Advice and opinions sought for homemade backhoe

I've seen things like that (auto or truck chassis with hydraulic attachment added) in Mother Earth News. When I was shopping for my little loader / backhoe (finally wound up with an Allmand TLB 325) I noticed a number of folks offering used backhoe attachments on eBay. Probably quite a bit cheaper and easier to fix up one of those than to build one from scratch. Don't know where you are but in North Carolina we have a paper called the Agricultural Review that is put out by the state Ag Dept and has free ads for farmers who also list stuff like that. Your state might have a similar publication.

Steve.

that would be Capital Press out of Salem, OR --

- GWE

"Eric R Snow" wrote: (clip) disassemble the subaru station wagon my son left here for the drive train components (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Do you plan to have all-wheel drive on the backhoe? BTW, I think you ought to post this to alt.autos.subaru I expect you will get some "interesting" responses.

A much better use of your time and money would be fixing up an older backhoe, trackhoe or excavator. You know this is stupid, so act on that knowledge, put the plans up for sale, recoup what you can, and count your losses before you waste more money and time making an undersized, underpowered, undercapable machine. If you "only have a little digging to do" you'll be far better off (money and timewise) to hire it done, or get out a shovel and start digging. If you have enough digging to do that you need a backhoe of your own to do it, this isn't it.

I'd guess that if you advertised in a local paper that you could probably find two or three similar things (caddigger is another name of a similar thing) which dissapointed users have given up hope of selling, that you could get cheap. Or you might find some by calling junkyards, where I suspect they end up with some regularity.

If you just want a project, there are more useful (or fun) projects.

I own a 50HP 13-foot hoe. Most days it's just barely big enough, and some days it's too small. I give thanks daily that I never found a "small" backhoe at a remotely affordable price when I went looking for one. I've also wished that I had found a 15 foot hoe instead of this one, but I generally find a way to get the job done with it.

I would get a older used one as well.

I think you are pissing in the snow on this one. Any contraption you make will likely disappoint you with its lack of performance. Much better to buy a fixer backhoe and spend your time on something that will provide adequate service when done.

Good advise. I needed a backhoe but there was no way I could afford one, so I bought a case of 60% and find it can do some jobs a backhoe can't.

Builder to builder I say go for it... Good learning experence... You gotta start somewhere... I built hundreds of things that never worked as good as I would have liked... But some of my stuff I would not trade for store bought... Let us see pictures when your done... I have a ford and a Kubota hoe and I would still like to build one... I've made my own articulating tractor and I also made dozers... You can see some of my stuff at...

"there is no problem that cannot be solved with the suitable application of high explosive"

Gunner

"To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated." - Trefor Thomas

Hi Eric, I'm from Australia, I've got one of these little diggers in my shed, made here by by a company called Cranes and Shovels ( Cranvel).

It's probably 40 years old, and was a very popular design with plumbers because it was cheap and could get into smaller spaces. I've rebushed all the pins, and rebuilt one of the rams, and it owes me probably $1600 Oz. Have you seen anything like this from a manufacturer in the US. Looking at how mine is built, I would think it would be much easier to refurbish than build it from scratch, and you still get the fun of bringing an old beast back to life.

regards,

John

Thanks to everyone so far for the replies. All the opinions are valuable and what I was looking for. I have spent a lot of time looking for a backhoe to fit on the 9N but all have been so overpriced that it was laughable. I have also looked at buying a small hoe. Haven't found one yet that I liked for the price. I could buy a big machine but I don't want one. I guess it all depends on the final use. And, I like to build things. No matter what I build it seems like there is always a used one that I could buy cheaper and fix than to spend time making my own. ERS

I actually built a machine very similar to this one a few years back and had a terrific time. It ended up being one of the most fun things I've ever done, and I still use it quite often for digging around our yard. Some points to consider:

1) Generally the hydraulic pumps and engines are matched to the design. This design looks quite similar to my 628 backhoe, and the 18 horsepower Wisconsin may be a bit much for it though I don't know. My machine is powered by a five HP Tecumseh and looks almost exactly like this one. I'm pretty sure that if I put 18 HP on my machine, I'd bend the boom like a pretzle.

2) Check out the cadplans site. I think Jim Mikulous (sp? I think that 's his name) has been designing these machines for a very long time, and I found his directions superior.

3) My sense after building the smaller 628 was that if you get much larger, you really should look at rebuilding a used machine, but that at the smaller end it actually does make some economic sense.

4) Use high strength welding rod. I used 7018 electrodes. I would not mig weld this together with a small light duty box from Walmart/sams club/kmart/whatever.

5) I would build a narrower bucket. I still might for my machine, which has one around a foot wide. For this tough Virginia clay it does o.k., but I know that the 5 inch bucket would really be the cat's meow for trenching and planting stuff.

6) It really does work. I dug the foundation for our house addition with it and saved a bundle of money, so it actually did pay for itself when all was said and done. Makes a hell of a conversation piece too.

Good luck, Charles Morrill

Greetings Charles, Your input was just what I was looking for. The reason I want to use the larger engine is because I have it and because I want to be able to drive this thing around. However, I also have a 7 hp Kohler that is just sitting aroound waiting for that nice project. I bought it from a friend years ago because he needed money and offered it to me for 15 bucks. ERS

You might go to a rental yard and look at a T5C Terramite. A 20 HP backhoe/loader; all hydraulic. Maybe they will let you take some measurements. Perhaps you should rent one for a day and see if it will do the job you have in mind. Mostly made of standard dimension tubing.

I rented one once to dig a shallow trench. I got it because a trencher would not dig a wide enough trench. Trust me, it is not much of a backhoe.

What got me going on this was using a small excavotor recently. This is one of those real small jobs. 4 feet wide. And it did a surprising amount of work. Lots of fun too. Which is the only reason to build or have one. ERS

Second that on "not much of a backhoe". I rented a T5C on a couple of occasions to do some work around my place and it takes some skill with the controls to keep the front end on the ground and to not drag the whole thing backwards when trying to take a scoop. The Allmand 325 I bought is only 5 HP more but is almost twice as heavy. And as soon as my wife wins the lottery the 325 is getting sold for a nice shiny new Kubota L48!

Steve.

Eric,

I put one together similar to the plans that you have, although I got mine from

I built the 821 and have never regretted it. I didn't need a large or even a medium sized backhoe and this has worked very well for me. The 821 uses a 11 hp motor and 6gph pump and for what I do with it around my place it is just fine. The 821 is the largest backhoe that cadplans has plans for. If you want to convert it to a 3 pont hitch there is also plans for that to as well as smaller sized backhoes, front end loaders, log splitters and such. I also built their 3 pt hitch log splitter and it also works just fine. I do have their plans for a front end loader to fit my tractor and one day I will get around to building that too. I say go for it.

Richard

I've seen one of those. Well, the one I saw was a tad bit heavier. I don't believe the fellow used any plans. Anyway, to stabilize it he had three outriggers he could fold out, pin in place, and hammer spikes through if the thing kept trying to move around. He used an old John Deere radial piston pump and closed center controls. That's probably serious overkill, but the pump's standby pressure was settable and parts are available everywhere. Probably has enough flow to run a traction motor to get you around if that's what you want. His boom was much thicker in relation to the rest of the machine than what I see on the website. You might want to mount a pressure gauge where you can watch it while operating so you know when you're about to bend something. Have fun. Take pictures.

I built a front end loader for my little Yanmar 15hp tractor from Cadplans, and I am quite happy with it- probably cost me a grand to buy all the parts brand new, as opposed to a minimum of $3500 for a store bought loader. The engineering is done right, the parts are well thought out, and the thing works, as long as you are realistic about what it will do. I think the backhoe plans from Cadplans are probably similar. No way will it do the work of a real industrial machine, but if you work within its limitations, for little jobs around the home front, it will probably be fine.