I have a Bobcat s150 and on my property I have some rocks and that sticking up out of my lawn and around my property that I want to bust up. I have a backhoe attachment and I have tried digging around them and they laughed and did not budge. So.......it seems they need to be broken up. I understand that I need to match the hammer to the machine. But, I have read a couple sites where people claim that the hammer will wreck the machine. I didn't plan to abuse either the hammer or the skid steer. But, I have never used a hammer. Indeco hammer is virtually up the street from me, and they seemed very friendly and can sell me a refurbished hammer for about $5,500. Any advice on hammer use, purchasing, or brands? Do you have any thoughts on Indeco? Thanks.
An option would be to rent a machine and a hammer. I know nothing of the rock in NY, here in Idaho we have Lava rock or Basalt and its damn hard and a small skid steer hammer isn't going to get anything done. Assuming the same situation, I would rent a backhoe and the appropriate sized hammer, 1000-1500 pound most likely, and get all the rock broke out with that. The cost of the breaker would cover a lot of rental time on a hammer and the rental machine takes the abuse. I run a breaker on my SSL and CTL its a 900 pound Okada. The machines certainly take some abuse due to the breaker work, but I haven't had any issues that I can attribute to that (other than the couplers clearly get beat up).
I once was invited to Peoria to give feedback on the prototype Cat "D" series backhoes. I had been thinking about offering breaker service with my 416C backhoe. I too was concerned about extreme wear to the carrier machine. While I was being debriefed by the Cat engineers (the folks who take a machine from concept to reality) I inquired about how bad a breaker is to a machine. They told me that they don't see many negative impacts (pardon the pun) to the carrier other than the coupler (as KSSS mentioned). In fact they said that they see the worst wear to a carrier from a compaction wheel. That being said a lot of damage to the breaker and the tool can occur if not used with the proper technique. That being said rock is much harder to break then say concrete (in most cases). Most breakers that fit on skids and minis are for concrete. If you find an honest breaker salesman he/she would tell you that "rock hammers" begin at the 4,000# size and go up from there. In other words bigger is always better when it comes to breaking rock. If you think you will have use of the breaker (beyond a couple rocks in the yard) then you may try to demo the Indeco breaker. If it does nothing but make noise and scratch the rock then you will have your answer. If this is the only time you will need the breaker finding a rental unit would be the way to go as it will remove all worries about what effects it will have to your machine, and if you will likely have a better chance of finding one big enough to get the job done. Another thing to add here is that (in my opinion) a hammer mounted to backhoe will likely be too small if a skid steer hammer is too small. A 4,000# hammer will require a 20 metric ton (50-55k#) machine to carry it. The last thing I will say is that hard rock will tend to eject rock chips/shards from the point of the tool (at high velocity). I would recommend taking measures to protect yourself and anything remotely close to the work area (like windows on a house).
If your rock is anything like what we have here in eastern Ontario, I wouldn't bother with a small breaker on a small skid steer. If it's a one time thing, not too many rocks, I'd be inclined to use a product like Betonamit. It's pretty cheap, safe, and way less wear on a smaller machine than a breaker. Then again, hard to know for sure unless we get an idea of the scale of this project. How big are the rocks?
I would just rent a hammer when you need it instead of buying one. Better yet, rent a hammer and skid steer, use it , then send it back. You will get accelerated wear on your machine from using a hammer. At least that has been my experience over the years.
Thanks guys. You have convinced me to pump the brakes on this. I will take a couple pictures of the rock and report back. I thought about buying because I might finish this project and next thing you know I need it next year as I find the next rock that won't move. It would be convenient to have. But, not if it doesn't work. I may rent and see if it is productive or a total waste. I will snap some pictures. Thanks.
Here is another pic. The first picture shows the piece that is sticking up in the yard and is bound to hurt one of my younger kids or nieces or nephews. The other picture is some rock that I want to chip away and park a trailer in that area. I tried to dig around it with the backhoe attachment and it pretty much just laughed at me. If I go to chip it away, I would think I would first take the backhoe and dig around it and expose as much of it as possible and then start chipping away at it. I happened to see a YouTube video yesterday, while researching this topic, and I watched and extremely thin, old Indonesian man split a massive rock using three chisels and a sledgehammer. I am not about to start that, but there has to be some reasonable way to chip this stuff away. Thanks for all of your help, guidance and suggestions.
I certainly wouldn't buy a hammer for that. I would stick to my original thought on the backhoe and 1500 pound hammer. Excavate around the rock so you can break it below grade. Set the hoe up perpendicular to the long axis of the rock. Reach the boom over the rock and break the rock toward you. Make sure you get it below grade and cover it with topsoil. The flat rock that is at grade now may be a little more difficult but I would again dig around the rock. Hammer 90 degrees to the flat rock and pound it below grade and cover it.
Thanks KSSS. Can you tell me why you think buying a hammer would not work? Is it that it won't be effective on the rock or that it won't be cost effective? Because one option was to rent just the hammer. One Bobcat dealer even offered for me to rent it and if I get nowhere in the first 20 minutes, just bring it back. The only issue with that is that it is an hour drive each way. That rental was about $350 per day for the hammer for my machine. I believe that was a 500lb hammer. I am not sure what the rental rate would be for a backhoe with the larger hammer. I would also have to have that delivered. I have a truck that could tow it, but have never driven a backhoe and don't want to play with loading and unloading it when I don't know how. I have other rocks that I would like to break, but they are already loose and out of the ground. I was able to dig them out with the backhoe attachment, but my 1500 lift skid steer is no match to pick them up. I thought I could possibly bust them in half. The worst thing I could do is purchase a hammer and then find out it won't actually do what I want it to do. Thanks again for your help. This is clearly not my day job so I thank you for your advice.
Never tried to break rocks with a skidsteer & hammer, but I've broken more concrete than I ever want to do again. Your machine is at the smaller end of the scale, it'll work for breaking up flatwork, and its easier than in idiot pick. I've used an 800 series Bobcat to break up reinforced pads and abutments at an old commericial beef farm. Made for several long miserable days in the seat. Then there was the attempt (same job) at demoing a Harvestore silo base...the breaker wouldn't even chip it, never seen concrete so hard in my life. I think your efforts will be futile using the Bobcat. Ed
The first thing that came to my mind was, even if the BC breaker would work, you don't have enough to do , going by the pics, to justify the expense of buying. I would rent. If you don't mind the time, you could take the BC dealer up on his offer and see what you get. Your machine is small but if you wanted to try the 500 pound hammer and see what you get your only out time and diesel to get the attachment. Like I said, I don't know your rock, but I was expecting to see some type of granite, but it looks similar to our Basalt type which is harder than the back of my head. So I would go that route and if it don't work you can always get a bigger hammer and a bigger carrier. Either way it will be cheaper than buying a hammer.
After seeing the rocks, I'm with the others. Not worth buying a breaker for it. Breakers on skidsteers/CTLs work okay for busting up flatwork, not so much for boulders and rock outcroppings. Renting a backhoe or a larger (6-8 ton) mini-excavator with a breaker would be more productive and have a far higher likelihood of success compared to a small hammer on a small ish carrier.
I'm not an operator but I used to wrench at a rental shop. I've tested skid steer hammers. With the performance I've seen out of skid steer sized hammers, I think you'd be very disappointed if you shelled out $5,500 for one just to do a couple rocks.