Boneyard
New member
What do you use and are you in grave service or cemetery operations?
Backhoe Sod cutting attachment for backhoe bucket.
- Thread starter OrangeJbird
- Start date
- Views: 15583
What do you use and are you in grave service or cemetery operations?
OP
OrangeJbird
Silver Member
I use my JD 3320 with a 485 BH 18" bucket. I dig the graves for a small township cemetery here in NW WI. 2-6 sites per year.
Boneyard
New member
WE use a Kamatsu PC 35 excavator with a 37" cemetery bucket. We do from 300 to 330 a year.
OP
OrangeJbird
Silver Member
Wow. They're dieing (sp?) to get in there, aren't they!
sparc
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2011
- Messages
- 1,078
- Location
- NJ
- Tractor
- JD 4410, NH TC-25, Bobcat M610, JD X534, Dig-It Model 158, JD Ztrak 737. 6X4 Gator
I needed to remove sod in my yard at my previous home a few years back. I have a towable backhoe (early Dig-It model 152) with 12" bucket. The 152 is like the more popular model 148 but you can't fold it up to get through a narrow opening. The model 148 was designed to fit through a 36" opening IIRC when folded up, letting you get through narrow gates into back yards or even through a doorway inside a building. Mine has torsion suspension on the towing/drive axle and the caster wheel axle does not fold up like the 148.
Anyway, I took a piece of 1/4" plate 24" high and 36" wide that I had laying around from a previous project and about 4" up from the bottom I had a 45 deg bend put in it.
Along the back edge I welded a piece of 2x2x3/16" angle 36" long just below the bend so that both edges were stitch welded to the back side of the plate. On the upper leg of the angle I cut square notches for the three teeth on the bucket to be inserted into. Spaced to fit the width of the bucket I welded two more pieces of angle vertically so that the bucket is trapped between them. this kept the plate from shifting from side to side. These angle extended up to where they lined up with a second set of pin holes in the top of the bucket through which I put a piece of 1" rod. The rod ends I drilled a 3/8" hole so I could drop a retaining pin in. The cutting edge was given a 45 bevel with a 1/8 land. I didn't want it too sharp but wanted to take some of that 1/4" off so it would cut into the sod a bit easier. The deisgn was such that it was a no-tools on/off, just slip the bucket teeth into the slots inthe angle and slide the rod through and drop a retaining clip in, no bolts or wrenches needed. On and off in less than a minute by one person.
This let me peel up 36" wide pieces of sod using the bucket in a ditypeg tyoe motion pulling toward the operator position. worked pretty well for something thrown together with what materials I had on hand (it took the 1/4" plate to a friend who had the equipment to bend it for me) and saved me a bunch of backbreaking work doing it manually. I was able to peel up pieces of sod and set them aside for reuse. I was removing the sod from an area where I put a 12x 16 foot shed, so I cleared an area 16 x 20, leveled it off, then after removing the topsoil I framed it with landscape timbers and filled with ~6" of 3/4" crushed stone. had to get it done over the one weekend as the shed was coming Mondaymonday afternoon. Don't have it anymore or I would post a pic.
Anyway, I took a piece of 1/4" plate 24" high and 36" wide that I had laying around from a previous project and about 4" up from the bottom I had a 45 deg bend put in it.
Along the back edge I welded a piece of 2x2x3/16" angle 36" long just below the bend so that both edges were stitch welded to the back side of the plate. On the upper leg of the angle I cut square notches for the three teeth on the bucket to be inserted into. Spaced to fit the width of the bucket I welded two more pieces of angle vertically so that the bucket is trapped between them. this kept the plate from shifting from side to side. These angle extended up to where they lined up with a second set of pin holes in the top of the bucket through which I put a piece of 1" rod. The rod ends I drilled a 3/8" hole so I could drop a retaining pin in. The cutting edge was given a 45 bevel with a 1/8 land. I didn't want it too sharp but wanted to take some of that 1/4" off so it would cut into the sod a bit easier. The deisgn was such that it was a no-tools on/off, just slip the bucket teeth into the slots inthe angle and slide the rod through and drop a retaining clip in, no bolts or wrenches needed. On and off in less than a minute by one person.
This let me peel up 36" wide pieces of sod using the bucket in a ditypeg tyoe motion pulling toward the operator position. worked pretty well for something thrown together with what materials I had on hand (it took the 1/4" plate to a friend who had the equipment to bend it for me) and saved me a bunch of backbreaking work doing it manually. I was able to peel up pieces of sod and set them aside for reuse. I was removing the sod from an area where I put a 12x 16 foot shed, so I cleared an area 16 x 20, leveled it off, then after removing the topsoil I framed it with landscape timbers and filled with ~6" of 3/4" crushed stone. had to get it done over the one weekend as the shed was coming Mondaymonday afternoon. Don't have it anymore or I would post a pic.