etpm
Veteran Member
I already have a Case 580CK backhoe. It is pretty worn out but still digs. But it does the digging with a two foot wide bucket. According to the manual it will dig a ditch 14 feet deep. My big backhoe also goes places. It needs big places because it is big. But I have a need to dig narrow ditches that are about two feet deep in places where only a small machine will go.
I did make myself a 6 inch wide bucket that affixes to the dipper and will dig two feet deep. It works OK but there is still the limitation of the big backhoe. And I have already bent the thing. The bucket is welded to a piece of 2 x 2 1/4 wall square tubing and has a 2 x 1/4 piece of rectangular stock welded to back of the square tubing, like a spine, for reinforcement. I bent the square tube anyway. About 90 degrees. Because of all the rocks.
So I keep lusting after a small backhoe with a thumb. I keep seeing pictures of 3 point backhoes on tractors the approximate size as my Yanmar YM2310. And pictures of tow behind excavators.
My soil is glacial till. It is full of rocks of various sizes. A bucket with a thumb removes these rocks much easier than digging them out. I know because I rented a small, about 4 feet wide, tracked excavator that had a thumb. Pulling rocks up and out is way easier and faster than digging them out.
So, does anyone here have any experience with these small machines? I know they will be much slower than my Case and I can live with that. But can they do actual work in rocky soil without extreme frustration?
A tow behind would make for a pretty long machine assembly, but in most places I can live with that. But it seems to me that a tow behind might be trouble because it would be so light it would get tugged around. Unless being hitched to the tractor all the time. This would at least tend to hold it in place when digging a ditch in line with the long axis of the tractor.
A 3 point hitch type would be shorter, easier to transport, and have a little more stability side to side. Or would it? I mean the sideways stability. I think I saw methods of attaching 3 point backhoes that added sideways stability.
So, are these small machines worth looking at? I would love some opinions.
Thanks,
Eric
I did make myself a 6 inch wide bucket that affixes to the dipper and will dig two feet deep. It works OK but there is still the limitation of the big backhoe. And I have already bent the thing. The bucket is welded to a piece of 2 x 2 1/4 wall square tubing and has a 2 x 1/4 piece of rectangular stock welded to back of the square tubing, like a spine, for reinforcement. I bent the square tube anyway. About 90 degrees. Because of all the rocks.
So I keep lusting after a small backhoe with a thumb. I keep seeing pictures of 3 point backhoes on tractors the approximate size as my Yanmar YM2310. And pictures of tow behind excavators.
My soil is glacial till. It is full of rocks of various sizes. A bucket with a thumb removes these rocks much easier than digging them out. I know because I rented a small, about 4 feet wide, tracked excavator that had a thumb. Pulling rocks up and out is way easier and faster than digging them out.
So, does anyone here have any experience with these small machines? I know they will be much slower than my Case and I can live with that. But can they do actual work in rocky soil without extreme frustration?
A tow behind would make for a pretty long machine assembly, but in most places I can live with that. But it seems to me that a tow behind might be trouble because it would be so light it would get tugged around. Unless being hitched to the tractor all the time. This would at least tend to hold it in place when digging a ditch in line with the long axis of the tractor.
A 3 point hitch type would be shorter, easier to transport, and have a little more stability side to side. Or would it? I mean the sideways stability. I think I saw methods of attaching 3 point backhoes that added sideways stability.
So, are these small machines worth looking at? I would love some opinions.
Thanks,
Eric
