Backhoe Emptying a trailer w/ a backhoe

[TalonDancer]

Yesterday I tried to empty our 5x9' utility trailer with the BH90. The trailer has 2ft wood sides and was brim full of soil (5x9x2=90 CuFt or roughly 3 CuYds).

I needed the soil up on a 4' high berm. So I pulled the trailer along side the berm and backed the L3240 w/BH90 up to the trailer tail gate. The first 2.5 CuYds came out with minimal drama. The BH90 could easily reach the far end of the trailer after removing roughly half the soil and removing a few tail gate boards

But when the depth of the soil in the trailer got to be about the length of the teeth on the BH90 bucket, I began snagging the wood floor of the trailer. Worse yet, the volume of soil/scoop dropped to less than a 1/4 bucket. So I resorted to shoveling out the remainder by hand

Any tips on how to use the BH90 to finish the job?
Has anyone rigged a "tooth cover" that allows scraping the last bit into a pile without snagging the floor?

Any thoughts / suggestions are welcome...

Talon Dancer

 

[Harry c]

I don't know about the BH 90 , but several of the Kubota BHs have removable bolt on teeth. Just unbolt and remove. If you have welded on shanks with pin on teeth you can get 2 extra teeth and weld a piece of flat bar on to give you a "toothless" effect. Just remove 2 teeth, install your bar and scrape away, Works great for smoothing dirt on banks, digging drainage swales, etc.

 

[TalonDancer]

I don't know about the BH 90 , but several of the Kubota BHs have removable bolt on teeth. Just unbolt and remove. If you have welded on shanks with pin on teeth you can get 2 extra teeth and weld a piece of flat bar on to give you a "toothless" effect. Just remove 2 teeth, install your bar and scrape away, Works great for smoothing dirt on banks, digging drainage swales, etc.

Thanks for the tip.

The B26 i looked at had bolt on teeth for it's buckets. I wish Kubota (or a 3rd party) made one like that for the BH90. AFAIK all of the Kubota buckets for the BH90 have welded on shanks with pin on teeth.

My 12" bucket only has 3 teeth. The outside ones are set at an angle. So they can't be removed / installed if they are welded together w/ a flat bar. But I may be able to just weld a flat bar onto a spare center tooth and have the bar rest against the outer teeth.

Thanks again - Talon Dancer

 

[charlz]

I have thought about making a crumbing or squeegee blade for my hoe, examples here:

GRADEBLADE Backhoe and Excavator Attachment - All Steel - 100% American Made

click the other link to see a squeegee blade. They have a nice little video on there.

Looks like to pieces of metal welded in a 'V' so it slips over the teeth, then a chain holds it onto the bucket.

Great for back filling where you don't have good access with the bucket. I also have a nasty square ditch along the side of my property that grows a lot of weeds. I am thinking the blade would be nice for cleaning it up a bit.

Charles

 

[TalonDancer]

I have thought about making a crumbing or squeegee blade for my hoe, examples here:

GRADEBLADE Backhoe and Excavator Attachment - All Steel - 100% American Made

click the other link to see a squeegee blade. They have a nice little video on there.

Looks like to pieces of metal welded in a 'V' so it slips over the teeth, then a chain holds it onto the bucket....

Thanks for the link.

The "crumbing" blade looks like what I need. But $287 for a 12in bucket seems a bit steep, unless that extra cutting edge is really high quality steel.

I often find the idea is worth more than the product A custom built "crumbing" blade can be less complicated (e.g. no chains) . For example, all I really need is some angle iron bent to an acute angle to cover the teeth. Then two bolts (or pins) that take advantage of angle of the outer teeth to keep it from falling off the bucket.

Thanks again - Talon Dancer

 

[herringchoker]

When I had my Ford 4500 backhoe/loader, I rigged up a similar blade that was easily removable. I used a piece of discarded grader blade that was the same width as the bucket (24") and welded a channel to the back of it that slipped over the centre tooth. I also had 2 flat bar straps welded to the blade that lay inside the bucket on either side of the centre tooth. I drilled holes in these straps and in the bucket bottom to match, so that two 1/2" x 1-1/2" bolts kept the blade attached to the bucket, but could be easily removed. I used this for many years. It was real handy for levelling backfills and for snow removal from walkways and other hard-to-get-at places. I was always going to rig up something wider (maybe 48") but I never got a round tuit.

 

[BobRip]

When I had my Ford 4500 backhoe/loader, I rigged up a similar blade that was easily removable. I used a piece of discarded grader blade that was the same width as the bucket (24") and welded a channel to the back of it that slipped over the centre tooth. I also had 2 flat bar straps welded to the blade that lay inside the bucket on either side of the centre tooth. I drilled holes in these straps and in the bucket bottom to match, so that two 1/2" x 1-1/2" bolts kept the blade attached to the bucket, but could be easily removed. I used this for many years. It was real handy for levelling backfills and for snow removal from walkways and other hard-to-get-at places. I was always going to rig up something wider (maybe 48") but I never got a round tuit.

Do you have any pictures of this or a sketch?
Thanks.

 

[charlz]

The "crumbing" blade looks like what I need. But $287 for a 12in bucket seems a bit steep, unless that extra cutting edge is really high quality steel.

Yep, which is why I was thinking of building one not like really high grade steel is needed for the occasional use a home owner would give it.

 

[herringchoker]

BobRip...The tractor and the grader blade are long gone from these parts and I don't have a picture. Here is feeble attempt at a sketch of how I did it. The straps look straight in the sketch, but they actually had a "Z" kink in them to fit from the bottom (or back) of the grader blade to the inside of the bucket. Hope this helps.

 

[BobRip]

BobRip...The tractor and the grader blade are long gone from these parts and I don't have a picture. Here is feeble attempt at a sketch of how I did it. The straps look straight in the sketch, but they actually had a "Z" kink in them to fit from the bottom (or back) of the grader blade to the inside of the bucket. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the sketch. It is very helpful. Sorry to cause you so much effort.

Did you actually drill holes in the bucket? Did this cause any dirt leakage or digging problems.

 

[crazyal]

I have a spare bucket that I torched off the shanks and bolted on an edge (like on a FEL bucket). I works well. I'm sure you could take it one step further and have a tooth bar made up, like you would for the front bucket so each time you wanted a straight endge you could remove it and bolt on the flat edge. Probably the quckest and cheapest would be just like you said. Buy an extra tooth and weld some steel onto it (with it in the center position) and let the steel just hit against the outside teeth.

 

[herringchoker]

BobRip....

Thanks for the sketch. It is very helpful. Sorry to cause you so much effort.

No problem at all. It's good to exercise the old grey matter once in a while.

Did you actually drill holes in the bucket? Did this cause any dirt leakage or digging problems.

Yes, I drilled two 1/2" holes in the bucket. There were no problems with leakage or digging.

Harry c and crazyal have a good idea if you have bolt-on teeth (I didn't). Just weld the blade to a tooth or teeth and bolt onto the bucket as required. If I were doing that, I think I would weld to just the centre tooth to avoid alignment difficulties when installing.

 

[Harry c]

BobRip....


Harry c and crazyal have a good idea if you have bolt-on teeth (I didn't). Just weld the blade to a tooth or teeth and bolt onto the bucket as required. If I were doing that, I think I would weld to just the centre tooth to avoid alignment difficulties when installing.

If you have bolt on teeth you just take them off. No need to add anything as you have a straight cutting edge when the teeth are off.

 

[escavader]

I dont know if you could ,but a 5 by 9 trailer aint that big...could you get out what you could without hurting the trailer,and then wrap your safety chains to the hoe and lift the front up and dump what remains?
ALAN

 

[TalonDancer]

I dont know if you could ,but a 5 by 9 trailer aint that big...could you get out what you could without hurting the trailer,and then wrap your safety chains to the hoe and lift the front up and dump what remains?
ALAN

For some projects your suggestion would be great. Particularly projects where the contents of the trailer is required a ground level. I keep this in mind.

But for this project the time/effort required to unhithch the trailer, lift it with the tractor to dump the remaining contents on the ground then still have to back-hoe it onto the berm (as well as rehitching the trailer, etc.) is more work than hand shoveling the remaining contents of the trailer (roughly a 1/2 CuYd) onto the berm

FWIW my question in the OP is aimed at a future project where I will be moving several more trailer loads of soil up onto the same berm. The idea was/is to place the contents of the trailer several feet above the level of the trailer without "making a mess" on the ground beside the berm and/or tearing up my trailer.

Thanks for the suggestion - Talon Dancer

 

[Jay4200]

Any tips on how to use the BH90 to finish the job?

Yes. Instead of pulling dirt out of the trailer with the backhoe, use the backhoe to lift the trailer up by its tounge then give it a good shake .

JayC

 

[digger2]

Hey Herringchoker,thats quite the "rough sketch" you did there.Completely
understandable.The engineers and draftsmen where i work dont even do that good,seriously.Very good.......digger2

 

[herringchoker]

If you have bolt on teeth you just take them off. No need to add anything as you have a straight cutting edge when the teeth are off.

Well, of course. Sometimes I can't see for looking.

 

[herringchoker]

Hey Herringchoker,thats quite the "rough sketch" you did there.Completely
understandable.The engineers and draftsmen where i work dont even do that good,seriously.Very good.......digger2

Well, thanks. I'll try not to let that go to my head.

 

[2manyrocks]

This problem has been discussed before. One of the previous low tech suggestions was to lay a piece of carpet on the trailer, load the trailer, and then pull the carpet out. Seems like it ought to work if you lay a chain down first, put the carpet over the chain, then the dirt, and roll the edge of the carpet over the dirt with the end of the chain looped over the top. Then connect both ends of the chain together and pull it out?

Anybody tried it yet?