Load the wagon with a boom mower?

[sandman2234]

This is past history, but I just found this picture on my cellphone, and thought some of you might enjoy it. I removed the 4' flail mower from my boom mower and built a 42" bucket to fit it. Actual size of the bucket is 42wx24dx24h. Here is a full bucket roughly 15 feet away from the tractor C/L. (That last section measures 13' long at half extension of the inside section).
That is the back of my trailer in the picture that I built and the top of the JD is visible over the dirtpile where it is hooked to the trailer pulling it back and forth to my house, about 3/10's mile away.
David from jax

Thumbnail picture

 

[Robert_in_NY]

And here I am thinking boom mowers were designed to mow with

How does the boom look? Does it appear strong enough for digging or are you only digging out of piles?

 

[sandman2234]

With the soft ground we have here, it will dig. I actually dug a hole with it next to the pile and later caved the rest of the pile in to make it flat. However, there were no tree roots nearby to worry about, and pretty much only soft sand to dig into. Would I use it to dig a ditch, probably not. Too much chance of tearing something up and I really don't need to spend anymore money fixing things. Plus I am sure nothing about the boom is any cheaper than CNH and they aren't cheap either.
If I really need to dig with it, I will build a much smaller bucket and give that a try. A 42" wide bucket like the one I built is almost as big as some of these guys FEL buckets. If I need to dig, maybe a 10" bucket with teeth, rather than the continous cutting edge I put on the 42" one, might be the ticket.

David from jax

 

[sandman2234]

By the way, that pile had been sitting there since the church built the last building.(7 years) It was the last of three piles that I got. The first two I had loaded and trucked home, to the tune of $1100 expense. (65 truckloads@ $40/hr + $10 a load to load them). This one cost me the price of fuel, $100 in money spent and a lot of time to build the dump trailer and the bucket. Now I can do it whenever dirt is available which should be soon, as they are trying to get things together to build another building. The chance for more dirt was what made me decide to build the stuff to move it rather than have it hauled by someone else.
David from jax

 

[sandman2234]

Also, if you look close, the boom is like a backhoe with an "extendahoe" option. The inside of that top arm booms straight out like some of the backhoes. Make it nice with the mower and allows it to dig a lot deeper.
David

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I did notice the extendable boom. I see that on a few of the machines around here but have never really looked one of these mowers over up close.

 

[sandman2234]

I just reread my posts, and thought I would mention that the church wanted to keep that last pile of dirt, just in case. Six years later, they asked for bids on somebody spreading it, or hauling it off. I politely told them I would haul it off at no charge. A deal was struck that when they generated more, I would get it, so it would make it feasible to build or purchase the equipment to move the dirt, rather than paying to have it hauled again.
David from jax

 

[sandman2234]

An update to this post, after years of waiting.
I was promised all the dirt when the new perculation ponds were dug, which happened kind of suddenly. A road crew down the street ran into a very big problem building a new road. The existing swamp dirt wouldn't dry out and become load bearing enough for a roadway. They came to the church and offered to clear the woods, dig the ponds, and landscape them for the dirt from the ponds. This sand would go a long way towards fixing up there problem and the church would save about $100,000 dollars in landscaping/digging. I was sorry to loose the dirt, but glad to see the church save the money. Oh well, easy come, easy go...
David from jax

 

[buggyman1]

Any pics of the dump trailer you built?

 

[muddstopper]

I found this thread interesting because I have a old McConnel longarm mower setting out behind my shop. I had already taken the boom and mower off the three point hitch/pump and converted that part of the mower into a 3pt hitch wood splitter. I added a Hbeam, 61/2inch cylinder, a 4way wedge, and had a splitter from Haties for just the price of a few welding rods. The boom I have been planning on making into a knuckel boom type loader to mount on small trailer. I am still looking for a 360degree full rotation grapple to mount on the end of the boom. I also need to find a couple of hyd. cyl to make out riggers out of and the knuckel boom loader will get build. I have a 25hp Kholer engine and a couple of vicker van type pumps to make a power supply for the loader.

I still have the frail mower, complete with hydraulic motor, I can trade for a grapple if anyone is interested. I figure the mower would work great on a small trackhoe for someone just wanting to do a little mowing along driveways or creek banks.