Just thought I'd start a thread on backhoes because it comes up once in a while. Love to hear your backhoe experiences and feedback. We're talking occasional farm-duty digging here. I bought a Case D125 backhoe at an auction a couple years ago for occasional digging but haven't used it yet. I need to re-fab the mounts to the skid loader and it got me looking into the best approach. Looked at a lot of videos, it's interesting to see how various mounting strategies affect the operation of the backhoes. For instance, here's a video showing a Case D125 backhoe. It attaches primarily to the skid quick attach plate with some threaded hooks that attempt to clamp the upper part of the mounting plate to the skid loader more firmly. Problem is, unless the quick attach plate pins are like-new tight, it's going to 'buck' the operator all around quickly wearing the operator out rather quickly. You can see it bucking the operator in this video ....and you can tell that the operator really trying to take it easy to mask how jerky the operation 'would' be if he were digging like normal. I'd like to see him dig a whole hole with that thing! Now to be fair, he doesn't have the top attachments hooks in place which I'd love to see a video of. If someone has a D125 with hooks in place, I'd like to see how it performs. The same backhoe when mounted firmly to a Case trencher is much more secure and doesn't 'buck' the operator around much. On the other hand, you can see how Bobcat's strategy of mounting the backhoe firmly to the skid loader body makes for a more stable operator experience. If the bobcat unit had longer outriggers it would help out a lot: Video of a regular digger. Looks like a lot of work to dig a long trench, but probably ok for the occasional quick and small hole, and they're a lot cheaper: Of course neither are going to be as good as a dedicated tracked mini-excavator but I'm talking occasional farm-duty digging here. Probably better off renting a mini backhoe for anything more than occasional digging.
I wouldn't want anything but vertical stabilizers on mine, couldn't do some jobs that I can now. Ed
It would be better to judge how jerky a machine is with an actual operator that has more than 2 minutes experience. It's obvious the guy in the first video has never run a backhoe let alone anything hydraulic. He couldn't even work the stabilizers smoothly. The guy in the second video is slightly better.
Back in the 80's and early 90's before mini-ex's became so popular, a backhoe attachment was a staple for the guys doing skid steer work. A friend of mine had 3 rigs set up. Tag trailer behind a single axle dump with Bobcat, backhoe attachment, tooth and smooth bucket and a set of forks. He was basically set up to handle most anything when he showed up to a job. Since mini-ex's have become prevalent and can do more than a skid with a backhoe attachment they have all but disappeared. For what you want to do Jeepwalker it would fit the bill nicely. The Bobcat attachment system is superior to the quick attach only version. Bobcat also made rear outriggers to help stabilize the machine.
I had a 825 bobcat with a 911 hoe that I made up a set of mounts. On the front of the bobcat I had two plates mounted with short 2"ish square tubing and a pair of 2" trailer balls, then on the hoe two more 2" square tubes with a "keyhole" in the bottom. you picked it up with the backing plate, tilted it all the way back and lowered over the balls then rolled it forward. I could lift the loader off the ground in hard digging or rip the teeth off the bucket lol.
That's an interesting idea, I hadn't thought about that. Do you have any pictures? Once you lowered it onto the trailer balls ..into the slots, did you have locking pins or anything to keep it in position?
nope just gravity.