Mconnell power arm

DeanB

Member
Location
Derbyshire
I'm looking for a back actor for my tractor and have seen one on ebay but it's called a power arm and has no seat so it has to be operated from the tractor cab how awkward is this and is it very practical compared to a backhoe, back actor or ditcher and I'm not to sure what the difference is between them all. Any advice would be very helpful
 

ste

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
They're an ok step up from spade. Have one here not used for a few years, has the seat on it and modified to a 3cx spool block, but got a 1.5t mini digger and get a mate in for anything bigger. Mine hasn't got the hydraulic legs go just sits on the ground with no down pressure and has a tendency to lift the digger rather than dig into hard stuff. Also need to be careful depending on what tractor its on as is very easy to get trapped between it and the cab (see from your other posts you have a DB 995 so you'd need to be careful)

I'm considering selling mine due to no use for it now
 

DeanB

Member
Location
Derbyshire
I'm always needing something digging and I've hired many diggers over the years so it's more cost effective to have my own ready when I need it which is mostly over the weekend and at very short notice.
 

Dave W

Member
Location
chesterfield
I'm always needing something digging and I've hired many diggers over the years so it's more cost effective to have my own ready when I need it which is mostly over the weekend and at very short notice.
Buy a digger then. No one in the world ever has regretted buying a digger.
you'll buy a rough but perfectly useable 1.5t for £2.5/3k. Then upgrade when you realise how handy they are
 

agrimax

Member
Location
Co Down
They had their day........not saying they haven't a use but no comparison with a proper digger. I think @Boohoo has a tidy set up........
Never seen one without a separate seat but would you want to sit on your knees on the tractor seat working one or indeed be bothered climbing off and on to move on? Yes,you can push or pull with the bucket but it's not the same as a true digger.......
Those early McConnel PAs with fixed legs had an odd lever control system.........Was it that you had to pull two levers at once to operate the slew? Can't remember now....Had one for the taking,tried it for an hour and removed it from about the place within a week........!
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
They had their day........not saying they haven't a use but no comparison with a proper digger. I think @Boohoo has a tidy set up........
Never seen one without a separate seat but would you want to sit on your knees on the tractor seat working one or indeed be bothered climbing off and on to move on? Yes,you can push or pull with the bucket but it's not the same as a true digger.......
Those early McConnel PAs with fixed legs had an odd lever control system.........Was it that you had to pull two levers at once to operate the slew? Can't remember now....Had one for the taking,tried it for an hour and removed it from about the place within a week........!
Is this the set up you're thinking of?
660412-8b373cc680c22f2ef7b81668cafcdda3.jpg
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
I wouldn't be without my back actor but it's a bracket mounted David Brown not a linkage mounted McConnell. I never liked the idea of linkage mounted on a tractor with a cab and I've been told about the dangers. A back actor will never do the same as a proper digger, I still hire in someone with either a 3 or 13 ton digger for big jobs but it beats the spade for gate posts, finding broken drains and digging big stones out.

@Selectamatic is another man with a David Brown back actor.
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
When you say bracket mounted I assume you mean the back actor is directly mounted to the tractor and not to the three point linkage
Yes. If you look at my picture you'll see yellow in behind the cab steps, that's the front end of the bracket. I take the three point linkage arms off and the back actor brackets use the same pins as the linkage arms at the back and another pin at the front to hold them in place.
 

DeanB

Member
Location
Derbyshire
The one I've posted in the pics would be about £350 delivered should I give it a chance at that price or give it a miss and rent a mini digger a few more times at that price
 

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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