Dig-It towable Backhoe partial restoration

[PILOON]

Just purchased a Dig It 158 in Washington state. I towed it home 100 miles. I called my State Patrol about the license issue and received an "I'll have to look into that and get back to you'. Haven't heard back yet - I think I'm okay.

Question: has anyone installed a hydraulic thumb? Could one be controlled with the auxiliary hydraulic circut?

If you did not get a ticket I'd agree you are OK.
I towed 3 aircraft and a 'towable backhoe' without plates and never got a ticket. It all depends on what roads you take. LOL.
In your case you were on record for asking, I was not, just did it.
BTW my towable digger was actually plated as a trailer but never transferred as I did not wish to pay those fees.

I paid $1k for it , earned some 2-3 K and sold it for $1k.
Latest buyer (a buddy) sold it last week for $1.5K but that after having worked it for close to $4.K.
Towables certainly fill a nitch.

 

[Lynnman]

The officer did call me back a few days later and surprised me by stating that he had done the research and confirmed that it does not need to be licensed (Washington State). I noted the information he gave me including his name - I still need to print it and put a copy in my tow vehicle. I think I'll do that right now ... What kind of jobs did you do with your dig it?

 

[PILOON]

I mainly dug trenches for waterlines in rugged terrain leading to lakefront and drainage trenches.
A rental center claimed their biggest users were folks that installed cedar hedges.
The wide stance and low center of gravity made it ideal for rugged hillside trenching even better than mini excavators.
We rapidly became agile at walking it between trees in a forest setting.

I originally purchased it planning to modify and install on my CUT but soon decided it was better to operate as a separate tool,
Mine was branded "Cricket" and manufactured by ToeHoe Ltd.

 

[JHolman05]

Beautiful! Did you do anything with the hydraulic oil level sight glasses in the frame? Mine are so cloudy as to render them useless.

Ours just came plugged, so we just kept it plugged. After operating it with new cylinders and completely draining the system it would be a good idea to see if we need to add any.

 

[Lynnman]

Looks like you repowered your machine. Mine has lots of hours on it and I am considering doing the same. What engine did you use? Did you have any problem adapting from the engine to the pump? Do you recall what shaft diameter is required to connect to the pump? Your machine looks amazing!

 

[JHolman05]

Looks like you repowered your machine. Mine has lots of hours on it and I am considering doing the same. What engine did you use? Did you have any problem adapting from the engine to the pump? Do you recall what shaft diameter is required to connect to the pump? Your machine looks amazing!

Yeah, we did get the original kohler motor to run but decided not to invest any money in an already worn out motor. We picked up a Lifan 15hp 420cc (Honda GX390 clone) special order from Menards. We picked up this engine vs. a harbor freight 420cc for the 15amp charge circuit, the harbor freight motors only come with a 3 amp iirc charge circuit which is just good enough to maintain the battery for starting. Sine we thought we may go with lights in the future we decided to go this route instead. It can still be easily pull started if you don't want to put a battery on it right away.

https://www.menards.com/main/outdoo...430048465-c-10112.htm?tid=3128282832053088120

Using this engine we did have to change up the lovejoy pump coupler and motormount/bell housing. Both of those should be had for under $150. The kohler motor had a 1 1/8" shaft and this motor has a 1" shaft.

Thanks for the good words! We recently added a battery for electric starting and increased ballast, these things seem to like to lift the castor wheels rather easy! :/

 

[Lynnman]

Yeah, we did get the original kohler motor to run but decided not to invest any money in an already worn out motor. We picked up a Lifan 15hp 420cc (Honda GX390 clone) special order from Menards. We picked up this engine vs. a harbor freight 420cc for the 15amp charge circuit, the harbor freight motors only come with a 3 amp iirc charge circuit which is just good enough to maintain the battery for starting. Sine we thought we may go with lights in the future we decided to go this route instead. It can still be easily pull started if you don't want to put a battery on it right away.

https://www.menards.com/main/outdoo...430048465-c-10112.htm?tid=3128282832053088120

Using this engine we did have to change up the lovejoy pump coupler and motormount/bell housing. Both of those should be had for under $150. The kohler motor had a 1 1/8" shaft and this motor has a 1" shaft.

Thanks for the good words! We recently added a battery for electric starting and increased ballast, these things seem to like to lift the castor wheels rather easy! :/

Great information - it looks like your machine is a 148. What motor did it have originally? I like the pull start option on the Lifan 15 horse engine. I have the 158 that has a tired Kohler 18hp magnum. I have been considering the HF 22hp Predator - seems like it has half decent reviews but not much charging capacity. I'm not planning to run lights. I have been thinking that I could account for the shaft diameter difference with this:
Amazon.com: 1"- 1 1/8" Shaft Adapter Sleeve Predator with 1/4" Key Pulley: Everything Else.

I'd still need to come up with an adapter to for the pump housing to motor housing. Maybe something like this:
Concentric/Haldex Hydraulic Pump Mounting Bracket | Hydraulic Motors Mounting Brackets| Northern Tool + Equipment (too tall? ) - or build one.

From your description I think we may have different coupler set ups but I haven't pulled mine apart yet to see for sure. I'd be interested in more info on the coupler / housing arrangement the you used.

 

[JHolman05]

Ours is actually an odd ball Model 116 which must have been when they first introduced the 148. It has almost all of the 148 features. It came with the same 18hp Magnum Kohler motor and to be honest we mostly run ours closer to idle than the full rpm and it seems to operate just fine.

The adapter plate you posted is very similar to the one we bought, my brother actually purchased that part so I can't give exact model numbers just make sure it mounts to the pump and motor but it looked to be almost identical. One other thing is the Lifan 15hp just barely fits under the seat mount. I'm not sure if the 158 is the same in that regard but that's one thing to consider as the 670cc 22hp predator I would assume is a bit taller than the 420cc predator.

Showing the minimal clearance.

 

[Wa11banger]

Jholman I have a couple of questions for you about your rebuild.. After a few years I have come to the conclusion I am going to do a tear down and rebuild the little digger.. She has served me well and needs a freshup.. I reread the post and cannot find where you got the stickers. Can you provide the link or business contact to where you got them done? Also It looks like your valve block is brand new... did you rebuild it or just order a new one? Thanks for any info and take care

 

[JHolman05]

I reread the post and cannot find where you got the stickers. Can you provide the link or business contact to where you got them done? Also It looks like your valve block is brand new... did you rebuild it or just order a new one? Thanks for any info and take care

The decals came from power king tractor, a bit pricey but make the machine complete.

The valve block we just used a wire brush and cleaned up. My brother opted for the multi control, it allows you to dig with just two of the sticks instead of 4. I'm not sure if your's has this but ours didn't and I could see it being very cumbersome to use in that configuration.

Power King Tractor Replacement Parts and Accessories

Here are some of the project we've used it for. The cistern was about 7' wide x 10' long x 7' deep hole. It took about 4-5 hours to dig. The hardest part about digging something like that is finding a place to put the spoils. It would have been handy to have another person on a skid steer moving the spoils out of the way.