Backhoe Added a ripper to my Woods BH90x: Trees beware

[IslandTractor]

Two holes=piece o' cake
Four holes=different story
Six holes=miraculous conception Two for the ripper tooth, two for the thumb and two for the dipper stick.

Yep. Add to the six holes a ninety something pound implement with a pointy end rather than a flat base to rest on thefround and our complaining starts to make more sense.

 

[nickel plate]

Yep. Add to the six holes a ninety something pound implement with a pointy end rather than a flat base to rest on thefround and our complaining starts to make more sense.

Not hanging it all on MIE...Woods shares the larger part of the blame by not offering a six way quick connect (their Gannon bucket for an MIE tooth-same tolerances). Step up Woods!!

 

[JFS2295]

You guys realize there's a smiley there......

Six holes but still three shafts. Maybe I spent way too many years bolting implements to drawbars. Tapered prybars usually get things close, even with multiple links. I started using versions of these years ago after using them on industrial equipment.

McMaster-Carr

Edit - bottom of page.

Because of flipping hoe buckets I changed out to slightly longer pins so I could put a chamfer on one end to follow these tapered pins.

I've also built stands for the buckets out of 2x4s to keep them in a neutral position.

 

[mjncad]

Leave it to McMaster-Carr to have all the cool toys.

 

[IslandTractor]

You guys realize there's a smiley there......

Six holes but still three shafts. Maybe I spent way too many years bolting implements to drawbars. Tapered prybars usually get things close, even with multiple links. I started using versions of these years ago after using them on industrial equipment.

McMaster-Carr

Because of flipping hoe buckets I changed out to slightly longer pins so I could put a chamfer on one end to follow these tapered pins.

I've also built stands for the buckets out of 2x4s to keep them in a neutral position.

Re smiley, yes but I cannot add them myself with the iPhone app I'm using to reply. (insert bummer smiley here, grin)

I don't think this issue is a big deal just frustrating. One of those necessity is mother of invention things. Certainly not an issue with MIE though a simple quick attach would be a good business opportunity for them.

Regarding a cradle to support the ripper while mounting: I've played with that idea. The trouble is that a cradle would support the ripper in one position but what is really needed and far more complex is a cradle that is adjustable like a machinist drill press vise and with tilt in two dimensions. We need to line up the ripper to the BH arm which essentially must be static as BH hydraulic control is WAY too gross. That means we need to move/adjust the position of the ripper itself up/dowm, L/R, front/back, as well as tilt in two dimensions to line things up without brute force. The chamfered pin does help and means precision is needed only to about 1/8 inch but that is still hard to get. The spud wrench would do the trick combined with a ripper cradle on casters that has a built in jack to raise/lower the mount but that is no longer a simple device knocked together with a few 2x4s.

I ended up believing that the combo of a quick attach adapter and a slit in the ground to support the ripper while mounting would work best. The cradle on wheels would be nice but would take a lot of storage room/ footprint. I flip the ripper upside down for storage which makes it stable and very compact. It is easily moved from storage to outside with a wheel barrow.

 

[JFS2295]

I don't quite do it that way. My stands are loose fitting and sit on loose soil. I can maneuver the stand and bucket around with a prybar or just pushing. I don't try to fit all the pins from the stand, just the one that I found has a hanging neutral position so once that one is in I can lift the boom and adjust the hoe position so it doesn't take that much work for the rest of the fitment.

Maybe my ARPS valving is different, but I can get close enough with slight movement of the arms, especially with the tractor at idle.

I have more trouble pulling buckets off then installing them due to not having the perfect neutral weight position.

 

[IslandTractor]

I do it in practice pretty much the same way but only use the BH hydraulics for initial posotioning. The main pin is the b@itch as it includes the thumb. As Nickel pointed out, six holes need to be lined up pretty closely for even a chamfered pin to fit. Once that pin is mounted I can operate the BH and let gravity help and of course at that point things are pretty well lined up. I have yet to manage the change over in less than an hour which puts a crimp in any plan to switch for just a simple job. I tend to mount the ripper and leave it on for a few weeks before switching back. Again, a quick coupler would increase the versatility a lot.

 

[beppington]

I have no backhoe, so I'm not intimately familiar with the struggle to get the pins aligned ... but could you hang the ripper from a tree, a barn beam, or a stand, so you could swivel it all around during alignment?

This is how we store the auger, & ever since hanging it like this, it is much easier to connect up; No longer a dreaded process. It's got enough play & movement that neither the tractor nor the auger have to be in any perfect position to allow for connection/ alignment.

 

[IslandTractor]

Hanging the ripper

 

[beppington]

Hanging the ripper

Yeah, I kinda chuckled when I typed that, but thought, "Well, he probably deserves it."