What's your hoe doing?

[Willie B]

double post

 

[HarleyHappy]

I myself have had terrible service at NH Hydraulics. I was around, when they started and had a full size military Humvee and a big military truck for advertising and such. They must have gotten better to have survived 30 years, I would hope.
I use Curtis Hydraulics in Hooksett NH.
They can do anything.
They would just replace the rod and weld your eye back on or make a new one.
All hydraulic shops in the area are weeks out on work and have been for years.

 

[edgephoto]

When I was working on your backhoe I decided to repack all cylinders and replace all hoses to the cylinders. One cylinder had a dent in the tube and needed to be rebuilt. The shop I used took 3 weeks and was not cheap but they did a lot of work.

I have one stabilizer cylinder that is clearly not an original CAT cylinder. I took it to them to have repacked since I needed to match up parts. That took another 3 weeks.

I know a small 2 man shop and they were so backed up they told me they did not want the job because it would be 6 months at least before they could get to it. Part of the issue is we are not regular customers so shops put us at the back of the line.

 

[materthegreater]

I have not had great experience with them.
John Deere backhoe valve was manufactured by a defunct company, no parts available. John Deere offered a whole valve substitute, cost more than the value of the tractor. NH Hydraulics were able to sell pieces to replace the whole valve. Took ?25? phone calls & several months, but they supplied me a 6 section valve for $1400. Each section was 1/4" narrower than the old valve. I had to build a new mount & joystick assembly to make it work. In the end, only the long time it took made me complain.
I've had cylinders needed more than repack, they are always months out on that work. This is also true of all the other hydraulic repair shops.
I met a one man shop American Hydraulics, can't think of the town in Western NH, he says NH Hydraulics sub cylinder work to him.
I've heard good things about Cylinder Services in Rochester NY.

Good to know. I've only had one cylinder repaired by them, but I was pleased with the results.

 

[materthegreater]

I myself have had terrible service at NH Hydraulics. I was around, when they started and had a full size military Humvee and a big military truck for advertising and such. They must have gotten better to have survived 30 years, I would hope.
I use Curtis Hydraulics in Hooksett NH.
They can do anything.
They would just replace the rod and weld your eye back on or make a new one.
All hydraulic shops in the area are weeks out on work and have been for years.

Interesting. Good to know there are other options around.

 

[Deere500a]

Past happened to notice looking at the extendahoe bucket cylinder hose is missing it partner odd checking it out past someone turned 90* up routed over the top of dipper to the bucket cylinder clamped it with extendahoe hoses full reach that hose was taut my luck it would pop on me. Easy fix took it off site,grab couple nut rounders had in the car & no real mess had back hanging like it's neighbor in 20min. Kids remember how your hose hang.

 

[Willie B]

Cassella is a huge trash hauler based in Rutland VT, but spread through several states. They are also in the excavating business, do road building, site work, water, sewer systems. They have a hydraulic shop, a two man operation. A few years ago it was run by identical twins. One twin broke away, started his own shop. He had been on his own a month, I needed a tube portion of a cylinder built, a blade angle cylinder for the dozer in my thumbnail picture.
I pestered him 5 weeks when he said he didn't see any opportunity to do my cylinder in the forseeable future. I went to pick it up, projects piled up 1/4 acre around his shop with the 2000 square foot shop full. He was in business a few days when a huge calcium carbonate quarry offered him 4 days a week work. By the first week, they were pressuring him to commit to another two days per week.
It seems qualified hydraulic shops are few, their work load is overwhelming. I believe they all give preferential treatment to their regular customers.

 

[HATCHEQUIP]

Casey wear bars need to be replaced & glad maybe egg shaped getting rod straight may not fix leak might check a parts hoe swap'em out

Would that be considered a part time hoe

 

[Deere500a]

It would be a Bruce Jenner hoe parts have changed

 

[HATCHEQUIP]

Kinda like when that ol boy down under reached for it

 

[Deere500a]

That's not a knife sheila this is a knife

 

[casey518]

Casey wear bars need to be replaced & glad maybe egg shaped getting rod straight may not fix leak might check a parts hoe swap'em out

So.... the gland nut was egg shaped. I machined it back round and cleaned up the seal seats as best I could. Came out ok I think. The rod i got pretty dam straight in the press. We shall see. Here's the kicker, this thing has been this way as long as iv had it. Some dingbat put the extradig ram in upside down, there is a support welded to the cylinder to support it at full extension. Being upside down there was to room for it inside the dipper and that bent the ram once the cylinder was retracted. Probably been that way a long time.

 

[Welder Dave]

Who the heck would put the cylinder in backwards? Doesn't really seem possible with most cylinders but some people just don't pay attention when taking stuff apart. Glad you got it figured out.

 

[Swetz]

Some dingbat put the extradig ram in upside down,

Good catch!

You should be fine now.

 

[Willie B]

I had my first Case 580K, I believe it was damaged by a bullet. There was a noticeable dent in the barrel of the boom cylinder. We took it apart, it was a nightmare of a job. Gland thread was very fine & very long. I made a spanner with 6' long handle. We had a cheater pipe over that for most of the way. Used a weed burner on it, found it was coated with red locktite. It took hours to remove it. Once apart, it was clear the dent went to the inside of the barrel, and the piston was damaged. It needed a new barrel, and piston. Took it to Reeds Hydraulics in Gansvoort NY. Great place, great people. Did it in about two weeks. It was expensive, but it was a big job.
Next cylinder I wasn't able to do myself was the piston bolt wouldn't come off. We clattered on it 1/2 hour with a 1" impact wrench, couldn't budge it. I had no spud wrench. Went to Reeds to learn the place had been sold & the seller took most of the tools with him. They broke several chinese sockets trying to loosen it.

 

[edgephoto]

I had one of my boom cylinder bust my balls. The piston bolt would not come off. A friend works at a heavy truck/equipment shop. Took a 1-1/2" impact and the big trailer compressor you tow with an 18 wheeler. The 1" impact on the regular road service trailer did not touch it.

 

[Tyler d4c]

Most of the time when a rod bolt wont go just heat the head a bit let it cool and it will come out "should" use a new bolt I ve have done it it and used the old bolt with out problem

 

[aighead]

Got out on the hoe yesterday afternoon, after I got a burr up my butt, to take down a handful of trees that were dead and too close to the house. My wife is adding more fencing to the yard to give the dogs a bigger place to roam and these trees would also be inside the fencing, so I figured now is the time. Two of these are thorny Honey Locusts, one with a hollowed out base, and that was the one leaning hard toward the house. I didn't really want to use the chainsaw on these because they seemed too precarious, but upon giving a couple shoves I found I was not offered that luxury, and there are some hydrangeas at the base of the trees my wife want to keep and popping up the roots of the trees would have popped them out too. I cut the first couple trees to an acceptable notch and pushed them over without incident. Then I got to the last one, with the hollowed out bottom, that really wanted to fall toward the house. After staring at the tree for several minutes and deciding how poorly this could go I decided to put my bucket up against the side of the tree about as high as I could so if the tree let loose it would, hopefully, at least slide down the boom and crush the backhoe rather than the house. Then I got out and cut a small notch on the side I wanted it to go and I took a slice on the other side leaving as much tree as I could while still feeling like I could push it over. Getting back in the seat I found that maybe having the tree lean against the side of the bucket was maybe not good as I couldn't push, really, in the direction I needed to. I was now scared to move. Slowly, I readjusted, trying to put pressure on the tree while uncurling and unextending so I could put teeth on the tree rather than the side of the bucket. Wife watching from the door, I'm nervous as can be. The tree held for what I tried to make a smooth and quick (but still slow) transition of bucket placement and though still nervous I managed to put the tree right where I wanted. Shew.

It's the scraggly ones just behind the right deck post, this picture is old and the scraggly ones on the left have already been taken down.


The left tree was the one making me nervous. You can see all the bark missing on it.


This was the easier one on the right.


The pile, missing the left tree, so there's more, dumb thorns everywhere.

 

[Willie B]

I'm never comfortable taking a weakened dead tree. Too much liklihood of a widow maker. Those almost always get pulled down, not pushed. You can reasonably safely saw a bird mouth to direct the fall, and maybe a little at a time of back cut in between pulling from a safe distance. When it tips, it'll break instantly, with no hinge action. Gravity takes over, it falls where it will. I like chain or cable quite high in the tree.
Healthy trees can usually be pushed, taking stump out of the ground. Stumps must be made of asbestos, it is NOT easy to burn them.

 

[aighead]

Yeah, I wasn't really loving the idea of doing much of anything with the dead trees. I don't have any rope or chain long enough to get into these trees, but I've got one more big cherry tree to get rid of that scares me a bit. I'm considering either rope and snatch block or hiring it and another next to the barn out. I hate to spend a bunch of money hiring someone to do what I can do, but I also like the idea of a pro pointing these trees away from buildings. I can clean it all up.