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- Joined
- Oct 16, 2014
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- Location
- Salisbury, Vermont
Purchased new, $3600.75. Free shipping. Arrived in 6 days via 48 foot tractor trailer. All in one crate, 1800 lbs. Used a backhoe, 4WD w/ 6 feet wide bucket. Wrapped chain around crate and pinioned it against the bucket. Easy peasy. Well crated and packed in. No damage.
Some assembly required.
lol. The main boom, bucket and bucket boom, hydraulic controls with attached hoses, outriggers, wheels and axles, seat are all packaged/ wrapped separately. All the attaching hardware and locking pins are boxed and well labeled. Each hose is numbered on either end and has plastic caps in each end as the system was filled and tested before shipment. Needed to fill engine oil, one quart 10w30, and the hydraulic reservoir. Made all connections of booms and rams, hoses and outriggers/wheels. Started and broke in engine, moved/ cycled all controls to full extension and back to bleed the system.
The only thing i'm disappointed in is the need to fool around with moving the wheels and outriggers every time you want to tow the unit. But, i cant see any way around it or think of a better design. Engine is a Predator 9 HP. It had plenty of power for what I needed to use it for.
Tow hitch takes a 1 7/8" ball but the directions call for a 2" ball. lol.
Towed it with my Ram 1500. No issues.
Once it's nearby where the work is to be done then you need to swap ends with the wheels and outriggers.
The bucket/boom can be used to hoist it around to accomplish this as well as strategically placing two hunks of 4x4 under the frame as a pivot point.
Once configured correctly, all lock pins removed and safeties removed you can reach out with boom and bucket and lift up the unit to crab walk it to where your work site position is.
I used it today to clean out the sheep stall, 12"x12" stall. What I needed to do was to scrape up the bedding/manure which was compressed over the winter to about 8" deep. It's too much labor for me to try to pitchfork all of that heavy wet crap up and away from the gravel floor.
The idea was to use the bucket to reach out and sink the three teeth into the material and rotate the bucket back towards me while also controlling depth and length of reach.
It took me a minute to figure out which handles to slide in which direction and at what pressure to make that three dimensional movement. Once I got a feel for it things went smoothly. The barn is not big enough to swing the boom over and fill my trailer too. The unit is long and I didn't have enough room to back away far enough to do so. I had to settle for breaking it all up and loosening it from the gravel floor, which is 2/3 rds of the battle.
From there i moved the unit back outdoors and backed my small trailer into the bay next to that one being cleaned. Pitchforked it all into the trailer in 7 loads.
The entire job took around 2 1/2 hours.
It's a good result for me and it did what I bought it for flawlessly.
I'm a happy camper so far!
Here's some pics. It was easy to assemble by myself.
Some assembly required.
lol. The main boom, bucket and bucket boom, hydraulic controls with attached hoses, outriggers, wheels and axles, seat are all packaged/ wrapped separately. All the attaching hardware and locking pins are boxed and well labeled. Each hose is numbered on either end and has plastic caps in each end as the system was filled and tested before shipment. Needed to fill engine oil, one quart 10w30, and the hydraulic reservoir. Made all connections of booms and rams, hoses and outriggers/wheels. Started and broke in engine, moved/ cycled all controls to full extension and back to bleed the system.
The only thing i'm disappointed in is the need to fool around with moving the wheels and outriggers every time you want to tow the unit. But, i cant see any way around it or think of a better design. Engine is a Predator 9 HP. It had plenty of power for what I needed to use it for.
Tow hitch takes a 1 7/8" ball but the directions call for a 2" ball. lol.
Towed it with my Ram 1500. No issues.
Once it's nearby where the work is to be done then you need to swap ends with the wheels and outriggers.
The bucket/boom can be used to hoist it around to accomplish this as well as strategically placing two hunks of 4x4 under the frame as a pivot point.
Once configured correctly, all lock pins removed and safeties removed you can reach out with boom and bucket and lift up the unit to crab walk it to where your work site position is.
I used it today to clean out the sheep stall, 12"x12" stall. What I needed to do was to scrape up the bedding/manure which was compressed over the winter to about 8" deep. It's too much labor for me to try to pitchfork all of that heavy wet crap up and away from the gravel floor.
The idea was to use the bucket to reach out and sink the three teeth into the material and rotate the bucket back towards me while also controlling depth and length of reach.
It took me a minute to figure out which handles to slide in which direction and at what pressure to make that three dimensional movement. Once I got a feel for it things went smoothly. The barn is not big enough to swing the boom over and fill my trailer too. The unit is long and I didn't have enough room to back away far enough to do so. I had to settle for breaking it all up and loosening it from the gravel floor, which is 2/3 rds of the battle.
From there i moved the unit back outdoors and backed my small trailer into the bay next to that one being cleaned. Pitchforked it all into the trailer in 7 loads.
The entire job took around 2 1/2 hours.
It's a good result for me and it did what I bought it for flawlessly.
I'm a happy camper so far!
Here's some pics. It was easy to assemble by myself.
