Ripper for 8 Ton Excavator

[StumpyWally]

So, I asked Anderson Equipment / Werk-Brau to quote adding a lifting eye to the my order for a ripper. Best case I figured $50...worst case maybe $100.

They quoted $427 !! Yep, you read right!!

After I told them they were insane, I asked why?? Werk-Brau's answer was that whenever "lifting" is involved, their lawyers force the price up to cover potential liability!! My thinking is it is WAY past time to shoot all the lawyers!!

So, clearly, I'm proceeding with my ripper order without a lift eye, & I will have my own lift eye added after the fact!!

What is a little disturbing is that when I ordered W-B buckets a couple of years ago, I ordered them based on a quote which included lift eyes on them. I never thought to get a quote without the eyes & then ask for the add-on quote for including eyes. So, I probably paid a premium for the eyes & didn't even know it!! Of course no one warned me. So, I'm warning all of you now...If W-B charges a premium for the eyes, I'm sure other manufacturer's do too.

 

[StumpyWally]

Finally got my W-B ripper. Here it is...



The shank is 2" thick by 24" from underneath the top plate to the start of the tooth shank. It's about 31" from the plate to the tip of the Esco Ultralok U20P tooth. Weighs about 410 lbs. It has a KLAC size F attach plate on it to match my KLAC quick coupler.

Looks pretty fierce, huh?? I don't think I'll have to worry about breaking it!!

 

[Firemanmike69]

Finally got my W-B ripper. Here it is...

View attachment 136849

The shank is 2" thick by 24" from underneath the top plate to the start of the tooth shank. It's about 31" from the plate to the tip of the Esco Ultralok U20P tooth. Weighs about 410 lbs. It has a KLAC size F attach plate on it to match my KLAC quick coupler.

Looks pretty fierce, huh?? I don't think I'll have to worry about breaking it!!

Boy thought this thread sounded familiar. I'm the mechanic who showed you the ripper before you picked up. Glad you are happy with it so far, we are all eager to know how it works out.

 

[StumpyWally]

Boy thought this thread sounded familiar. I'm the mechanic who showed you the ripper before you picked up. Glad you are happy with it so far, we are all eager to know how it works out.

Nice to know you're on HEF. You're the first local guy who I've met who is...And yes, I do like the ripper, but it will be a while before I get a chance to use it. I got it quite a ways ahead of time relative to when I know I will need it.

Do you work on Komatsu or Tak equipment, or both?? I'm not a user of Komatsu stuff, but some of the Tak stuff may interest me in the future.

 

[StumpyWally]

There seems to be some confusion about how much my ripper weighs.

I was originally quoted 410 lbs., but I noticed that the shipping weight on the FedEx delivery paper was 185 lbs. When I questioned Werk-Brau about this, their reply was that the 410 lbs is way off, that the std. weight in the price book is 250 lbs. assuming pin-on mounting, but the KLAC attach plate is lighter than the pin-on ears, so they now estimate that it actually weighs about 170 lbs.net, based on the FedEx ship weight & allowing 15 lbs for the pallet.

Never ceases to amaze me how such basic info can get so screwed up!!

But I have to admit, the ripper looks & feels like it weighs more than 170 lbs....maybe someday I'll actually get to weigh it.

 

[Firemanmike69]

Nice to know you're on HEF. You're the first local guy who I've met who is...And yes, I do like the ripper, but it will be a while before I get a chance to use it. I got it quite a ways ahead of time relative to when I know I will need it.

Do you work on Komatsu or Tak equipment, or both?? I'm not a user of Komatsu stuff, but some of the Tak stuff may interest me in the future.

We work on both, we are a dealer for Komatsu and Takeuchi. We took on tak to fill our utility machine market (skidsteere and mini excavators) and so far they have been a great line(I m not a salesman,just a tech)

 

[maddog]

nice lookin ripper, now we need some pictures of it when it's not all purty

 

[StumpyWally]

Persistent as I am, I had a lift eye made for my ripper. Here is a photo of what I just rec'd...it weighs about 9.5 lbs.



I designed it as a copy of the ones that were on my existing Werk-Brau buckets. I designed/modeled it in SketchUP, & then got some on-line quotes as follows:

• E-Machine Shop, A-36 Steel...$105.82 (plus shipping, they have their own on-line CAD design & quoting program, which is excellent)
• Discount Steel, A-36 Steel.....$ 78.95 (plus shipping)
• Discount Steel, T-1 Steel.......$ 80.65 (plus shipping)

E-Machine shop was my 1st choice (I've had work done by them before, excellent), but they could not do it in T-1 steel, to match the ripper shank. So, I went with Discount Steel (Minneapolis, MN), for a total of $105.65, including shipping. Their CNC plasma cutter worked from an AutoCAD DXF file that I exported from SketchUP & emailed to them.

I am very pleased with the lift eye they made. As you can see in the photo above, the plasma cuts are smoother than I expected. Also, as I discussed with them when I ordered, they err'ed on the conservative side with the plasma cut tolerances, making the overall piece about 1/8" to 1/4" bigger in both length & height, & the hole about 1/4" smaller in both dimensions (1-3/4" x 2-3/4" vs. 2" x 3" designed). For its purpose, this is fine & actually makes the lift eye stronger than designed. Here is a 3D image of the design dimensions vs. the as-builts as noted:



Given the 100,000 psi yield strength of T-1 steel, the 1" sq. cross-section of the eye, & a generous factor of safety of 5, I would say the eye should be good for at least 20,000 lbs, or 10 tons. This is more than my excavator capacity.

Now, to get it welded on my ripper.....stay tuned!!

 

[StumpyWally]

Oh, I almost forgot...you might wonder why I didn't just buy a Crosby BH-313 weld-on, forged hook, w/ latch??
First, there was price:

• 5-ton - about $178 on-line, plus shipping.
• 10- ton, about $$237 on-line, plus shipping.

Second, there was the real possibility that I would need to pull on the hook in a direction that would stress the closing latch, such as when just lifting the ripper to move it when it is not coupled on the excavator.

My "home made" lifting eye is cheaper, doesn't have a directional-pull limitation, & is cheaper...

 

[Firemanmike69]

Oh, I almost forgot...you might wonder why I didn't just buy a Crosby BH-313 weld-on, forged hook, w/ latch??
First, there was price:

• 5-ton - about $178 on-line, plus shipping.
• 10- ton, about $$237 on-line, plus shipping.

Second, there was the real possibility that I would need to pull on the hook in a direction that would stress the closing latch, such as when just lifting the ripper to move it when it is not coupled on the excavator.

My "home made" lifting eye is cheaper, doesn't have a directional-pull limitation, & is cheaper...

Where's it going to go on the ripper?

 

[StumpyWally]

Where's it going to go on the ripper?

On the back of the shank, as high up as possible, tight to the Klac mounting plate.

Yeah, you might be thinking if I pick up the ripper at that point, the Klac end might be heavier & would point down, rather than have the ripper end point down. Would reverse the direction of pull on the lift eye almost 180 degrees. Hard to know without actually welding an eye on it & trying it...& I only want to weld it on once!!

 

[Firemanmike69]

On the back of the shank, as high up as possible, tight to the Klac mounting plate.

Yeah, you might be thinking if I pick up the ripper at that point, the Klac end might be heavier & would point down, rather than have the ripper end point down. Would reverse the direction of pull on the lift eye almost 180 degrees. Hard to know without actually welding an eye on it & trying it...& I only want to weld it on once!!

Might be high enough on the shank to not do that. Tack it on and pick it up will end up being the best way I think

 

[StumpyWally]

I finally got a chance to have my lift eye welded to my ripper. Here is my lift eye after a little cleanup & ready to weld...



...& after welding...



...& finished, after painting...



...& an overall view, finished, after painting...



Here is the ripper suspended from the lift eye...



As you can see, I lucked out, as the ripper is almost perfectly balanced.

I've since tried using it to take out a 6" apple tree...came out like butter!! If it stays dry enough before winter, I've got well over a dozen larger stumps to grub out.

 

[StumpyWally]

Here are some pics of the ripper at work, "surgically" removing stumps from a ditch thru my woods.

The "surgical" part is important, because the land is low & wet...once you break thru the vegetative "crust" you encounter clayey muck, so the smaller the hole to remove the stump the better.









Incidentally, a long time ago I nicknamed my excavator "Wally"...& he loves to "Stump"...hence my HEF username of "StumpyWally"!!

 

[maddog]

nice

 

[StumpyWally]

Well, here is my finished ditch with the stumps all ripped out...



I would have liked to rake & grade it more with a landscape rake, but it's too wet now. Note the standing water & the muck in the pic below...



Here's about 1/2 of the resulting stumps in my burn pile...



And here's the other 1/2 of the stumps in a pile that I can't get out of the woods now because of the water & muck. Probably have to wait 'til it freezes in winter...or maybe burn it in place??



Here's "Wally" after the job, showing his "claws"...He needs a good bath before his winter storage!!

 

[StumpyWally]

And here's a close up of the ripper, for those that wanted to see it after some use...

 

[JDOFMEMI]

That is a good looking tool. Your added lifting eye looks well done, and I am sure it will come in handy.