Tractor question

SteveB fired this volley in news:lht43o$gvt$1 @speranza.aioe.org:

Steve, not for nothing, but if everything is healthy, they should drop under their own weight, without any external bungee helpers.

At worst, you'd have only had to move the lift quadrant to the lowest position, and push the lift arms down by hand.

Lloyd

Well, you fix it like this: You put two bungees on the arms. You move the two arms that normally let the box drop to a preset height. There is no hydraulics involved in the drop, only the raise. Drop is caused by the weigh of the box. So, dropped the arms, hooked it all back up, and took off. Now I need to get my big boy wrenches out, and go all over that sucker, and tighten all the loose stuff, one of which caused this. Zillions of zerks. Might have to go buy me an air powered grease gun. I don't have one, so that's actually reason enough.

Steve

It was a not understanding how the whole thing works thing.

Steve

Negative. The item welded was the lynch pin that held together the backhoe arm to the tractor frame. Shitty job of MIG welding. I was surprised that they didn't at least use FCAW. It was like two pieces of

2" FB , 8" long, with three cross holes drilled so that pins could be put at different locations. Each cross hole had a light piece of pipe welded in there to join the two parallel pieces of FB, for added strength, and to guide the pins into their proper places, when a keeper pin was put on the end.

No heat came close to any hydraulics. The joiner piece was taken completely off the machine, and welded in a vise.

The point of welding was the top attachment point of the triangle support assembly. A piece that is totally fabricated, then inserted into place, aligned, and keeper pins inserted and keyed.

Steve

Like I said - - - -

No, Just imagine reattaching your hand to your wrist. That simple.

I will try to post a pic.

Steve

Exactly what happened in the end, it was just that my arms were an oonth short to pull on the arms, and work the levers at the same time, in the meantime, reaching around the big bell shroud that shelters the tire. I'll do some pics that will explain it to all.

Steve

After the tractor was fixed, SWMBO had a stump that a large rock had grown into, and was in the refuse pile of our local dumping place. It was fun just getting down there, using a 16 gear tranny, loader bucket, and backhoe and outriggers to get it all just right to pick this thing from where it was, and get it to street level.

I got it all rigged up, but SWMBO being an expert at all things, did not agree with my rigging. (Offshore Petroleum Institute, and a couple of OSHA certifications). Anyway, I had the buckets so that if it started to tip, the bucket was never 8" off the deck, and if it did go over, it would land on the buckets as stoppers. A frightening thing for a neophyte, or a woman. Fairly frightening thing for a man to have a loader up on two wheels, even when you know it's all okay.

Anyway, I was proud that it did exactly as planned, and when we did hit the balance point, and over it went, it stopped exactly when it hit the bucket.

"PUSH IT BACK OVER", I barked. What? Where? I pointed, and she gave it about a 12 oz push, and it landed back on all fours. A five foot woman pushing a front end loader back past it's balance point. I guess she had imagined it barrel rolling down the street.

"Do you get it now?" "Yeah", she said, it's really pretty simple."

"That's why I tell you to stand back far enough so nothing can grab ya if we do miscalclate."

She's getting better about standing back, although every once in a while, I'll give her a shove, or so something to scare the holy living shit out of her, and her her know she's in the bad zone.

Training groundpounders is so much fun.

Steve

I can dig a hole 14 feet deep with my backhoe, according to the manual. This means that the arm has a long reach in a 180 degree arc at the back of the tractor. There are foot controls for the swing of the hoe and it moves fast. Whenever I operate the backhoe I tell everyone to stay far away and I'm always looking around for people. I don't have much experience running heavy equipment and it scares me to think about what kind of damage I could do to someone with the machine. Eric

Grin, I always have an "exciting" feeling of power. "I could just flip that car over.", I think to myself. My house came with an old industrial John Deere Backhoe. (model 440 I think.) It makes that wonderful, two cylinder, "Johnnie popper" sound. And once you've been seduced by hydraulics, you never look at a shovel in the same way.

George H.

I bought my backhoe to put in the septic system for my new house. I had never even sat on a backhoe before I bought it. It is lots of fun. I also put in a new section of driveway through the woods so that we could have a sort of circular driveway. I dug the ditches for water, power and phone with the Case. Buried my neighbor's horse. It has a two foot bucket for the hoe and I need to find a cheap 1 foot bucket that I can modify to fit my machine. The dirt where I live is full of air pockets and so when it is dug up and replaced it compacts and there is never enough dirt to re-fill the hole. A narrow bucket would mean I would have less dirt to transfer from someplace to fill the first hole all the way up. Eric

That's similar to my story.

Bought a used Case 580 C about 15 years ago to do some stuff around the house - figured it was cheaper to buy an old hoe, do my projects and then sell it on...

Pulled out a couple of trees, excavated the area adjacent to the house foundation and put in a drainage system that dried up that side of the basement wonderfully, removed an old decommissioned tank, relocated several and planted a couple of new trees, and a bunch of other worthwhile projects. Used it for a crane to position our standby generator- awkward but did the job.

I too had never even sat on a backhoe, but learning it was fun and hydraulic power is awesome...

Then came the backyard irrigation project and my experience told me that the smaller bucket on the Case (18") would be waaaay too big for lawn sprinkler installation, so we got a little Kubota backhoe/loader for that job...

It's cute but no speed or power after you've used the real thing...

Still have them both - but the 'big boy' projects are mostly done and now that residential construction is starting to heat up again around here maybe it's time to sell the 580.... But it's so much fun!

Ah, the dilemma...

Carla

Ask your doctor if medical advice from a pharmaceutical company's television commercial is right for you.

I hope he paid for the repairs.

I'll bet it would go over much, much larger than Dizzyland ever did. Count me in!

r axle.. but that's a whole 'nother story.) I figure in ~20 years it will be someone else's problem :^)

Pay? He didn't even help me fix it. My brother helped me drag it back to my barn. (with my TO-20 Ferguson) I found a used axle in PA and drove down to pick it up. Then another neighbor helped me put it back together. Gru mble.... The only good news is that the "useless" neighbor moved. Good riddance.

George H.

rk for guys. (well gals too.) There would be a big field with piles of dirt , big rocks, old cars etc.. and several bulldozers, backhoes, excavators et c. that you would pay to drive around and "do things". The owner of the pa rk might even pull a "tom sawyer" and have the guys pay to do some real wor k.

To break your equipment - then leave you to clean up the mess HE caused!? What a complete jerk!! I hope karma pays him a visit ; but am glad you're rid of him.

Bill

Did he move or just dissappear?? A backhoe has a way of making things like that happen!!!

I HATE people like that, and I seldom lend anything as a result. My few loaner tools are HF non-power stuff, and I get a deposit before they leave. Most leeches can't -handle- that, so it stops them dead in their slimy tracks.

_Good_ neighbors are like gold in the bank.

Very good.

:

rear axle.. but that's a whole 'nother story.) I figure in ~20 years it wi ll be someone else's problem :^)

to my barn. (with my TO-20 Ferguson) I found a used axle in PA and drove d own to pick it up. Then another neighbor helped me put it back together. Grumble....

Chuckle... No They (neighbor and wife) were getting a divorce and moving. (which was why he needed to borrow backhoe.. to fix the septic system.)

George H.

park for guys. (well gals too.) There would be a big field with piles of d irt, big rocks, old cars etc.. and several bulldozers, backhoes, excavators etc. that you would pay to drive around and "do things". The owner of the park might even pull a "tom sawyer" and have the guys pay to do some real work.