Backhoe Backhoe operation tips for learners.

[alchemysa]

Txkevin's opening post in the 'What can a BX24 do?' prompted me to start a thread on tips for backhoe learner operators. (I'm no expert. I'm definitely still a learner but I think I did make a little breakthrough in the early days.

I was digging trenches for the first time and was totally 'un-co' as the kids would say. So heres what i did. I stretched the boom and dipper out about 80%, with the bucket facing straight down and the teeth touching the ground. Then I took my left hand completely off the boom/swing stick and practically sat on it! Now, having,only my right hand to think about, I was able to focus and develop a nice rhythm of drawing the bucket toward the tractor while taking a nice long shallow scraping. A bit of repetition doing this seemed to imprint in my brain the workings of the dipper/bucket lever.

It was also important to 'fix' in my head a way to link the left/right movement of my right hand with the curl/dump action of the bucket. I did this by thinking 'When the I swing the lever 'outwards' (to the right) away from the centreline of the tractor, the bucket goes out'. 'When I swing the lever 'inwards' (to the left) towards the centreline of the tractor, the bucket curls in'. Its a little hard to explain but it made sense to me on my the tractor.

Anyway there's a couple of my learners tips. I'll be interested to hear what other TBN'ers 'discovered'.

 

[Skyco]

I felt like a doofus first time I tried to run a backhoe, I was thinking my kids of the video game generation would pick it right up.
Funny thing now is I couldn't sit here and tell you which stick moved which way did what but I can sit on the tractor and run it pretty well!
Reminds me of a guy I used to work with, he couldn't tell you a phone number but he could dial it for you Muscle memory?

 

[txkevin]

Txkevin's opening post in the 'What can a BX24 do?' prompted me to start a thread on tips for backhoe learner operators. (I'm no expert. I'm definitely still a learner but I think I did make a little breakthrough in the early days.
'.

Great idea for a thread but my guess is its something you develop over time.

I learned real quick that specific sequential movements dont work. Move boom, extend bucket, curl arm, curl bucket, lift boom,etc. I did find that a combination of pulling the arm with the left control while simultaneously curling the boom and bucket with the right control worked pretty well and did not result in as much bogging down the hydrolics.
I was pretty amazed I did not break something before I noticed that taking a big bite and sticking the bucket then moving left and right is probably not a real good idea.
I can tell you, other than a big sloppy hole, I am no where near where I would need to be to dig straight sides.

 

[mikim]

When I first used my BH - what I learned was -- RELAX -- Things went a lot smoother and faster if I just didn't tighten up and "fight" it. When I relaxed, took my time, and let my movements become automatic almost without thinking about it, it all went a lot better. Then the wife came out, interrupted my pace, and it all went to pot.

 

[Dirk Lately]

I've only used my backhoe twice, so I'm definitely green. And yet, I found I was able to handle it reasonably naturally and smoothly with respect to everything but the bucket. I kept moving in the wrong direction.

I found that I needed to tap up on the boom a bit to get the bucket to bite into the ground rather than moving the whole tractor around. Perhaps that's just because of my extremely hard soil, I don't know.

I also learned that I can get roots and stumps out pretty easily, but now I want a thumb.

I also found that my backhoe makes my dog bark like crazy, but the FEL doesn't. Dumb dog.

 

[BXpanded]

Tips:
Boom up / down lever is the most important control in smooth digging.

When swinging the bucket back over the ditch, just let the boom down and the swing will stop. The lowering boom uses all the hydraulic flow so none goes to the swing cyinder. Gets very smooth after some practice.

When pulling the dipperstick back toward the tractor, feather the boom control in the up position to control how deep the bucket bites.

 

[KeithInSpace]

...I'll be interested to hear what other TBN'ers 'discovered'.

Don't hit your wife's car with the bucket when backing out. Or the track to your garage door, again when backing out. Neither mistake buffs out real easy.

And for the first 10 or 15 hours of backhoe use, do it out in the back yard, under heavy cover of trees. Perhaps even huddled under a tarp. Because you will look REALLY silly to all interested neighbors when you have a very expensive machine bucking like a bronco and a little itty-bitty hole to show for it.

Better to get your practice in and "unveil" your spectacular backhoe when you actually have the skills to go along with it.

Not that any of this has happened to me. Honest. It was the other guy down the street. Ya...that's who it was...asylum something...no, no...it was even stranger than that...volfandt something...don't remember now.

 

[ragkar]

The first piece of advice I'd give is that is takes at least 50 hours to be decent with the bh. Not good, decent.
I've had a lot of troubles programming my brain with the directions to pull/push the levers. The device I've hit on is - if I were sitting in the seat and threw a cigarette butt away, I'd throw it to the right. Similarly bucket dump is to the right.
For the boom/dipstick I think of the center of the boom/dipstick. If I push the lever forwards, the center of the boom or dipstick moves away from me.

 

[ray66v]

The first piece of advice I'd give is that is takes at least 50 hours to be decent with the bh. Not good, decent.
.

Some people can get it down in a few hours, some take much longer, some never get it. I think it has a lot to do with how your brain is wired.

Another good lesson is to find an experienced operator and watch what he, or she, does with the machine. Don't bother watching his hands, you have to figure out that part. Watch how he uses the machine. You will learn more that way, than anything.

 

[jaybrad]

The best tip that helped me was to keep the engine RPMs down. I don't think I have ever had it over 2,000 RPMs, and many times am closer to 1,600. Not only is it quieter, but it works much smoother. In fact, other than speed, I'm not sure I've noticed a difference in power (hereby confessing that I don't know the hydraulic pump specs for my machine).

I am closing in on my first 50 with this tractor with a fair amount of backhoe time. It really does become a lot more intuitive over time. Now if I could just get the hang of easily swiveling the seat around....

Time, patience, and practice out of sight are all good ideas.

Oh, and watch out for the buried TV cable. I *hear* those are sometimes very close to the surface and easy to clip.

Having a backhoe is very cool - enjoy!

Jay

 

[bx24]

I thought I would chime in even though this is an "advanced BH operation tip"

Use the BH to move the machine around to both trench and move it left and right to get better angles on things. You could lift the stabilizers, raise the FEL, turn the seat, drive the machine forward and then back, then turn the seat back and drop the stabilizers ..... or you can simply lift the FEL and point the front tires where you want to go and use the BH to push the machine around.

Once you have mastered the basic controls to where you could essentially dig in the dark, its time to grab some lunch or a cup of coffee and go what a road job or other job site where BHs are digging. You won't believe what an experienced operator can do on almost any size machine.

In time you will get better and besides watching other pros, there is no substitute for seat time.

 

[bx24]

I tried to find a couple of clips on YouTube to show you what I am talking about, this is the best I could do.

This clip takes "using the FEL and BH to move the tractor" to new heights!

YouTube - Herzog "Cartopper"

This shows you what you can do by using Premium Racing Diesel fuel ....

YouTube - Dragster backhoe at Rocky Mountain Nationals 2007

 

[Richard]

One thing that I tried (got idea off TBN)...

Fill backhoe bucket with water (I live near lake so it was easy )

With bucket full of water, NOW practice your movements. Not only will this help instill the finesse in you but will force you to be smooth & relaxed with your movements, lest you slosh your water out and need to refill it prematurely!

As you push/pull bucket towards you, it will help you coordinate the controls so the bucket is level.... don't do it right and you'll find out.

 

[denmansoft]

After about 50 hours I was feeling good enough to be productive....
Then our son's girlfriend tried it out scrapeing the top off an area and had the technique down in 10 minutes. I guess the hours on video games do prove useful...

 

[BXpanded]

My son, 19 at the time had it down in no time. Said "This is great! It's like a video game where something actually happens!"

It was pretty easy for me when I learned at 18. The old guy (probably all of 40) I asked about teaching me to run a 580 Case said, "Take it down there in the field. Pull a lever. If it doesn't do what you want it to do, turn loose of that lever and pull another one."

 

[Volfandt]

Dang, and here I thought nobody saw me

Best advice is to keep the rpm down until one feels comfortable w/the controls. Then dial it up and go for broke This usually happens well before the 50hr break in occurs......
It actually becomes pretty natural after awhile, don't over think it, just go with the flow.
Another side effect you'll notice is you'll start to hear beeping sounds anytime you find yourself around a construction site where you'll see an experienced BH operator making all his moves nice and smooth. Ofcourse the beeping sounds you're hearing are the car horns behind you, trying to get you to go through the now green intersection. Happens w/excavators too

 

[Charlesaf3]

huh. never found it hard at all, but I think that's due to growing up playing video games, as per above. Its just another joystick - and god knows I've pushed around a joystick a lot over the years.

I'll have to let my mom know how productive all that "unproductive" time was.

 

[alchemysa]

huh. never found it hard at all, but I think that's due to growing up playing video games, as per above. Its just another joystick - and god knows I've pushed around a joystick a lot over the years.

I'll have to let my mom know how productive all that "unproductive" time was.

Great...so you are getting paid to work that backhoe these days?

 

[Berniep]

I had a buddy who showed me a couple of things to start out and he said that at about 10 hours I would start getting a lot better, and sure enough he was right. Not great but I was pretty much past backhoe seizure part. If I go a long time between using it I will idle the engine down a little for a while and it comes back more quickly every time. Now if my tig welding would do the same

 

[MarkV]

When I let people try one of my backhoes the most common problem I see is the tendency to try and pull the bucket in with the teeth vertical or pointing away from the tractor. This will almost always lead to dragging the tractor or lifting the back end. Both scare new users. Get the teeth pointing toward the tractor and your digging will go much smoother.

A great exercise for developing the use of several functions at once is to extend the backhoe as far as it will reach with the bottom of the bucket parallel to the ground. Now bring the bucket back to the tractor while it remains 1” off the ground without touching. You have to work the boom, dipper and curl functions at the same time to make it work. Once you can do that you can dig clean trenches.

MarkV