As of yesterday afternoon I became a rookie backhoe owner with a long list of projects on my rural property. Weather was rainy so I only have a couple pictures to share for now. After months of looking at auctions, Craigslist, and FB Marketplace ads I learned of this Case by word of mouth. I paid $4500 to become its fourth caretaker. It was originally purchased new by the Village of Owego NY from a local Case dealer. It was retired from the village's service and eventually purchased surplus by a machinist/tool & die maker colleague who lives in the Owego area. He did a lot of first rate (like everything he does!) repair and maintenance work and spent a lot on her before deciding he really needed a mini-excavator. So early last year he sold her to one of his friends who moved her to his vacation property in the Adirondacks. While "vacationing in the mountains up north" she cleared out about four dozen small/medium sized tree stumps and helped with the associated ground work. With that accomplished he was ready to sell her. By a twisted set of coincidental conversations I learned she was available before any listings were posted. Given the price, history, and trusted insight/work of my colleague this seemed like the best hoe I had seen for the money with a capability and old school mechanical simplicity perfectly suited to my needs and wants. By far I think she is better than any late model compact units on the market (my original line of interest quickly dropped when I realized how high the prices were for less capability and more complexity - even the backhoe attachment alone for my neighbor's Kubota would have cost more!). She certainly needs some work (brakes first and foremost) and I want a trenching bucket. Perhaps a thumb or forks to help me pick up larger rocks for a stone wall I'm building. For now we need to get acquainted with each other, become trusted friends, and get her introduced to her stable mates (MF135 tractor, Wheel Horse 522XI L&G tractor, and Troybilt Horse tiller among others)! Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
Welcome BCW.... looks like you've got yourself a great unit!!.... and with that history.... your well ahead of the game of old hoes. Enjoy.... careful with the big rocks.... the hoes will bust themselves before they give up sometimes..
Thanks T-town. In my months of window shopping I saw lots of welded hoes that were overloaded. For my stone wall I'd only be looking to move rocks that 5-6 men could handle, that I previously muscled around alone with pry bars, skids, block and tackle, gallons of sweat, and lots of "magic words of persuasion" when progress seemed too slow and patience grew too thin.
Sounds like your going to have some fun.. ........ my problem came with trying to get the big ones free from Mother Earth in the first place.... trying to use the curl to free one.... it didn't move but my bucket sure did
BCW, Congrats on the new hoe!! Soon you will wonder how you got along before you had a hoe. If nothing else, you will be more productive! Good luck...happy tractoring!
WHEWWWWW! You just saved yourself alot of unexpected migraines.
Congrats on the new TLB! I think the 1st thing on your agenda should be to reroute the hoses that are hanging on the backhoe. They're just waiting to get ripped off or damaged the way they are. Maybe someone familiar with Case backhoes could post a pic. of how the hoses are supposed to go? An MF135 is good company. Does it have the Perkins diesel?
I see what you mean about those hoses. Good advice! Thanks! I'll check out pictures on line to look for safer routings. My Massey has the Perkins gas. It has ran well since I got it in '98. I mainly use it for bush hogging about 25 acres of fields, mowing 5 acres of lawn and trails (with a Caroni 8 ft. finish mower), and this year digging post holes for a garden fence. I tried my neighbors rear mount snow blower one year but didn't like that enough to try again and instead got a walk behind and a front mount blower for my Wheel Horse (man that will blow snow!!). Other than routine maintenance I did have the exhaust manifold refaced many years ago, replaced the neutral safety switch, and replaced the shift rails detent ball plungers. Fought ignition system problems until I realized that crappy made in China condensers were prematurely failing internally/intermittently. She likes good high grade spark plug wires that don't arc out too. After I realized that I was able to adjust the timing and make her purr. Thinking about one of the after market digital ignition systems now. I do need to rewire the head lights and install/wire a plow light (to help back into the barn when mowing goes beyond dusk), fix the grabby right brake, and maybe consider a valve job. Three point hitch had been getting a little tired sometimes with the Rhino 5 ft. bush hog on it last year but I'll see what it acts like this fall before considering root causes. The finish mower never taxes it like the bush hog does of course. Would like some auxiliary hydraulics on it but no rush. There was a nice ** OEM aux. hyd. valve system on eBay a few years ago that I missed out on and haven't really pursued it since then. Just not a necessity right now since I don't have any hydraulic implements. A little baler would be nice to make field grass bales for mulching purposes (instead of just brush hogging it and leaving it in place) but again not a priority right now.
The 3 cylinder Perkins gas is an excellent engine as well as the diesel version. I 've found the 3 pt. hitch works best using genuine ** Perma-Tran oil. I've used other oil but the ** seems to work better. An 8' finish mower is pretty big for it unless the grass is cut weekly. Interesting the 5' bush hog taxes it, what are you cutting? It's about 38 PTO HP when new.
The bush hog doesn't tax the PTO as I'm only cutting golden rod, hay, small maple and ash seedlings. I do it each year so nothing gets too big and I can move right along, usually in 4L range, and get a good thorough even cut too. But the weight taxes the three point hitch. I was a little low on fluid so I may have solved it by topping off. I've been using some old common Tractor Supply fluid so maybe switching to a ** or better fluid is worth a try. Like you said as long I keep the grass cut the finish mower/** get along great. But if I try to cut too much too fast it will slip the belts and/or bog down the tractor.
Cut half the path..... twice as often..
The 3pt. should play with a 5ft. Bush hog unless it's well over 1000lbs. Make sure the draft control is all the way back. If it's a little forward could limit lift capacity.
Congrats Charlie, For the thumb, check out Titan attachments 36” weld on thumb, works awesome for the money !!
I have seen that thumb as well as their selection of buckets and other offerings. Reasonable prices on the buckets, but how is the quality and durability?
I can only speak about the thumb, it’s super heavy duty !! If you do a search here, several members have bought and installed them..
I see you're in NE PA. Bluestone country? Lots of rocks on, and in, the ground on those hills. My land is like that with lots of rocks, rock ledges, buried rocks, exposed rocks (boulders even), and even a small quarry site the previous owner worked himself. My risk for tangling with a too big rock would be when trying to do something simple (like dig a trench) and finding a big rock in the process. I can dig a hole at my place and make separate piles for the rock and the dirt. The rock pile typically is bigger than the dirt pile! Last week I completed a garden fence where my posts were 20 10 ft. long black locust poles set 2 ft. into the ground in holes started with my 3 point hitch post hole auger. For about half of the holes the lower 6-8 inches were chiseled into solid rock with a long heavy iron bar. What a workout that was! When I finally set the poles and started filling the holes back in my girlfriend asked why I was putting most of the rocks back in. I told her if I don't put them back in I'd have to get more dirt to fill the holes! I have a joke I like to tell gullible people who ask me if I grow anything on my land. I tell them "I sure do, I grow a good crop of rocks every year." That gets a quizzical confused look at which point I know the hook is set and I can reel them in. Straight faced I tell them that "Each fall I take 5 gallons worth of small pea sized pebbles and scatter then across my lawn and fields. Then I come back in the spring and they've grown into full sized rocks for me to pick up." You'd be surprised how many people fall for it.
It looks like you got a nice 580! You are right about being able to work the older tractors without all the electronics... there is nothing wrong with simple. I am in the process of refurbishing my 580B. If it has good bones... then its work refurbishing. You will get good information about your backhoe and help others on this site. Welcome!
BCW, Ditto on the piles.... if rocks were money I'd be..... full of it!! Mine is spotty... on the ridge... 1 to 2' down and I'm on the shelf. Other places I removed several feet of good relatively clean fill to use in other places. Clearing some spots involve scrapping top soil and rock( mostly).... then trying to separate out the big ones...... then dumping the bucket onto a pile, the rocks roll off to the bottom, then I 'll scrape those out of the way into another pile and so on.... Where we currently live Bluestone land for sure.... before the 'gasland' happened it was the big export. It's wild what they can do with that stuff. I have a 10 foot section of countertop in our kitchen thats bluestone. When sealed it looks green/grey. Of course stone patios are not included in assessments where wood decks are. Our property I'm working is 35 miles south..... and thats not the good stuff...tho still sedimentary. The dry laid walls you see 'round here ( Wyoming County) are amazing. Good stuff to work with. Did some of that work way back in the day for a summer job.... learned enough to get myself into trouble!
Welcome to HEF, BravoCharlieWindsor 1
as an owner of a 69 580CK i am amazed. Did previous owner customer fit that 'cab' to the frame ? i see upgraded smoke stack, lots of new hoses and electrical. Enjoy. The brake replacement is very common on these due how the machine stops or uses brakes. i have replaced 1000's of dollars of hydraulic hoses and rebuilt cyclinders as well as breaking 33 loader off for spool rebuild. stupid thing still leaks ! but man are they strong.