Thumb Woods BH90-X Hyd Thumb pics

[BBull]

A great long weekend with the newly rec'd Woods BX90 backhoe. Out the door price for hoe, subframe for Kubota 5240, 12" bucket, mechanical thumb, Kubota dealer installation of all, and pick up and delivery of tractor was $7500. (No sales tax in Oregon.) Here's my report:

Spent the weekend digging small fir stumps out of the forest. Of what fun it is! Son and I were talking about adding lights to the ROPS so we could continue working way after dark. The 12" bucket will work fine for digging the stumps and digging the ditches I'll need for water and electrical.

Only used the mechanical thumb a few times, but since I have grapple on the FEL don't feel too deprived not getting the hydraulic. It is a bit of an exercise to get off and set in in place, then put it back up when digging. Better than not having one at all. I have a whole new appreciation for those of you who REALLY know how to make the hoe work smoothly and effortlessly. I kept my tractor RPMs around 1800 and felt that was plenty of power (and speed) for a beginner.

It is a luxury birthday gift. I am going to need to investigate how you folks are best storing these beasts in your shop.

 

[newbury]

It is a luxury birthday gift. I am going to need to investigate how you folks are best storing these beasts in your shop.

Happy Birthday!
Thumbs are great!
Is that how women pick up guys in Oregon?
Where are the safety police?

 

[IslandTractor]

Has anyone with a mechanical thumb thought of converting it to hydraulic? I was discussing this with another TBN member a couple of weeks ago and it seems it would be a pretty simple operation. No welding as you would use the mounts already in place for the mechanical thumb and you'd obviously reuse the mechanical thumb itself. You'd just need to replace the mechanical lengthening rod with a hydraulic cylinder ($100-150) and then run hydraulic hoses ($100-200) back to a simple two way valve ($50-100) on the operator station and either power it from an extra remote ($0) or tap into the hydraulics for the stabilizers (which I think is what Woods does in the factory version). There would be some labor and hassle but it seems the conversion could be made for less than $500 which is way cheaper than the premium charged by Woods. The only difference is that Woods has a nifty foot operated control which could be hard to source so you'd need to use a simple hand operated valve.

 

[nickel plate]

Hello BBULL,
I should have my Woods BH90-X dolly finished pretty soon as this has been over a month in production. Being a glue and screw project, there is a lot of down time waiting for the glue to set and there is a gallon of glue in the project.

 

[dfkrug]

Has anyone with a mechanical thumb thought of converting it to hydraulic? I was discussing this with another TBN member a couple of weeks ago and it seems it would be a pretty simple operation. No welding as you would use the mounts already in place for the mechanical thumb and you'd obviously reuse the mechanical thumb itself.

Not to rain on your parade, ISLAND, but consider that a mechanical thumb's
three pivots are not likely to be set up for continuous (greasable) pivoting
duty. Second, the long stroke required of a hyd cylinder to put the thumb
in fully retracted position as well as fully extended position may require
a different boom bracket.

I dealt with both issues when I went from mechanical fixed, to mechanical
articulated, to hydraulic. I WAS able to use the same thumb, but the pivots
and brackets were all different. You can still view my thread.

 

[IslandTractor]

You can still view my thread.

Thanks, I will check it out.

 

[Ductape]

Actually, Island is right. The pins for the mechanical thumb pivots have the through-bolt already, so it would be a matter of having the grease fittings on the hydraulic cylinder ends. My hoe is buried right now, so I can't run right to it with a tape measure......... but at one time I even measured the other cylinders on the hoe and IIRC one of them is already the correct length. I think its the bucket cylinder...... but it may have been the dipper cylinder. I have thought about this many times, but have yet to act on it at all. I hadn't figured out which way I'd operate the thumb cylinder yet.

 

[Ductape]

P.S. The mechanical thumb uses an inner and outer tube with pin holes to set the length, so I see no reason you wouldn't get full throw out of the thumb when you replaced that with a hydraulic cylinder. Honestly...... it looks to me like it was engineered to have a hydraulic thumb even though Woods doesn't sell a kit for the BH80X.

 

[Ductape]

OK....... now my brain is in overdrive on this. Since the only difference between a 70X and an 80X is the length of the dipper stick (and related parts).......... anyone know if the 90X uses the same dipper as the 80X? Anyone with a 90X want to take some measurements so I can compare with mine? If, by chance the 80 and 90 use the same dipper, then everything for the hydraulic thumb kit on the 90 fits the 80.

 

[dfkrug]

The pins for the mechanical thumb pivots have the through-bolt already, so it would be a matter of having the grease fittings on the hydraulic cylinder ends.

It is not the pins I am talking about, it is the bushings.

This is a photo of a BH80X, and I see it DOES use bushings, even though
there is no hyd thumb option for this model. That is good, even though
it looks like they use only a 3/4" pin. Adding a pin anti-spin feature is not
hard.

As for greasing, putting zerks on your cyl cross tubes is fine. I does look like
you should be able to convert this to hyd with your own cyl, and not have
to deal with Woods.