Backhoe How similar are the BH77 hoe & the B26 hoe?

[lhansman]

Hi Jim

It is unfortunate that Kubota would make this one little change on the BH77. In the past I have purchased off the shelf bushings to fill a gap like this but perhaps the diameter difference is too small in this case. If you can't purchase one it shouldn't cost that much to have a machine shop fabricate a couple of bushings for you. I really liked the QA on my B26 as it was quick and easy to change buckets and no tools were required. I am finding the L45 a bit of a pain as once you have the bucket on the QA you then have to pound in a wedge and secure it with a 5/8" bolt so I now have to carry a 1-1/8" wrench and small mallet with me in order to be able to change buckets. I think that even if you have to spend $100 - $200 for a couple of bushings you will find it to be money well spent if you will be changing buckets frequently.

Regards,

Lauren

 

[jim_wilson]

Hi Jim

It is unfortunate that Kubota would make this one little change on the BH77. In the past I have purchased off the shelf bushings to fill a gap like this but perhaps the diameter difference is too small in this case. If you can't purchase one it shouldn't cost that much to have a machine shop fabricate a couple of bushings for you. I really liked the QA on my B26 as it was quick and easy to change buckets and no tools were required. I am finding the L45 a bit of a pain as once you have the bucket on the QA you then have to pound in a wedge and secure it with a 5/8" bolt so I now have to carry a 1-1/8" wrench and small mallet with me in order to be able to change buckets. I think that even if you have to spend $100 - $200 for a couple of bushings you will find it to be money well spent if you will be changing buckets frequently.

Regards,

Lauren

The added convenience of being able to swap buckets, or put on a ripper or claw is what has me pursuing this. I had a 24" bucket for my BX23 and it was convenient to use the bucket in some cases - but very inconvenient to do the swap. And the BX stuff was also smaller and easier to handle. The BH77 buckets are getting into the range where they are harder to handle (because of weight).

I got the QA from the BT820 and have looked more closely at it and how it attaches - and it looks like (unfortunately) - that it would require some significant work to get it to fit on the BH77. The issues I have seen so far with the BT820 quick attach are:

- The distance between the two mounting pins on the BH77 bucket and BT820 buckets are different. This means using the BT820 QA would change the geometry of the bucket mechanism when used on the BH77

- the pin size at the end of the dipperstick on the BH77 is different than the BT820. The BT820 uses a 1 1/8" pin - and the BH77 is 1".

- the BH77 thumb would need to be modified. I didn't notice this until I got the BT820 QA in hand. The way the QA bucket setup works on the BT820 is there are "bushings" that stick out of the QA adapter - and the bucket then fits onto these "bushings" and there is a pin that goes thru the QA adapter and the bucket to lock them together. On the BH77 - the "bushing" sticks out of the bucket mounting on one side (the left side) - and on the other side the "bushing" is on the thumb itself. So to adapt any sort of QA setup to the BH77 would mean modifying the thumb by cutting off that bushing. I will take some pictures later and post them to show what I mean.


With all the differences between the two hoes that are piling up I'm not at the point where I think it's impossible to put QA features on the BH77 - but I am leaning in the direction of thinking that it might just be better to make something from scratch instead of trying to adapt the BT820 setup.

 

[CHDinCT]

Just a crazy thought, but would the dipper stick on the BH77 and BT820 be interchangeable? Meaning that the pin sizes and geometry are the same where it pins to the boom? Might be rather expensive, but if it did fit, the BT820 buckets, etc. would fit for sure. Again, just a crazy thought, so just throwing it out there.

 

[jim_wilson]

Just a crazy thought, but would the dipper stick on the BH77 and BT820 be interchangeable? Meaning that the pin sizes and geometry are the same where it pins to the boom? Might be rather expensive, but if it did fit, the BT820 buckets, etc. would fit for sure. Again, just a crazy thought, so just throwing it out there.

Not a crazy thought!.

I thought the same thing. I even went and looked up how much the BT820 dipperstick would cost.

According to Messick's:
BT820 dipperstick complete
PN# 7K523-31013
$657.52

Of course there's no guarantee that it would fit. Would have to take a lot of measurements between the BH77 and the BT820 hoe to see if the BT dipperstick could be used on the BH77.