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New Build Tree Spade For The Skid Steer

Danny Steel

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Jun 12, 2010
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Tried out he spade today, and Its lifting the front of the skid steer............I'm goint to make the blades pointed more, hope that helps
 

heavylift

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weight bolted to the rear wheels or hung on the back side behind the wheels
 

Danny Steel

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Need to let the frost go out first Danny ...........:lmao
my wife told me the same thing:beatsme

weight bolted to the rear wheels or hung on the back side behind the wheels
I thought I would need the weight at the front.....The further out the better.
I'm atleast going to put the grinder to the tips...And maybe call up a few old GF and see If they could stand on the front end while I do my digging;)
 

Danny Steel

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ok read it wrong... maybe you could put bar bell weights on it.. weld a peg on each leg

Thats a great Idea, I did that to my grader blade for the 3PH , and I still have the steel plates.....I also have some old plastic covered bar bell weights some were....Thats what I will do weld a Peg on.......All the gals I called this morning still never returned my calls.
 

dporter

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midland, ontario
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landscape, project manager
You probably don't need weights. We were digging 42" today with a bobcat. You may need different engineering.

Do you have a rear stabilizer on the machine? A spade usually opens to surround the tree, then is closed around it and the base is locked together to form a solid ring, this keeps things from flexing out of alignment. Placement of the blades is very important, you don't push to far to fast, and keep going around the circle a little at a time. 1-6", 2-6", 3- 10", 2-12", 1-18" etc. Until you have the blades fully seated.

The stabilizer is to help keep the machine from lifting. It needs to be at the far back well behind the wheels so all the weight is transferred to the front to keep the weight on the blades.

Keep at it you will get the hang of it. I think you blades are more than pointed enough, sharp edges on all sides, bottom and sides to help it cut.

That's all I can think of for now.
 
Last edited:

dporter

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midland, ontario
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OK, checked the specs on your bobcat (new holland ls150, correct?) this is a very small and light machine for this application.

That does not mean it can not do this, you have set up for a small 24" basket, which should be fine. However I take back my statement on weights, you may need more weight.
 

Danny Steel

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The weight of the 150 New Holland Is 4500lbs. The blades are going about 1/2 way into the ground....And I a'm forcing each blade a bit at a time.
Theres no real flexing on the spade....all that part looks good......no hyd leaks...and the rams have lots of force...I'm going to try the pegs on the front, with some weight
 

CRAFT

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100 M H,BC,Canada
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Tried out he spade today, and Its lifting the front of the skid steer............I'm goint to make the blades pointed more, hope that helps

Nice Job Danny ! ........ Hmmmmmm ...... I guess that's why BCat has added extra vertical lift cyl's at the rear of the skid .....it'll lift the rear of the skid off of the ground, transfering all of the weight forward, plus if you add them you'll have extra ballast when picking up them big root balls

I would make a guess that making the spades more pointed won't help, yours look super and appear to look like the OEM's tapper
 

CRAFT

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100 M H,BC,Canada
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The weight of the 150 New Holland Is 4500lbs. The blades are going about 1/2 way into the ground....And I a'm forcing each blade a bit at a time.
Theres no real flexing on the spade....all that part looks good......no hyd leaks...and the rams have lots of force...I'm going to try the pegs on the front, with some weight

DON'T add extra weight to the front ...... your machine will already be challenged to pick-up everything off and out of the ground without doing a nose dive (now that we know the size of your skid)..... go online and look at the stabilizers ..... it'll be like killing 2 birds with one stone
 

joispoi

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Mar 1, 2008
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Connecticut
DON'T add extra weight to the front ...... your machine will already be challenged to pick-up everything off and out of the ground without doing a nose dive (now that we know the size of your skid)..... go online and look at the stabilizers ..... it'll be like killing 2 birds with one stone

How much can his machine pick up?

I´m guessing the heaviest tree + root ball isn´t going to weigh over 300 lbs. The tree spade looks like it´s a little heavier than a standard bucket.

If you´ve got any weights that you can hang on it, it can´t hurt anything. Your worst case scenario is that you take the weight off.

Rear stabilizers would also work.
 

wnydirtguy

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Jan 12, 2010
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Mooresville North Carolina
All the skidsteers with tree spades I see around here have rear stabilizers on them. they are usually as far back as they can mount them. this way you can put down pressure on the spade. hope you get it right, looks like a nice set up.
 

Scrub Puller

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Mar 29, 2009
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Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair... I am assuming the present setup drives all the spades together?

I saw a similar jigger on the linkage of a little thirty horse Belarus...the spade rams had individual controllers so they could be driven in one at a time...some times with a bit of to and froing to cut past a rock or root. The tractor had a custom attachment on the loader bucket frame to load the trees onto a flatbed and the whole arrangement seemed to work pretty well.

They worked around the clock to move a five thousand tree two year old orange orchard before we moved in with the scrapers
 

Danny Steel

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NW Ontario
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Farmer/Landscaper/Welder/Fitter
Scrub puller, This spade can control each blade one at a time.......And you guys are right about rear stabilizers....It was on my mind before I built this rig....But at this stage, my controller has only 3 outlets

I'm looking for weights, around the shop here, and weld 2 pegs on the 2 front corners.......I could also maybe weld 2 platforms on the front, hire 2 guys to stand on the front while I dig the tree, then jump off when i lift the root ball, Lol....
 

wnydirtguy

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Jan 12, 2010
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Mooresville North Carolina
you could always pull stabilizers on the rear you manually set. use some tubing that sides inside each other and cut holes for pins to go in. you can't up pressure on them to lift the rear but it maybe enough to keep the nose on the ground. just an idea that may help you.
 
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