Trench for water lines. WoodMaxx backhoe not smooth in movements.

rogerius · May 21, 2019

Two years ago we started building our home on a land purchased long time ago. This is our own project managed and build by us 99.9% in weekends and vacations. Maybe I'll start a thread about this in the future.
Anyhow, part of this large project I started digging the trench this weekend to bring the water from the well pump to the house side (250ft away). I did 150ft so far, 4ft deep and 1ft wide. 100ft more to go but that will be for next weekend. Was quite a challenge as I never used the backhoe on my tractor. Overall not bad other then movement of the hoe is not smooth at all. Anybody with a WoodMaxx backhoe to confirm if that is the way how should work? I bought it last year used, so this was the first time when I actually used. It has a PTO pump and I was keeping the tractor at 1700RPM.

I'm planning to put the 1.25" poly line and a conduit with all the wires for pump plus to bring 110V power to the shed.
Here are two pictures.

RNeumann · May 21, 2019

The PTO pump may be over GPMing the smallish cylinders. Try dropping the RPMs and see if that does you any good. If that drops the pressure too much, resulting in low digging power, you can add an orifice fitting. That will restrict flow but keep your pressure.

The pics don’t match the write-up. I was expecting something that looked like it was dug with hand grenades- the photos look good!

LS Tractor Owner · May 21, 2019

Being that it's the first time your using it, I think it's more operator learning curve. The first time I used the BH on my SCUT, I was all over the place controlling it. The controls need to be "feathered" lightly to place the bucket. Digging down or towards you, not so much, but side to side is a challenge. Practice, practice, practice.... Go slow, get the "feel", it will get much better.

fried1765 · May 21, 2019

rogerius said:
Two years ago we started building our home on a land purchased long time ago. This is our own project managed and build by us 99.9% in weekends and vacations. Maybe I'll start a thread about this in the future.
Anyhow, part of this large project I started digging the trench this weekend to bring the water from the well pump to the house side (250ft away). I did 150ft so far, 4ft deep and 1ft wide. 100ft more to go but that will be for next weekend. Was quite a challenge as I never used the backhoe on my tractor. Overall not bad other then movement of the hoe is not smooth at all. Anybody with a WoodMaxx backhoe to confirm if that is the way how should work? I bought it last year used, so this was the first time when I actually used. It has a PTO pump and I was keeping the tractor at 1700RPM.

I'm planning to put the 1.25" poly line and a conduit with all the wires for pump plus to bring 110V power to the shed.
Here are two pictures.

Is 4' really deep enough for a water line in Ontario?

Diggin It · May 22, 2019

OK, I wasn't sure about an aftermarket unit with a separate pump, so I held off. But considering the first two replies, I'll add in that higher RPMs on mine make the BH controls MUCH more responsive and 'jerky'. Most troublesome for me is the swing motion when in tight spaces. I've almost banged the bucket into things a few times. I have to keep the RPMs down a bit (1800 or so on mine) to minimize the sudden movements while still giving me decent working speed. I'm still working on figuring out how much stick to give it to do what I want without doing what I don't want.

Experiment with different throttle settings and practice, practice, practice.

Diggin It · May 22, 2019

fried1765 said:
Is 4' really deep enough for a water line in Ontario?

Amherstburg or Leamington, probably. Round Lake or Fort Albany, probably not. That's why I leave judgement on those things to the OPs.

ericm979 · May 22, 2019

The boom raise/lower on the new to me Ansung BH760 is super touchy. I can feather the control a little but a tiny bit more motion and the boom jerks suddenly which slams the tractor up or down. The other controls are not as touchy. I added adjustable restrictors on both ends of the boom cylinder. That's completely eliminated the jerks.

My being new to operating a backhoe certainly is a factor in my klutziness but the restrictor hack sure helps.

That trench doesn't look bad at all.

Agvg · May 22, 2019

How does it handle multiple motions at the same time?

rogerius · May 22, 2019

Thanks Eric for the tip to use restrictors. Could you send me the info for what you used?

Agvg said:
How does it handle multiple motions at the same time?

Operating on 2 motions at the same time helps but is slow down substantially and as a beginner is quite a challenge for me

ericm979 · May 22, 2019

I used these:
1/4 NPT 5 GPM Prince WFC-4 In-Line Flow Control | Prince Mfg | Brands | www.surpluscenter.com

they're one way. I set them up to restrict flow out of each end of the cylinder. You could use a two way needle valve but you'd have the same restriction either way, and the lowering the boom has noth gravity assist and a smaller oil volume so I thought I'd want the ability to adjust them individually.

I'm also a beginner and finding using two functions at once to be a challenge. Hopefully it just takes practice.