Ditching with back actor on tractor

[holywell farmer]

What a terrible thing to say. Because someone wants to use a older piece of kit to do a bit of ditching your suggestion is quite extreme, especially considering what’s happening around us recently.

Back on topic, I can’t claim to have done much ditching with my tractor mounted backhoe, but after a bit of a overhaul was surprised how good it actually is! It’s nothing compared to a 3CX or the like, but far better than a spade!!

If you have a ditch or two to open, crack on! If you have a whole farm’s worth, then a “proper” thing may be more in order.

I load some horsey muck with mine, it’s ideal for the job! It is slower, sloppier (marginally!!) and it’s even more of a jumble of oil leaks than Something from the JCB factory, but for what I want, it does me fine.

Yes, it has a round bottom ditcher, two in fact, a small one with teeth, a larger one without. View attachment 861310

That's got fairly decent reach on it which is good,

 

[ollie989898]

Tell me Where i can buy a mini digger for £800 and I will gladly get rid, we find a lot of jobs get done which wouldn’t if we had to hire in a digger!

If I had the £800 right now I would sooner give it to you that have to sit and watch someone using one!

 

[Exfarmer]

I suspect I was about ten years old when I learnt the art of ditch digging by sitting in the drivers seat and moving the tractor on. Later on driving it all myself , and on a Massey 203? I think realised you could leave the back wheels driving slowly and just lift the legs to move on
suspect it would give the H&S man a heart attack.
used to love doing it , but after we had a 360 doing some work realised that was the way forward as it could spread the spoil so thinly over a big area, and did not mean taking a barbed wire fence down either

 

[jf850]

that was most likely a fault with yours

I did miles with a McConnell on a 4wd brooon 1410. It could go anywhere.
This thread has brought it back - to swing the boom you had to “stall” another function, (5 or 6 levers in all). Was this normal or a fault on the one I had. When I first had it I used to think of looking at finding a remedy but after a while it just became second nature to stall the crowd.

I had an old green McConnell Power Arm , bought it in the early 80s. Better than a shovel , but a 3 tonner on tracks would dig more in 2 hours than it in a long day.
Mine , and several others all slewed using 2 levers.

 

[Lowland1]

I had an old green McConnell Power Arm , bought it in the early 80s. Better

That was like ours two levers to slew and fixed legs we bought ours from a neighbour in the late 70's when they upgraded to a Smalley self propelled machine. My uncle had one with a frame and a canvas cab on. I had to warm my hands over the exhaust which often ended up being burnt as i had lost all feeling in them. My uncles machine leaked so bad they would tie a bucket underneath to catch the leaks and then return the oil to the tractor at regular intervals.

 

[czechmate]

I had an old green McConnell Power Arm , bought it in the early 80s. Better than a shovel , but a 3 tonner on tracks would dig more in 2 hours than it in a long day.
Mine , and several others all slewed using 2 levers.

Maybe a safety feature?

 

[Lowland1]

Maybe a safety feature?

I think the're were slewing levers at either end of the spool block and you used one and one of the other hydraulic levers at the same time to make it turn. But i last used one in 1987 so i may be wrong

 

[Boohoo]

Only one lever to slew on a DB, it's even better than I thought it was.

 

[Hilly]

My dad had a McConnell digger on the back of a ih 384, we spent many a weekend digging lol fighting over who drove the tractor who drove the digger as a 12-15 year old lad I learnt so much in them days with that little tractor digger and a little dumper we had, seriously thinking about buying one now as have a little John Deere it would go on and be well handy for odds n sods teach my lad a lot no doubt.

 

[Stu75]

I have a PA44 sitting in the yard and a 384 and a 884. Does anyone have a pictue of the mounting bracket as I cant work out how it fits. I have no idea what it was on before if I need to get a specific bracket anyone know where to look? Thanks.

 

[Peter1947]

Has anyone been able to bring the controls into the cab and work the actor like a backhoe

 

[john63]

We have a McConnel one...PA8 I think. It's got fixed legs and the seat on the machine. We converted it to tractor hydraulics, but it's still pretty gutless. If the ground is at all hard it won't dig. Must get it out again as we have miles of ditching to do.

 

[Peter1947]

Would I be correct in thinking that a back actor would be faster at ditching than a backhoe providing you can push yourself along? When pushing, do you have to lift the jack legs?

 

[Selectamatic]

Would I be correct in thinking that a back actor would be faster at ditching than a backhoe providing you can push yourself along? When pushing, do you have to lift the jack legs?

If your asking if a Backhoe Loader, such as a 3CX or simmilar would be quicker than a Tractor mounted Backhoe, I think it would, the tractor mounted version is ok, but the BHL is made for the job!

Yes, I lift the jack legs to push along, just clear of the ground. Anchor the bucket in the ground, or against something, inline the tractor, take the weight with the boom, push with the dipper (effectively push the bucket away from you, but as it's in the ground, it's you that moves, not it). If you have the power, you can lift the back wheels clear of the ground (not by much!) and use the slew to reposition the tractor. I struggle with this on mine, not quite enough go in the slew mechanism.

 

[Peter1947]

If your asking if a Backhoe Loader, such as a 3CX or simmilar would be quicker than a Tractor mounted Backhoe, I think it would, the tractor mounted version is ok, but the BHL is made for the job!

Yes, I lift the jack legs to push along, just clear of the ground. Anchor the bucket in the ground, or against something, inline the tractor, take the weight with the boom, push with the dipper (effectively push the bucket away from you, but as it's in the ground, it's you that moves, not it). If you have the power, you can lift the back wheels clear of the ground (not by much!) and use the slew to reposition the tractor. I struggle with this on mine, not quite enough go in the slew mechanism.

How many yards of ditch can be cleared approx in an hour with tractor back actor when all goes well?

 

[Selectamatic]

How many yards of ditch can be cleared approx in an hour with tractor back actor when all goes well?

No idea! About the length of a piece of string I'd imagine...

 

[Exfarmer]

How many yards of ditch can be cleared approx in an hour with tractor back actor when all goes well?

I think this depends totally on the amount to clean. If it is just one small scoop out of the bottom, it may well be possible to do a yard aminute. However if you have to take 2,3 feet out it may well be 5 minutes a yard

 

[davedb]

We used to have a foster that was quite powerful and would easily pick the back wheels of a 80hp 2wd tractor to push yourself along then we brought a 5t digger and never looked back

 

[davedb]

Did see this on Facebook for sale be a fair tool

 

[shumungus]

Just checking, everyone posting on here is aware that it is 2020? Yes?