towing with the backhoe???

[tungularafishcamp]

I have to haul a bunch of rocks to make a breakwater. Have picked up a few loads with backhoe/thumb and put them in the fel but it is slow going the 1/2 mile per trip. I have a double axel trailer I built for a 4 wheeler that can haul 1000 lbs. Was wondering if I attached a ball hitch to a wooden beam and grabbed it with the backhoe bucket to tow if it would put too much strain on the backhoe(bh75). Or is there another way to tow while leaving the backhoe connected? and still have the fel full of rocks too?
Thanks for the help.
Rick

 

[BruceWard]

Not sure about the BH75 but the BT751 on my B21 has two loops of 1/4" or larger steel on the sides that make steps for getting on and off the backhoe. I made a bracket out of 3/8" thick angle iron to mount a ball or use a lawn mower type hitch and attached it to one of the steps. This places the trailer a little off center but works very well for me. You could use the backhoe to load the trailer.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I thought about that Bruce except I would have to hook up the full trailer by hand and unhook it too before dumping. Gettin pretty old to lift full trailer hitches that's y I thought the grabbing with the backhoe would be ez to both hook up and then also to use it to dump the rocks I just have to lift with the hoe. Just not sure if it will put much stress on hoe towing. Would be going slow but it will be on a rocky beach at first then a soft one.
Thanks for the input.

 

[BigD23]

My preference is a solid hitch.

Don

 

[s78wingrider]

I don't know how your hoe is mounted but on the hoe on my tractor I was able to make hitch out of channel iron I had that slides in the hoe sub frame. I can load trailer without unhooking and travel with hoe to one side. Works great although hitch is low and can't just go everywhere without being careful.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

do you have a picture of how u slide in the channel, and then can you remove it?

 

[ACHINBAC]

TG: Can be done, but on some backhoes (such as mine) a heavy lateral push on the boom can swing it left or right - hydraulic stops get over ridden by the force. Also a heavy rearward pull on the dipper stick can override it also - you can imagine how I figured both out. Solution was to limit the movement of both with chains - benefit is the chains take the stress and not your hydraulics + no "surprise overrides"

 

[tungularafishcamp]

achinbac, like your name. Thanks for the info, how did you attach your hitch, it looks like a slick setup, I assume it comes off for digging?

 

[BruceWard]

I like achinbac's setup.

With the ball mounted to the step you could leave the trailer attached while loading and unloading with the backoe.

I have 3 receiver hitch receiver mounts (2.5" tubing) inside my FEL bucket on the bottom edge. I normally have short 1' long angled pieces of 2" tubing in them to keep dirt out. Alternately I can put those out about 6" and use them for teeth or swap them for 4' versions to use as forks. I sometimes swap in a trailer hitch receiver and hook a trailer up to the FEL bucket. I have lifted the FEL bucket to dump the material from the trailer. I feel much more comfortable (safer) with this than a ball on the backhoe. I can get close to turning the tractor over with the backhoe without a trailer attached to it.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I like your idea for the fel Bruce, I was going to weld up a rake to bolt into my bucket for hauling kelp minus the gravel to the garden but I like your idea better. How do you attach your 2 " tubing into the tubing sleeves and does it affect loading and unloading of the fel do you think. I would probably need 4 of them for picking up kelp.