Mini bulldozer with mini backhoe: Broken bits and backyard recovery

[fear_nothing]

Thanks guys!

Put a coupla chain hooks on the back of the little bucket, for lifting and pulling, and painted and mounted it.

A bit of playing later, I wonder again why I bother painting.

I had this artichoke in the back 40, inherited with the house, was growing into a bush large enough to be seen from space. I cut off the above-ground part a year back, but the root structure was still there and threatening to return, dug in like a Japanese holdout I tell ya. Ended up switching to the big bucket to rip that mess out, not so much for the size, but for its more aggressive teeth. Here it is pre-paint booth:

Didn't have a Coke can handy for scale, sorry, 16floz water will hafta do. It's 15" wide, which again, for real equipment is tiny. For removing stubborn fibrous artichoke root systems, however, it's the shiznit

The machine comes back to its nest victorious:

No video yet. There will be once I'm more comfortable with the controls, and maybe slow down the lower boom cylinder. Right now it's twitchy, and if I'm not reallllly careful with the joystick, the arm bounces all over the place. This in turn dislodges the contents of the bucket somewhere entirely other than where I wanted them, and in turn rocks the machine back and forth. Thoroughly unsettling for the operator.

-- A

It's a working art piece! Top notch fab work.

 

[tRustyK5]

That twitchiness is why I prefer air over hydraulic controls. Light touch, and a very linear progression through the range of the controls. A little hard to incorporate into your 'dozer though...

 

[dremu]

It's a working art piece! Top notch fab work.

Thanks! I categorically deny the existence of booger welds, so of course there are no photos thereof .... but, as mentioned, getting inside the buckets, particularly, was tough. I suddenly realize why people rave about the flexible-neck MIG guns, and wished I had one right about then. Still, in limited testing, nothing came apart with tremendous force applied, so I'm comfortable using the machine without fear of breakage.

And it's fun. It really is like a Tonka toy, but one you can actually use, on a homeowner scale. Since I'm used to working solo, or at least working as the biggest/strongest person on the "crew" (the remainder being my wife and stepson ), add-ons like the chain hooks are the voice of experience. Using a machine to lift/carry/pull a heavy thing means that much less lifting/carrying/pulling for me

As for the others of you considering it, it's well worth it. The level of fab experience and effort for the dozer, particularly, is such that it's definitely not for everyone, but there are less involved options. You could do a wheeled mini-Bobcat, or there's even kits where they supply all the parts and you just assemble, no welding or nuthin'. (My attitude there is "What's the fun in that?", but I do like to burn myself ) It's also common to get a used lawn tractor and build the backhoe add-on.

-- A

 

[dremu]

That twitchiness is why I prefer air over hydraulic controls. Light touch, and a very linear progression through the range of the controls. A little hard to incorporate into your 'dozer though...

Yeah, I'd love more linearity -- hell, any, really. Might be the joystick, too, changing the lever lengths of the controls from the original single lever. It's just so much more convenient though. ..shrug.. I'll see if I can do a little restrictor valve or something to calm it down, otherwise I'll just hafta learn to work with it.

-- A

 

[ashman]

If you don't mind me asking, how much do you have into it?

 

[dremu]

If you don't mind me asking, how much do you have into it?

Well, that depends if you count the bandsaw and lathe and ... ouch, no, let's not. I have intentionally not kept close track, as I've bought a number of tools, and the local steel place isn't necessarily cheap. (They are local and family-owned, however, my personal choice, plus they're convenient.)

Anyway, figure on a few grand for the dozer metal bits and a few hundred for the backhoe (much less metal!) I think my Surplus Center total is like three grand for all the hydraulics. Motor was like eight hundred, then you have all the random bits (battery, lights, paint, fasteners...) Oh, and like five tanks of gas for the welder and maybe a half dozen spools of wire?

I haven't looked at what real ones cost, but Scott '4X4HIGH' intimated that the little ones they have are not far off from what I've spent. But I'm having fun. (Mostly -- still have nightmares about those tracks.)

-- A

 

[campfire]

So next time you'd just buy tracks?

 

[dremu]

So next time you'd just buy tracks?

Well, I donno you can find them off-the-shelf in the size required for the machine. Might make more sense, at least fiscally, to just buy the whole machine if you want one.

In my case it's more about the journey than the destination, as I (mostly) enjoy welding and fab work, got to teach the kid a few things, etc. Using the machine once done is just a bonus

But we're CK5'ers, I think we all know that projects don't save money.

-- A

 

[campfire]

But we're CK5'ers, I think we all know that projects don't save money.

True. But if you can buy the unfun part it makes the build funner overall.

 

[ashman]

Thanks. I know that building it is 1/2 or more of the fun, but I was just curious if there was a significant savings over just buying one. Sounds like it's about the same, plus man-hours.

 

[dremu]

No video yet, sorry. My helper was sleeping in today recovering from yesterday's epic airsoft, so it was just me.

The neighbor decided he's clean out his garage and got a Dumpster, and was kind enough to invite me to fill in some of the empty space. (He really should know better ) I recently discovered a 25'+ temporary power pole, long disused, in the weeds against my back fence. This absolutely screamed for use of the backhoe, so today I toodled out to pull the thing out of the mud.

The picture doesn't do it justice. The last few feet of the yard are on a fairly steep incline, so that back fence is actually six or seven feet tall. This means that I had to park the dozer at a bit of a distance, to keep it from tipping back. The nose still left the ground a few times while lifting

Anyway, got the bucket hooked under the post, and it came up fairly easily. Only dislodged like half a yard of loose mud and a dozen or two field mice.

The next trick was to pull it carefully *around* the missus' fruit trees. I coulda used the dozer to pull, but I thought it might need more lifting, so I left the dozer there in case and just chained the post to the Blazer.

Started slipping on the grass in 2Hi, grrr, so locked in the 3D-printed hubs and dropped into 4Lo, and dragged the thing out, nary a tree harmed.

The sawzaw made short work of the rotted post, and into the Dumpster it went.

And yes, any sensible homeowner would have taken any of a number of other paths, like just leaving the post alone, or hiring some ... immigrant day laborers... at the Home Depot, or a junk service, or whatever else.

But when you have the toys, why not play?

-- A

 

[dremu]

The of family was out yesterday, so here's a video of the hoe in action, as piloted by my 76-year-old father (first time at the controls!) while my brother looks on and laughs.

-- A

 

[Bent77]

Good times there

 

[dremu]

Been using the dozer and the backhoe on and off around the property, but then it was sidelined as it didn't want to move Careful examination of the portals revealed backed-out bolts:

Bottom, one that was on the way out ... and top, what was left of one that backed all the way out, wriggled to the point of warpage, then snapped. (The two should be the same length!) Had to partially disassemble the boxes to get to the bolts, and the broken ones I had to pull the gear all the way out, unthread the rest of the bolt and chase the threads. New bolts went in with prodigious coverage of red Loctite. Those little bastards won't sneak out again, even with all the vibration of a single-cylinder dizzle.

However, of course the thing breaks out in the dirt, so I had to drag it back to the garage to work on it, took the Blazer in 4-Low-Low. Gotta love the Doubler.

 

[Greg72]

Aircraft wire.... definitely going that route when I do final assembly of my own portals!

-G

 

[dremu]

Aircraft wire.... definitely going that route when I do final assembly of my own portals!

-G

Nah, yours are all pretty and made of gold-pressed latinum, and mine are chain-coupled homebrew low-tech

OTOH, I laughed when the guy @ the parts house says (about the red Loctite), "That's like *welding* it in there."

-- A