I wanna add a backhoe to my YM2310

[etpm]

This winter, after the good weather is gone here in the beautiful PNW, I will be adding power steering to my 2310. I am also considering adding a backhoe at the same time, might as well do one with the other.
Right now I have a Case 580CK backhoe, which is a much larger machine than anything I can put on the back of a 2310. But I have had the thing for about 15 years and have really done all the work, and more, than what I bought it for. I bought the thing even though I had never even sat on a backhoe because I had to put in a septic system, which I also had zero experience with. But I learned. Now, after digging several hundreds of feet of ditches unrelated to my septic system, many deep holes, and even burying my neighbor's horse, I'm thinking I can get by with a smaller digger. Especially because I built a 6 inch wide trencher bucket that affixes to the backhoe bucket and digs ditches 2 feet maximum.
Even though the 6 inch wide trenching bucket works to dig 6 inch wide trenches it does so with more trouble than a person might think because of the fact that I live on and am digging through glacial till which consists of sandy loam and rocks, clay with rocks, soil with rocks, gravel with rocks, and etc. with rocks.
The long preamble is to explain why I think a backhoe with a narrow bucket with a thumb, to help pull out rocks, would be a great addition to my 2310 that has already a Bulldog 285 FEL installed. The backhoe must be able to swivel at least 180 degrees because I have several places that need ditches where space is tight so the ditches must be dug from the center to the ends, with the tractor perpendicular to the ditch. I do this already with my Case.
My plan is to sell the Case and use the funds to offset the cost of the backhoe and the materials needed to build some sort of frame that will attach to the existing frame on the front of the 2310.
An alternative would be to buy a small excavator which would obviate the backhoe but I have not been able to find small excavator in the $5000.00 range.
Thoughts anyone? Which small backhoe to buy? Which type? Feasibility?
Thanks,
Eric

 

[4570Man]

I’d just keep the 580. It’s far superior to anything the tractor can support so why waste time and money messing around to end up worse off then you are now. If you really want rid of the case I’d get a mini excavator.

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

The issue with adding a backhoe to your 2310 is the need for an additional subframe, see the attached article.

Yanmar BackHoe Install

All States Ag Parts is the leading supplier of tractor, combine, skid steer and other ag-related parts to North America. We sell new aftermarket, remanufactured and used parts.

www.hoyetractor.com

 

[California]

If you are thinking a 3-point hoe for your Yanmar, it will be so small as to be very limited. I think useless to trench with the tractor parked at a right angle to your trench. Or to dig to the side of the tractor. (I bent a 3-point arm doing that. BFH got it back to straight again).

I have the ARPS 3-point backhoe that was sold as OEM for my YM240 and it was also sold as OEM by Kubota dealers back then, 1980. My primary use is removing orchard stumps (photo) and I've also used it to grub out blackberry jungle, and to pop out scrub oaks that have roots intertwined with orchard trees. (photo). For orchard stumps, digging an excavation the size of a dinner table is the practical limit, any deeper and there's no reach so you have to move many times. At 750 lbs this BH is the limit of what my Yanmar can lift, the relief valve squeals as I drive around.

That Hoye link emphasizes that a subframe up to the loader structure is essential to get the severe stresses off of the transmission housing and bell housing, whether frame-mount or 3-point.

I think the Case has spoiled you to what a real backhoe can do. A little one just isn't the same thing.

Here's one to avoid. The US dealer claims 6 ft depth while the mfr brochure says only 4.6 ft.

And a photo just for fun, using the BH to tug the second Yanmar sideways, where continuing to struggle would have destroyed the new fence. After it was free I drove the little guy out still attached, like a pendulum, so it couldn't slide into the fence again. No fence damage at all.