Turn Minihoe into excavator

[BobRip]

I was wondering if anybody had modified a minihoe to have a large bucket or scoop on it. I would like to be able to reach into a small creek and clear out leaves and trash and perhaps some mud. I did try a 12 inch bucket and it worked, but not really wide enough.

I was thinking about attaching a steel plate across the minihoe bucket. Maybe put some angle iron around the perimeter to strengthen it and hold the stuff in it. Just some wild thoughts at this point.

I have a neighbor who's driveway is sometimes flooded by a ditch backing up. Last time I kinda drove into it with the box scraper and cleared it out. She really needs to raise the driveway, but I expect that is not financially feasible.

 

[ponytug]

Dear Bob,

How about angle iron with some pegs to make sort of an overgrown rake that you could drag things out with? That way you wouldn't be overloading the minihoe with too much weight too far out.

Box blades in creeks make me nervous. When I was much younger, I nearly dropped a tractor in a creek trying to do a little clearing and then missing a shift. (Did I mention that lack of a gear shift was a primer motivator in getting a PT?)

It is good of you to look after her.

While it isn't a tractor toy solution, how about a small fence upstream with large wire mesh (4-6") in it to catch the debris upstream of the driveway? They use it a lot around here to keep remote culverts functioning. Just 2-4 T posts, some internal bracing and a short run of fence. Of course, I don't know what your local laws might say about that sort of thing, being a creek and all...

All the best,

Peter

I was wondering if anybody had modified a minihoe to have a large bucket or scoop on it. I would like to be able to reach into a small creek and clear out leaves and trash and perhaps some mud. I did try a 12 inch bucket and it worked, but not really wide enough.

I was thinking about attaching a steel plate across the minihoe bucket. Maybe put some angle iron around the perimeter to strengthen it and hold the stuff in it. Just some wild thoughts at this point.

I have a neighbor who's driveway is sometimes flooded by a ditch backing up. Last time I kinda drove into it with the box scraper and cleared it out. She really needs to raise the driveway, but I expect that is not financially feasible.

 

[BobRip]

Dear Bob,

How about angle iron with some pegs to make sort of an overgrown rake that you could drag things out with? That way you wouldn't be overloading the minihoe with too much weight too far out.

Box blades in creeks make me nervous. When I was much younger, I nearly dropped a tractor in a creek trying to do a little clearing and then missing a shift. (Did I mention that lack of a gear shift was a primer motivator in getting a PT?)

It is good of you to look after her.

While it isn't a tractor toy solution, how about a small fence upstream with large wire mesh (4-6") in it to catch the debris upstream of the driveway? They use it a lot around here to keep remote culverts functioning. Just 2-4 T posts, some internal bracing and a short run of fence. Of course, I don't know what your local laws might say about that sort of thing, being a creek and all...

All the best,

Peter

Peter, the rake solution might not be bad. I may build that in addition to something else. I wonder how I could easily and neatly connect it to the minihoe bucket. Let's see what others say.

This is really not a creek (even though I called it that), it is kinda a swamp with very low slope paralleling her driveway for about 1000 feet. Then the ditch leading away has very little slope. Her driveway has settled over 25 years. She says it used to be about 2 feet above the creek/swamp.

 

[stray]

Bob I have this Project going but have not decided how long to make the boom. Any Ideas. Extendable ????

 

[20 20]

Not sure exactly what your looking for but I'll try to describe what I did at one time. I took an old snowplow blade off a garden tractor{36 or 48" can't remember}. I bolted the blade to my BH bucket and it worked great for scraping out nice even wide paths. It worked quite well for clearing weeds and muck around the edge of my pond. I did weld a piece of angle iron to the bottom for strength, which did kill the weight.

 

[20 20]

Stray; that looks like a pretty nice job. I've been thinking about making a clay bucket for my mini excavator. The buckets I have now are a 12"digging and 36"ditch. The little one gets clogged up to easy and the big one is more for just cleaning weeds and lighter stuff. I hate banging the bucket to get the clay out, IMO not good for the machine. I've also thought about installing a chain on the bucket so that when it rotates out it'll help push the clay out{not sure how well it would work}. The clay buckets look like they'd be the cats butt????

Sorry to wonder off of the thread, back to you now BobRip

 

[BobRip]

Bob I have this Project going but have not decided how long to make the boom. Any Ideas. Extendable ????

Stray is that designed to be mounted on the minihoe? It looks good, perhaps more than I had in mind. I was hoping that someone had done something, and it looks like you have. How about some more dimensions. Does is directly bolt to the minihoe?

As for length of the boom, I would tend to match the minihoe.

 

[3238dpw]

20 20 here is the thread for you. They talk about using chain and how to set it up.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/148164-device-emptying-backhoe-bucket.html

 

[Rivco]

I was wondering if anybody had modified a minihoe to have a large bucket or scoop on it. I would like to be able to reach into a small creek and clear out leaves and trash and perhaps some mud. I did try a 12 inch bucket and it worked, but not really wide enough.

I was thinking about attaching a steel plate across the minihoe bucket. Maybe put some angle iron around the perimeter to strengthen it and hold the stuff in it. Just some wild thoughts at this point.

I have a neighbor who's driveway is sometimes flooded by a ditch backing up. Last time I kinda drove into it with the box scraper and cleared it out. She really needs to raise the driveway, but I expect that is not financially feasible.

Bob... you could use a York Rake. The one I built worked great for cleaning out ditch's and culvert drains. I later modified and shortened it so I could attach it to my Mini Hoe.

 

[BobRip]

I could make a 2 inch receiver that attaches to the minihoe and then make attachments that would also work on my 2 inch receiver quick attach plates (I have 2).