towable excavator or backhoe

[Garrie Denny]

Like I said soft ground digging only, the second video on showed digging back filled ground. W.T.F.?

 

[ih100]

Well the first video showed some rocks being dug that I wouldn't want to dig by hand. Horses for courses. A Cat 301.8 is a toy compared to a 320 which is a toy compared to a 385, etc. If someone can do the job with a towable, fair play. If they're digging rock, most people have probably worked out they'd need something a bit bigger, but thanks anyway for adding to everyones' knowledge of earthmoving, Garrie.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

I seem to recall our member Metsaman posted some pretty impressive digging pictures with one of those little jiggers.

Cheers

 

[murphy777]

Well so far only one person has stated he had some experience with a home made one. As for buckets yes you can get different buckets and it can come with a quick hitch and if you actually watched some of the videos you of seen the auger and the concrete breaker. I went to the Kubota dealership near my place and I asked if they can fit an auger to they're machine and they said no. Same with Bobcat I think the smallest machine that can have an auger is the X325 according to the sales rep.

I have a run a DRPOWER towable backhoe with about a 17-19 horse motor on it….No offense to someone who owns one, but it kind of felt like a joke, it had 4 lever controls and was jerky, and a real pain to move around, it had no options for attachments and the bucket was only about 12 inches wide. it was to light weight to be productive in harder soils, and it would not lift high enough to load a 1 ton dump truck or even a larger pick up truck.

if you want a smaller machine, get a 2000-6000 lb mini excavator. you can put almost any attachment on any small excavator, it is just making sure you have the right pin on/quick attach set up and proper auxiliary hydraulic plumbing. A good welder or fab shop can make attachments fit…

 

[245dlc]

My old thread brought back again. lol And of course always a few ignorant posts from people in the U.S. surprise, surprise. Hey Murphy777 I have heard that many of DRPOWER's products are pretty useless I noticed they also don't have much of an oil reservoir or even an oil cooler while many of the towable machines I've looked at all come with a decent sized reservoir and oil cooler so maybe that's why they don't have much for available attachments like an auger or a breaker. At the time when I posted this thread I was thinking about getting a towable backhoe for some personal projects as well for some little side jobs like one I did for my sister last fall when I trenched in a power cable from her house to her new garage. I ended up renting a beat up Bobcat 324 for the job with a 12" bucket. Sadly if I had wanted a clean up bucket it would of cost me extra. I also could of used it this spring to landscape her backyard but ended up doing the whole job by hand which took several days instead of just one. Also at the time I only had a car with a very limited towing capacity, it's only been recently that I have upgraded significantly to a 3/4 ton diesel truck so if I wanted I could likely tow a trailer with a larger machine like a Cat 303.5 or Deere John 35.
I also noticed recently a French-Canadian company from Quebec has started building a towable 360 swing excavator kinda like the old Powerfab machines, just too bad the legs aren't hydraulic like a Menzi Muck.

http://www.fcm-group.com/en/orbit-1200.php

 

[jatt]

When I was a kid old boy bought a towable Cranvel (thats what they called it here).

Dug out walls for underground tank and foundations for house. Ground at olds is pretty flat here and clay. The first foot down the clay was hard and took some scratching to get thru

Yeah it was a toy and not suited for someone who is trying to make a living from it. Of course moving it was a bit of a pain.


Didnt get to play with it in rock, but as others here have said, you need weight and rigidity when the going gets a bit serious. In town it took several hours for an experienced guy to dig my sewer trench in ground with up to dinner plate sized rocks. What looked to be chalkstone with some sandstone mixed in. Old mining area, so can get all kinds of stuff from various depths compacted as fill in ones yard.

Looking at the tandem trailer he bought the excavator here it wouldnt be any more than 2 metric tonnes. Would had liked trench a bit deeper, but he would have been there a darn lot longer to go deeper.

Pretty much sums itself up.