I am thinking about getting a JD 46 BackHoe for my 4100. I am concerned that so much of the 3-point and MMM stuff needs to be taken off and on to swap between mowing and backhoe.
I spent some time looking at the drawings on www.JDparts.com and it looks like the subframe bolts on to the remainder of the hoe about a foot back from the rear PTO housing. I am wondring if it might be possible to re-engineer the backhoe and subframe so that the subframe could be left on the tractor and have the hoe come on and off with a pinned arrangement or some other easy-to-connect mechanism at the point where it bolts together.
Questions for somebody who has one:
1. Does it look at all possible that the factory subframe may be able to be left on and still get the 3-pt arms, MMM linkage, and MMM to function?
2. If not, does it look like the subframe may be able to be moderately modified to accomplish this? On the drawings, it looks like there may be an issue of space on the shaft that holds the 3-pt arm between the PTO housing and the wheel-end of the axle housing.
3. If neither of those approaches look viable and it will require a whole new subframe design, what about clearances for the 3-pt lift arms between the non-sub-frame portion of the hoe. Is there space for them to sneak out, perhaps if angled up, down, or spread wide enough?
This may seem like a stupid plan, but for this combination to be convenient to use for landscaping, planting trees, irrigation and drainage digging, I also need to use the mower every week to cut the grass. If the hoe and mower are unable to play nicely together, then I would be condemmed to always having the wrong implement on the machine and mowing the grass sounds like it would take an extra half hour messing around removing the hoe and adding the 3-pt stuff, etc.
- Rick
I spent some time looking at the drawings on www.JDparts.com and it looks like the subframe bolts on to the remainder of the hoe about a foot back from the rear PTO housing. I am wondring if it might be possible to re-engineer the backhoe and subframe so that the subframe could be left on the tractor and have the hoe come on and off with a pinned arrangement or some other easy-to-connect mechanism at the point where it bolts together.
Questions for somebody who has one:
1. Does it look at all possible that the factory subframe may be able to be left on and still get the 3-pt arms, MMM linkage, and MMM to function?
2. If not, does it look like the subframe may be able to be moderately modified to accomplish this? On the drawings, it looks like there may be an issue of space on the shaft that holds the 3-pt arm between the PTO housing and the wheel-end of the axle housing.
3. If neither of those approaches look viable and it will require a whole new subframe design, what about clearances for the 3-pt lift arms between the non-sub-frame portion of the hoe. Is there space for them to sneak out, perhaps if angled up, down, or spread wide enough?
This may seem like a stupid plan, but for this combination to be convenient to use for landscaping, planting trees, irrigation and drainage digging, I also need to use the mower every week to cut the grass. If the hoe and mower are unable to play nicely together, then I would be condemmed to always having the wrong implement on the machine and mowing the grass sounds like it would take an extra half hour messing around removing the hoe and adding the 3-pt stuff, etc.
- Rick
