sitting this moment with BH unattached.

What he told me when he was trying to put it back together, is the current hose connects P and R together to make a loop. I think he said he unplugs on of those, connect it to one end of the backhoe hose and the other backhoe hose goes to "T" on the left side. (or something similar)

Evidently it is NOT as simple as just plugging BH into the ports because you have two hoses on BH and only one open port Port "T" is currently capped off.

The "loop" he disconnected is there to prevent accidental dead heading if he activates the power beyond or rear remote while the backhoe is not connected. The BH should be hooked up to the two ports that the loop was connected to. As noted earlier, doesn't hurt to hook it up the wrong way as controls will simply be reversed and you can fix that with a simple switch.

On my BH (Woods with subframe, not a JD) I need the hydraulics active in order to mount the BH. Need to be able to push down on outriggers and with bucket to line up the mounts.

chevy · Apr 18, 2020

IslandTractor said:
The "loop" he disconnected is there to prevent accidental dead heading if he activates the power beyond or rear remote while the backhoe is not connected. The BH should be hooked up to the two ports that the loop was connected to. As noted earlier, doesn't hurt to hook it up the wrong way as controls will simply be reversed and you can fix that with a simple switch.

On my BH (Woods with subframe, not a JD) I need the hydraulics active in order to mount the BH. Need to be able to push down on outriggers and with bucket to line up the mounts.

The loop is there so the 3 point hitch rockshaft will operate. On the 4044 you use the 3 point hitch to lift the hoe into place & install the pins. As was stated above, the loop from R (Rockshaft) disconnected from P (power) & capped. The backhoe connects to P (power) & T (tank). The 3PH rockshaft will not operate when the backhoe is connected.

pmsmechanic · Apr 18, 2020

Could there be pressure in the one hose that won't let the coupler come together?

Richard · Apr 19, 2020

IslandTractor said:
The "loop" he disconnected is there to prevent accidental dead heading if he activates the power beyond or rear remote while the backhoe is not connected. The BH should be hooked up to the two ports that the loop was connected to. As noted earlier, doesn't hurt to hook it up the wrong way as controls will simply be reversed and you can fix that with a simple switch.

On my BH (Woods with subframe, not a JD) I need the hydraulics active in order to mount the BH. Need to be able to push down on outriggers and with bucket to line up the mounts.

Hmmm looks like I lost a post.

Looking at it yesterday with this thread education.... there is no way that the backhoe is going to plug into "T". It COULD plug into "R" and "P". The female plug on "T" is 1/2" deep and the male plug that goes into it is 1". You can literally feel the fittings clash metal to metal once that shoulder gets in there.

He noticed that there are different brands involved. That doesn't bother me (yet) as I would expect them to still be of the same design.

He's had it to the shop with a dash light problem about his hydraulics.... he brought up the idea/question yesterday wondering if maybe they swapped out the 1/2" fitting on "T" so they could do their stuff. I said I wouldn't expect so as they should have the correct tools or adapter (but I don't know that).

It looks like it WILL plug into "R" and "P" but as of now, there's nothing that is going to plug into "T"

Richard · Apr 19, 2020

As an aside, the backhoe wasn't on machine when it was at shop so he had no reason to bring this up.

He DOES plan to call them.

sandman2234 · Apr 19, 2020

My favorite in-laws have a small backhoe on a tractor, and I am the one that they call when it needs to be put on or taken off. I just muddle my way thru it, since it happens so infrequently, plus I live 100 miles away. Good luck!
David from jax

IslandTractor · Apr 19, 2020

chevy said:
The loop is there so the 3 point hitch rockshaft will operate. On the 4044 you use the 3 point hitch to lift the hoe into place & install the pins. As was stated above, the loop from R (Rockshaft) disconnected from P (power) & capped. The backhoe connects to P (power) & T (tank). The 3PH rockshaft will not operate when the backhoe is connected.

I was wrong then. I’ve not used a system like you describe. My BH is powered off a set of rear remotes.

chevy · Apr 19, 2020

My Kioti hooks up the same as yours with the rear remote.

My John Deere uses a separate power beyond hook ups.

Here is a link to a video, I found this morning, on hooking up the backhoe.

John Deere 466R and Backhoe Installation - YouTube

Richard · Apr 19, 2020

That video is 'exactly' like we did it.....until the hose on the left absolutely refused to mount on the port. The end of the port looks like the one on his tractor.

This is most interesting. I had presumed the tolerances might be tight and you have to get it "exactly" right for it to slide in so I tried to be as exact as I could.

Given the hoe wasn't at the shop, the nipple on the video tractor looks identical....

I wonder if it's VERY exact on alignment and I/we just didn't have it exact enough.

It was a bit crowded in there. He said that he usually hooks them up just prior to backing to the Hoe so you have some room to manouver around back there. When I was there, the hoe had been mounted and the angles and space in there are not favorable.

Having seen that video (thank you very much) I kind of feel inspired to try it again.