Thumb Mechanical BH Thumb Designs

[Rowski]

Here mine. Attachment Sales. Cost $550 4 years ago. No problem with it. Its moved A LOT of rocks.

Thumb

 

[AndyMA]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My dealer said a thumb can't be welded on with a "stick welder or a large MIG welder". I forgot what type of machine he mentioned, but he did say that the steel in the dipper stick as "special". )</font>

??? having seen a lot of thumbs welded on both backhoes and excavators, I have never seen a "special machine" used. The dipper may be a high quality steel, but any good welder can weld a thumb on. The one thing I will say that in some cases it is advisable to weld on a reinforcing flat plate before welding on the thumb because many dipper tubes aren't that strong in certain planes. My excavator and all of the excavators at work havd had to have their dipper tubes reinforced and that is without thumbs.

Andy

 

[Wayne_Freeman]

Here is a pic of a grapple I installed on my loader. I suppose it could be called a thumb. I think total cost including an ebay spool valve did not exceed $700. I can hook you up with the guy who makes these if you are interested. No financial gain is involved from this referal. I am very happy with the grapple after a year of use.

 

[PineRidge]

Here's another that Andy cut out.

 

[gray]

Jim.

I looked at some designs but without using one I could not be sure of what was important. Now I have some idea. I think the base plate should be near as wide as the dipper stick on the hoe. The main pin should travel through more than one plate hole on the thumb and mount plate, I think 2 on the thumb and 3 on the plate if possible to limit the twisting torque on the mount. Finally, it is best if the adjustment arm receives the forces from the thumb at a wider ( A type ) design and the arm should not have to have both pins removed to place it up into storage position as mine does. I would much prefer one pin removed and fold it up.

These are my design thoughts.

Gray.

 

[gray]

Jim,

Just got a chance to look up an old post of mine. I thought I had run across a good deal on a good hydraulic thumb but could not remember the source. Here it is: www.mcfaulkner.com in NY state somewhere. They had priced a foot peddle controled unit for an L48 at about 1600 installed. Not bad at all. You might look into it. They may not be too far away from you there in NE area? Worth looking into. They do have pictures an their web site of some of their installs.

 

[JimMorrissey]

Gray,

I have been looking for this company for two weeks! They are the manufactures of the BearClaw thumbs that my dealer sells. I literally searched for hours and could find nothing via Google. Thanks /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[JimMorrissey]

Rowski,

Who makes that unit?

 

[JimMorrissey]

Gary,

That's great. I'm looking forward to your review.

Did you have any concerns or did anybody mention that welding onto your dipper stick might void the backhoe warranty? I hate being worried about that stuff because 99% of time it has no bearing, but with my luck I will land squarely in the middle of that 1%.

 

[Rowski]

Attachment Sales makes the thumb.

Link to Attachment Sales

The one I have is the smallest they make. Its on a NH 759C hoe, which is a 9.5' hoe, and perfect size. I wouldn't want it on anything smaller.