Does anybody have any pictures or ideas about I was thinking of putting a witch on my machine it’s a very muddy area , my 580 is 2 Wheel Dr. I’m afraid getting stuck in the mud with no help , I’m new to operating this machine and there’s a lot of mud and I went through a lot of crap to get it out as in last winters post i made ,thank God for Erik coming to help me . pictures would be greatly appreciated if you have any
A winch on a backhoe is like lingerie on a young bride, nice idea, but it's not needed and just gets in the way. A 2wd backhoe is not going to be able to load and back out of mud holes. If you keep within the limitations, it can do loader work on soft ground, but not slippery ground. Once you start slipping, the loader is done, and you have to do everything with the backhoe, and use both the loader and backhoe to help get around if it gets that bad.
Jimmy it would help to define what it is you want to get done. After you do that and look at the conditions, you may want to hire or rent a more appropriate machine for a short time to get things straightened out. Once you build crown into roads and cut some drainage, the 2wd hoe becomes a bit more functional. You can start to work from the dry, add some rock on roads you want to keep, etc. I remember the other thread.
Yeah getting stuck is traumatizing to me
he has PTSD. Post traumatic STUCK disorder!
some of us don't like to say stuck. I prefer "my mobility was limited", for example.
Put a rat tail on it....then you'll never get stuck...
Real men don't get stuck, we bury it. The last time I stuck my f250 in the middle of a plowed field 1500' from the closest road. It was enough for me. Small 60 horse tractor could not even budge it. 150 hp tractor spun the tires and instantly went to the draw bar stuck, with dual rears. Truck was sitting on the frame , me being me when it started to slow down I hit the pedal harder hoping to make it to good ground. It went to the frame! A 100' snatch strap and a mud truck on wide tires was able to snatch it out. To this day I don't see how a lifted chevy 1500 got the 250 moving but on the 3 hard jerk it got it going. 1 day later and miles of walking. I don't even understand how that strap could stretch so much and not well snap
I am sure someone will come along and tell you how to put a winch on the back hoe. To me it should be on your service truck and you should never get so far away or block the road to the truck. Second rule of machine work keep a good clear path to you at all times. When you don't and you break down on the other side of a few trees you will learn the golden rule of access the hard way.
Whats a rattail ?
A friend of mine was the VP of equipment for the largest derailment contractor in the country. They were not allowed to order 4 wheel drive on any trucks, and they had probably hundreds. The owner said pickups etc. were for on highway only. Off highway, they needed to use the dozers, sidebooms and track loaders. To this day, I do not believe they have any 4x4 trucks.
a short piece of chain permanently bolted on, so you don't have to dig in the mud to hook your winch line to. Just use a grab hook, and hook on. Mine is under the back of the skid loader in a horrible spot, so i bolted it in permanently, runs up the back door, hangs on a quick pin, so I can take the end off to open the door. ever since I installed the rat tail, I have never needed it.....yet.
Getting stuck keeps Saturday afternoons interesting . . . View attachment KIMG0971.JPG
Ignorance is bliss. Maybe his men aren't smart enough to use 4x4. You can pull onto a road shoulder and not move without 4x4. I enter construction sites often and I have been stuck in the construction gravel entrance as much as I have made it in. Every site contractor supervisor here in Georgia is using a 4x4 most of them carring fuel tanks and basic tools.... this red Georgia clay will stop that line of thinking real quick especially if you are hauling a trailer with weight. The better equipped ones have winches.
What do you plan to connect the winch cable to if you install one? Is it a wooded area with trees? You could try a chain on the hoe bucket and use the crowd to pull yourself out if you can't raise it and get to the side of the hole with the hoe. Back when I was working dirt that would get muddy it only took me one time getting stuck to not work in the mud anymore. Even that one time I was able as a novice to weasel the hoe out in an hour. I would just wait for dryer conditions.
Agree....Only problem is I cant get work done cuz it wont stop raining!!
Yes trees around to hook a winch to , my property have no choice but it has muddy spots trying to get stone in there
What if you rigged a portable battery winch. It won’t be lightweight but one person could lift and position. When you get stuck, place (lash off) near a tree or deadman to grab stuck backhoe. This would allow the winch to be more useful as apposed permanent mounted. I don’t see any great place to install a winch on the tractor. We have a Harbor Freight winch and mounting bracket for a receiver hitch. So far, has worked well around here. The wireless remote is awesome….so far!
Aren’t many winches out there that’s gonna help a backhoe get unstuck. Best thing you can do is get more stone where you are working. What you can do is, practice. Get the machine up in the air and figure out how to move using the hoe. You have to move it side to side, lifting the back of the machine off the stabilizers and sliding it to the sides and even forward and backward. You can use the loader bucket also, figure out how to tilt the bucket back a little so it won’t dig in when pulling or pushing the machine with the hoe. You will be amazed how much you can move the machine, with just the hoe. Practice putting it in gear, in low with the tires off the ground, lift the machine, slowly lift the stabilizers, so when you put it down, it will drive itself as you lower it with the hoe. When I lived in Tennessee, the clay, when wet, would stick any wheeled machine, even with 4x4. I ended up bolting a used rim that I made, that I bolted to one of the rear wheels that stuck out as far as the stabilizer. That made it a drum and I cut a hole in the middle for a chain hook. When I got stuck, I would run a chain to a tree and wrap it around that rim, as the rear wheels spun, it created its own winch, with the chain.
Sounds doable ? Any pictures? Thanks
Nope, moved back to NH 12 years ago and everything is gone. Just picture a 18“ rim bolted to rear axle inside the rear tire sticking out, about 6”, utilizing the rear tires lug bolts.
That’s kinda where I got the idea. I cut a small 2” rectangular hole that you could slip a grab hook on one end of a chain and run a bunch of chain to a tree and using the offside stabilizer or curled backhoe bucket, you could actually steer. Lol, worked pretty good. Ended up getting a strap for the tree as it would rip it up pretty good with the chain. Now you can buy Kevlar winch ropes that have a huge towing rate that I would bet works for a backhoe. They are pricey, like 100 bucks at harbor freight.
I thought this thread was going to be a joke. Backhoes can't get stuck as you use the hoe and bucket to walk out of just about anything.
Which is what they tried to tell Jimmy in his other thread. Go watch some stuck backhoe YouTube videos, see how the operator uses the machine to push/pull themselves out, then practice those techniques on dry ground. I learned a lot watching Diggin OK on YouTube. Watching him dig square foundation holes and just using the hoe to manipulate himself around to get good square corners really showed me what an operator can do. I'm a pretty novice operator with a backhoe, but I've certainly picked up on what the machine is capable of by watching more experienced operators and practicing some of it. I've had mine stuck twice, but both time were ice and steep side slopes. Places I shouldn't have been, even with 4wd.
Not a mohawk and less than a mullet.
You don't have good rubber always get tire chains for the rear & 4th gear fun
I gave that a like but unless you want to wait for the red clay to dry out and you have sslliiiidd down a 80’ ravine. You are not getting out clawing your way to the top. It would take you 3 days to get that far Lol. I‘m fully aware of what a backhoe can do and know how to operate one quite well but respect HAS to be given for southern red clay, I thought wet snow was bad, jeesh. First day building down there, buried a 4x4 dump truck on level ground. Never mind trying to pressure wash it out of the truck frame. Personally, Georgia clay is even worse. Lol
If you can't hoe yourself out, a winch ain't going to do it either.
Well I would agree with you all, that a stuck operator can usually get himself out no problem. But my experience also adds that once in awhile there are two issues where a winch or pull chain or strap is going to be of help. 1. There is a mechanical issue that needs fixing, and you prefer to move the machine out of the stuck position/location to make it easier to repair the machine or to get it back onto a trailer to go in for service. 2. You're stuck on a hill and every time you use the arm or bucket to move back up the hill, you slide back down when you need to reset the bucket. In these cases it helps to have chain grabs and D-rings on the machine and chains and straps or maybe even a winch to hold you in place or assist in movement. We also have a large winch on a hitch receiver plate. It can be moved from truck to truck as well as on the trailers and loader attachment plates . The winch is so big and heavy, it takes two people to lift it and slide it into the receiver hitch. I think it's a 20,000 lb Superwinch. Of course, I can't remember when I last used! But it's one of those things it's good to have just in case. For a backhoe set up with a removeable front bucket for other attachments, you can set up a receiver hitch to help move around trailers, and even use the backhoe with winch to help do delicate winch work and in this case, "assist with getting unstuck". Image is my TL130 with quick hitch adapter.
Not true at all. Go back to that 80' slide down the clay. You are not sunk in but even the outriggers and brake locked won't hold you while you get another bite. I had that happen on the Dam job. It was a steep rock face I rolled down, but when I tried to pull my way back out, I could not get the edge of the front bucket to bite, or the outriggers to hold me. I had a 2wd extendahoe, and I would claw my way up there with a seam in the rock until I had sucked it all in and tucked the bucket up tight. I'd lock the brake, set the pads down, set the bucket edge. As soon as I tried to reach for another grab, WHEEEEEEEE! Right back where I started. After the 3rd slide I asked the drillers to give me an assist with the Ingersoll Rand drill with the little winch. It was a piece of cake to drive it out with this.
My last time stuck, which I think I mentioned in Jimmy's original stuck thread, was right next to my creek, where when it gets wet it stays wet. Like skyking mentions but not nearly as scary, I couldn't get a bite with the hoe bucket, I just pulled mud towards me. I was quite nervous that I'd be there forever. With a couple hours of wiggling I was out, but I could see the desire for a winch. If it's soggy feet down it gets pretty tricky. I like the idea of a winch that is attached to something else to pull the backhoe out but I'd suggest being real serious about chains/straps/winch capacity. I tried chains around a big tree tied off to the backhoe bucket and it snapped the chains like they were nothing. I'm sure they were less than 5000 lb. capacity chains but I'd expected to budge a little, at least, I did not.
The first time I got my backhoe stuck, I was plowing snow and slid off the side of my driveway into the ditch. I could pull sideways or backwards with the hoe, but would just slide back down. I didn't own tire chains yet, nor could I get the front bucket to bite in. We used a 30,000 pound tractor with a heavy grade snatch strap to pull it out. It came out, but I couldn't drive backhoe up the driveway due to ice. I ended up parking at neighbors and ordering snow chains. Now the chains live on the hoe. The second time I drove off into a slushy drift on a side hill. I didn't realize it was a drift and it just sucked right down and hung up. That time I let it sit for the day and drove it out the next morning when everything froze up again.
We did a creek rehab job repairing banks placing riprap . It was about a quarter mile long with knee deep mud . You could not drive in you had to walk it in and once I got in it wasn't coming out till we were done . I don't think I put it drive for a month till I got to the end . All of our hoes came home at night .Not mine. Told my boss they couldn't steal if they wanted to . When we were done I had to wash it and that sucked . Learned a lot about how to work when you can't use the wheels .