Bent the dipper arm

[Cat_Driver]

From what I understand trees are the death of excavators and now I know why.

I bent the tip of the dipper arm clearing some trees and brush. Apparently one of the trees snapped back and caused havoc to the Takeuchi TB260.
Bent the dinner arm, tore the couple like it was made out of tin foil, bent the end of the hydraulic upper shaft, and skewed the bucket guides.

$800 for the coupler, $3,000 plus for the dipper arm, don't have a price yet of the hydraulic shaft rebuild.

Live and learn. Just don't be me out there guys. This was one expensive education.

 

[4570Man]

I saw a guy that bent the dipper on a 35 Deere piling brush. I bent the thumb on my Deere 310 piling brush. Tree removal and clean up is about as rough as it gets on equipment.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I saw a guy that bent the dipper on a 35 Deere piling brush. I bent the thumb on my Deere 310 piling brush. Tree removal and clean up is about as rough as it gets on equipment.

Whoda thought? It wasn't till I called a company that specialized in straightening bent arms that the guy said the only reason he's in business because guys like me use an excavator clearing bush and trees.

I got spanked good on this one.

 

[Seven Gables]

Wow sorry to hear , were you running the the machine or someone else? Those things can happen in the blink of an eye, much better the machine took the hit than yourself though. That tree had to have some tremendous leveridge on the bucket , the thumb or both to do that. Curious if you could tell us any more on how the tree applied that much torque to do that? A great old friend of mine that just passed at age 94 gave me some great advice years ago, some times you just got to say F it.

 

[Dan Lamb]

Cat Driver ,
Hate to hear of a guy breaking anything on his equipment, sorry to read that . I have 2.5 acres of tree and brush work to do was wondering if you could explain what you were doing to cause that kind of damage if you have time, Thanks Dan

 

[Cat_Driver]

Boy, I'd love to blame this on someone else unfortunately it's all on me.

I truly can tell the exact time it happened. I remember grabbing a mesquite tree (they grow along the ground) so they aren't your typical "tree" more like large 24" tree roots along the ground.

These things have been tugging at me while I was working on these for days, tossing me around so this particular tree was no different than the rest. Having said that I sort of remember this on release and swing back at the excavator like a rubber band snapping back when you stretch it too far.

I didn't think much of it and brought up the bucket for the next grab at it when I saw the bucket dangling and holding on by a thread.

I got it back to the shop with the bucket swinging in the wind. Shut it down and called my welder telling him that it looks like I tore my bucket and it needs welding.

The next day I looked it over and it was the coupler that was torn and twisted ( I'll get a picture of it ). Then the more I looked and EVERYTHING was best out of shape including the dipper arm.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Yikes, thanks for posting it. Good info to have.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Tore the steel like it was tin foil

 

[mikester]

Yikes, thanks for posting it. Good info to have.

Yikes is right. I better be nice to my TLB moving downed trees

 

[Jchonline]

Yet we see so many on these forums wanting a backhoe for tree removal.....I just don’t understand how they cant see the potential danger to equipment.

Thanks for sharing, a lesson for us all.

 

[ovrszd]

The same type of forces can be applied with a Grapple.

Anything that allows a bucket to "clamp" onto an object is capable of doing this.

I'm very considerate of these forces when using my FEL Grapple and/or my mechanical thumb on the TLB rear hoe bucket.

To quote an old TV show Lost In Space, "Danger Will Robinson!!!"

 

[fried1765]

Yet we see so many on these forums wanting a backhoe for tree removal.....I just don稚 understand how they cant see the potential danger to equipment.

Thanks for sharing, a lesson for us all.

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

 

[ovrszd]

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

Sounds like the type of trees being removed might have contributed to this scene. I'm not familiar with mesquite trees. In my World it's Hedge trees that give the most problems with how the root system spreads under ground.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

This has nothing to do with "common sense". I've been using common sense with equipment for 40 years. The issue was with this ONE TREE - period. Of the dozens of trees that I successfully removed using "common sense" This one bit me.

The Mesquite tree is a brittle dry tree in the desert that grows along the ground with large roots.

it's a hardwood great for grilling steaks as the wood burns a long time. You can either cut them away using up hundreds of chain saw blades, or bend them with equipment till they break, actually snap in half.

This one tree bent, and bent, and bent and then snapped back with an inexorable force enough to cause the damage.

Chit happens no matter how much "common sense" you apply.

If common sense was infallible we wouldn't need insurance companies now, would we?

Lastly, any man that says "I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine". Is either a liar of in denial. Every mechanical machine including your wife's blender on her kitchen table has "potential danger".

 

[Industrial Toys]

Sorry. That's unfortunate. I had a long pine come through the side glass of my cab. Trees and timber are so unpredictable.

All the excavator guys I hired pretty much just pushed trees over with their boom,stick and bucket extended almost fully just pushing away with the bucket teeth.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Here's an example of the brush. Not like a typical tree we're all used to.

I had a closed cab save my life by slowing down a limb coming through the front windshield.
Before I got the closed cab Kubota I had an open cab Kubota, I grow date palm trees that have 4" thorns on the palm leaves. I was in and around them cleaning up and as I turned my head there was a thorn on a palm leaf about 2" from my eye.

I got rid of that open cab tractor that week and got a closed cab Kubota with AC and the works.

 

[Industrial Toys]

It's why BIG is so often just better.

 

[4570Man]

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

I can remove trees with my M59 but it’s hard on it. My full size 310 was much more rugged built and a lot more capable of taking the abuse of digging stumps. IMO a full size industrial hoe is the smallest machine fit for repeated stump digging. The last lot I cleared I used an 80 case trackhoe which is way better then the M59. Even a bigger trackhoe than that wouldn’t be bad.

 

[Cat_Driver]

She's back up and running. It's been weeks waiting for parts, then lifting that new dipper arm in place.
You bet you last dollar I'm staying out of the trees and brush with this thing.

 

[ovrszd]

Glad to hear it. Thanks for the update.

I think adding any type of clamping device multiplies the stresses many times over .