About 3 years back now, I had a Christmas holiday in Ontario, Canada. There wasn't much else to do just before the preparations for a christmas party began so me and my uncle who lives over there went out for a drive in his truck. We passed a chicken farm, which I thought was a warehouse at first; very imposing big steel buildings! Saw a large backhoe parked out front so we drove down to have a quick look and it was quite a size of a machine! However, I've been asking questions about this machine for a long time (even on dedicated Ford forums) and have not got any more information apart from the following: Four equal-sized wheels (JCB 4CX-style) Never made in the US. Ford's largest machine. Made just before New Holland took over the production line of Ford TLB's. I've been looking for a brochure on this machine for a long time but none have appeared in my sights, even a photocopy of a specification/dimension list would be really ideal since that is the kind of stuff I'd really like to know. Any information on this machine would be greatly appreciated!
I thought NH made BH's with 4 = sized wheels & tires?
Yes thats quite right. The only one I'm aware of so far is called the LB115 (there are probably more though). Never heard of any other Ford backhoes with 4 equal sized wheels.
Is that an extendable dipper?
Sure looks like it. Looks like it is extended out most of the way in the picture.
Yep, sure is. Seeing such equipped machines here, its very rare I see them parked up with the dipper fully extended as is the case here. I wonder why a chicken farm would need such a large TLB like this, loading high-sided trucks perhaps?
I used a NH once that was identical to Ford, since they were the same machine after all. It also said Hitachi on the key. If you look, Fiat-Allis, Fiat-Hitachi, and Fiat-Kobelco all look the same as NH. They even have a number of equal sized tire models. You might have some luck find specs on older version of one of those brands. The extended stick has probably just drifted down on its own. They will creak all night when parked behind your house if you don't put the bucket on the ground when you shut it off (guess how I know this:Banghead )
I read in one of Eric Orlemann's books about an excavator which had its bucket resting on the ground to "take the pressure off the hydraulics". In all honesty, I can only think of a very few occasions when I've seen a machine parked up all night or perhaps over the weekend with a bucket in the air. Even the outriggers/stabilisers of backhoes are usually touching the ground. Never really thought much about that before. Re: looking for specs - I will certainly give that a go, thanks for the tip! I have quite a few spec brochures on Fiat-Allis and a somewhat fewer in number collection on Fiat-Hitachi. No backhoe brochures in either of those! Taking things back even further, Allis Chalmers made a backhoe line as well, but most of those seemed to have been wheel loaders with a backhoe option? I've only seen 2 pictures mind you.......