Homemade dirt pan

Taylortractornut · Jun 8, 2003

I was looking through some pictures i had saved in a folder and one of them was afuzzy picture i took a few years ago of a home built dirt pan i made for my Farmall Cub when i was 15. It holds as much as a 30 inch scoop at struck capacity and can be heaped up a bit more. I made it when i was 15 because the year earlier dad had taught me how to run a scraper and from then on i was hooked. Its a bit ugly but it was a test bed to, I made it after te JD scraper at work and the Cat scrapers dad had grown up running that had a large gooseneck torsion bar that had a cylinder to raies and lowers the bowl and and ejector cylinder to dump it. I also made the bowl hinge to dump like a Terex bowl or and Ag scraper. The Cub had a hydralic lift but no remotes, so on the belt drive for the mower i installed an old compressor head, and a tank and valve. Then mounted the air cylinder on the scraper to dump it i used alineral actuator from a satelite. 2 prblems Air controls were spongy and you either hadu up or down all at once no fine grading. THe electric dump worked good but the actuator was too slow to dump the load evenly with out gaps. So i unbolted the body rid myself of the ejector plate and actuator,and air clyinder.
I unbolted the bowl lock so i could have the tipping bowl and installed my gravity dump and limit chains. and locked the torsion arms to make it a drawbar lift. I also used the motor transmission and a chain drive axle from a Murray mower to make it a double barrel or twin engine ride. It helped the 8 to 10 Horse power Cub alot. I Dug a small pond for a freinds water garden about 15 cubic yards worth and spread it in a few low spots and made the upper elevations for the pumphouse and waterfall bases. It took a while but beat the shovel. I retired it when dad bought the backhoe. I plan on building another larger pan for a 30 horse tractor and plan on using hydraulics since i know them better now. Again the picture is terrible lol. Taylor Lambert

Anonymous Poster · Jun 8, 2003

That is very similar to one I have in the drawing stages. On mine I am using a rear dump design and two cylinders that work together, one on each side, to tip, lower and ease the can and the blade into the soil. It's very similar to your setup. I anticipated the problem of sucking the blade under and have overcome that. That's a pretty good "can" for a fifteen year old to make, you definitely have a gift fer machinery. Reminds me of someone; who is wearing my boots right now; when they were fifteen. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

ScottAR · Jun 8, 2003

That looks really good! Not that you shouldn't make one because obivously you can, but this company makes a small scraper. It's expensive though... around $4k if I remember. Could probably build a small fleet for that money. Might have some ideas though...HTH

Taylortractornut · Jun 9, 2003

Thats funny about the 4000 dollars i had a chance to buy 2 4366 Internationals this weekend with and 2 5 yard pans for 4000 dollars lol. I think i have 40 dollars in the little pan i made it looks rough because most of the materials were scrounged from the Votech shop and the . The Cub could fill it good but the 30 horse Yanmar could boil it over the sides. The only thing about a rear dump pan is the cuttin edge wont grade the material. From what i learned on that little pan i can make a better new pan.
A few scrapers such as the old Henry srapers rear dumped and a few even had a blade the followed to grade it down. Grosspal is an Argentinian company that makes a new model of the old pull graders and they make a few small and large rear dump scrapers. They are good that they can dump over and edge or against a wall.
Shawnee and Overland both made small scrapers for old tractors like Jubilees and the Farmall H I have a friend that hs a Durabuilt 1.5 yard and a one yard Shawnee. Also another guy close had an uncle that made a copy of an Overland scraper that is all gravity operated the overland was a 3 yard pan sold with an 8N, they did good if they had a pusher but often used without and that lead to alot of drivetrain meltdowns. I wished i had a better picture of the little pan that showed the dump mechanisms. I also had removed the apron to.

ScottAR · Jun 12, 2003

Crazy is more like it. Like you say a 5yard train goes for that. That is in A-1 good shape and will pull more dirt. Find yourself an older farm tractor with some remotes and boo-ya, moving dirt.

Taylortractornut · Jun 12, 2003

yeah but here its more trouble on these littl hills and hollows to get the tractor and one pan to fit on a job. Our 762 at work broke down and e needed to make a small sand berm so we put dads 3 point 24 inch scoop on the 4000 ford. It moved a good bit of dirt in 2 hours but dang alot of trips. I like the little pans on that web page just not there price tag and they lack an apron. I have a freind that wants to start making a pan like the one on that link you sent but with a few modifications. We both own machine shops and figured out the cost to build them with the labor and materials about 500 dollars. When i worked in Friars Point they had a dealer there that sold those little 2 yard Durabilts for 1500 I think they took 25 horse power minimum.