Keep your fingers crossed for me

dummy · Jun 12, 2002

Thanks for the pics. Again, great stuff. Is the boom a piece of I beam that you reshaped?

wroughtn_harv · Jun 12, 2002

No, it's four inch quarter wall tubing with quarter inch plate gussets.

Just before Ron got there I had to rebush and pin the bucket pivots. I've been trying to break it. I'd rather it break with me than with someone using one I'd built for them.

My tractor weighs fifty four hundred. But I've had the hoe worked on a ninety five hundred pound machine it wasn't any worse for wear.

I was hoping Spence would look at these pictures.

Ron and me talked about how this system would work on a tractor with a switch hitch on the FEL. We agreed it wouldn't work as fast as it does with a skid steer. But then pound for pound a skid steer is the baddest dog on the block for pure production work.

But for a homeowner where time isn't as critical as it is with a professional this attachment on the front would work out okay for doing the occasional trenching etc that happens around the typical farm.

It just would be slow.

hazmat · Jun 12, 2002

Nice looking rig. Do my eyes deceive me, or is your JCB a one arm bandit?

wroughtn_harv · Jun 13, 2002

She's a one armed bandit. I absolutely love that side door!

Spencer · Jun 19, 2002

Harv,
I did look at the pictures and of course I see the possibilty of hooking it up to my Uni-Hitch. I have been dreaming of a <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.lackender-fab.com/2000.htm>Lackender</A> hoe since I bought my tractor last December.

How are your prices compared to theirs? What kind of TBN discount would I get? Need a beta tester?

wroughtn_harv · Jun 19, 2002

Yeah, I've been to that site and more than a few more. In fact I'm gonna check out their larger bucket. I'll order it without mounting brackets though.

I get about four sometimes more construction magazines newspapers a month. I guess once you're on one list you end up on more of them.

The non hydraulic backhoes for the skidsteers caught my eye and so I thought I'd try to make one if the opportunity ever came up.

Then a bud with a construction company gave me a brand new Bobcat excavator bucket he'd come by somehow. He has two or three of those plus a couple of big Cat excavators.

I wasn't sure just what angle would work best so I used a top link from a three point. That allowed me to change the angle of the dangle you might say. The attachment worked far better than I ever imagined. It was just a minor adjustment of the linkage to hook up a cylinder and the rest is history.

I've though about what would work on an FEL like yours. I've just about decided that a boom more than three and a half four feet would be awkward and not have much strength. So for your tractor I'd recommend a shorter boom.

One thing I have noticed is the geomentry of the linkage at the bucket is critical. Too much leverage and it gets in it's own way. Too little and you're wasting a lot of potential power. Even the little bit I've used mine I've found sometimes the best way to move something is with the clam motion on the bucket.

If we start producing these maybe we can try one with a short boom on a compact tractor.

bgott · Jun 20, 2002

Something to think about, Harv, if you're going to build them for a tractor. A skidsteer is easy to pivot to dump the dirt to the side of the ditch. A tractor, on the other hand, you would have to do some maneuvering to get it to the side. I wonder how hard it would be to build sideswing into the hoe. I was thinking about that when I first saw one of these. I think, for a tractor, you might be able to stick with the top link for the bucket and use the bucket curl to do the digging and use the remote to swing the arm sideways. Of course, I don't have hydro...after running a leg breaking 8N I make sure I have to use the clutch pedal as little as possible. This TN has a lot easier clutch pedal, it might not be as bad.

wroughtn_harv · Jun 20, 2002

Lacklender has come up with a system with a swing mode. It's operated with the same control of the auxillary hydraulics on the tractor but it uses an electric solenoid. So you flip a switch and your tractor control operates the clam funcion. You flip the switch again and you operate the swing function.

I can just see being up against and EFEIS wall and thinking you're doing clam and instead swing into the wall. Five grand hit either in our pocket book or you insurance company's.

If we get into the production of these it will be through a factory in Bonham Texas. We'll set up the jigs and there and let them produce them. And we'll use a distribution system through independent dealers.

I'm not worth a flip at production. My mind and personality is too flighty. I only do things in singular and then I'm hunting with a brand new dawg. I used to apologize for my ways but anymore I almost take pride in them.

bgott · Jun 20, 2002

"I'm not worth a flip at production. My mind and personality is too flighty. I only do things in singular and then I'm hunting with a brand new dawg. I used to apologize for my ways but anymore I almost take pride in them. "

I'm the same way. I can't count the times I've taken a job just because I wondered how they were doing something. Three weeks later I knew all I wanted to know and then it was drag up time. Makes for a spotty resume'!