Bent the dipper arm

[Cat_Driver]

From what I understand trees are the death of excavators and now I know why.

I bent the tip of the dipper arm clearing some trees and brush. Apparently one of the trees snapped back and caused havoc to the Takeuchi TB260.
Bent the dinner arm, tore the couple like it was made out of tin foil, bent the end of the hydraulic upper shaft, and skewed the bucket guides.

$800 for the coupler, $3,000 plus for the dipper arm, don't have a price yet of the hydraulic shaft rebuild.

Live and learn. Just don't be me out there guys. This was one expensive education.

 

[4570Man]

I saw a guy that bent the dipper on a 35 Deere piling brush. I bent the thumb on my Deere 310 piling brush. Tree removal and clean up is about as rough as it gets on equipment.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I saw a guy that bent the dipper on a 35 Deere piling brush. I bent the thumb on my Deere 310 piling brush. Tree removal and clean up is about as rough as it gets on equipment.

Whoda thought? It wasn't till I called a company that specialized in straightening bent arms that the guy said the only reason he's in business because guys like me use an excavator clearing bush and trees.

I got spanked good on this one.

 

[Seven Gables]

Wow sorry to hear , were you running the the machine or someone else? Those things can happen in the blink of an eye, much better the machine took the hit than yourself though. That tree had to have some tremendous leveridge on the bucket , the thumb or both to do that. Curious if you could tell us any more on how the tree applied that much torque to do that? A great old friend of mine that just passed at age 94 gave me some great advice years ago, some times you just got to say F it.

 

[Dan Lamb]

Cat Driver ,
Hate to hear of a guy breaking anything on his equipment, sorry to read that . I have 2.5 acres of tree and brush work to do was wondering if you could explain what you were doing to cause that kind of damage if you have time, Thanks Dan

 

[Cat_Driver]

Boy, I'd love to blame this on someone else unfortunately it's all on me.

I truly can tell the exact time it happened. I remember grabbing a mesquite tree (they grow along the ground) so they aren't your typical "tree" more like large 24" tree roots along the ground.

These things have been tugging at me while I was working on these for days, tossing me around so this particular tree was no different than the rest. Having said that I sort of remember this on release and swing back at the excavator like a rubber band snapping back when you stretch it too far.

I didn't think much of it and brought up the bucket for the next grab at it when I saw the bucket dangling and holding on by a thread.

I got it back to the shop with the bucket swinging in the wind. Shut it down and called my welder telling him that it looks like I tore my bucket and it needs welding.

The next day I looked it over and it was the coupler that was torn and twisted ( I'll get a picture of it ). Then the more I looked and EVERYTHING was best out of shape including the dipper arm.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Yikes, thanks for posting it. Good info to have.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Tore the steel like it was tin foil

 

[mikester]

Yikes, thanks for posting it. Good info to have.

Yikes is right. I better be nice to my TLB moving downed trees

 

[Jchonline]

Yet we see so many on these forums wanting a backhoe for tree removal.....I just don’t understand how they cant see the potential danger to equipment.

Thanks for sharing, a lesson for us all.