The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Updating my photos after dropping photobucket. I'm still alive and well
2013 was a long year Completion of my backhoe project came to a halt last spring after learning I had contracted bladder cancer. Underwent surgery to remove a kidney and connecting parts.Underwent chemotherapy and a long healing process. As of now I am cancer free Not looking for pity here. Just letting you know I didn't go away for good.
Finally in November I felt strong enough to continue my project. Had to make the oil reservoir smaller and relocate it. Added a filter. Rebuilt a couple of leaky cylinders and hung it back on my Super Dexta. Tried to stiffen it up a little as the 3 pt lets it move around a little more than I like. Added the 3 top links both for support and stability. Would love to get my hands on the stiffeners I saw on a post here last week by Broadspeed from Finland. . Might try to fab some up from the pictures that were posted.Have a seat bracket made up just have to get it painted and mounted. She's up at the old farm 100 miles away in the barn waiting for me to show up in the spring and put the seat on.

Nothing like a bit of 'Fordson' for healing
Glad to hear that you are on the road to recovery.
Kiwi Kev

Delighted you've made a good recovery - well done.

Unfortunately I can't see your pics.

Ben, Don't know what happened but I reloaded them. Hope you can see them now

Did a little web surfing and found the stabilizers I spoke of are available in the U.S.
Have to seriously consider purchasing a pair.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/220827303455?ss ... 1438.l2649

PghBill wrote:Ben, Don't know what happened but I reloaded them. Hope you can see them now

Yes, pics are there now!
Tractor and back hoe look great. Have you tried it in action yet?

Ben,
Scratched around with it a little when I hung it on the first time. That's when I found out the swing cylinders were leaking. Took it back off and rebuilt the cylinders and made a few modifications and added a filter. Put it back on and ran it thru the motions to make sure the leaks were fixed. After I get the seat mounted, I'll put it to work. This hoe was originally made for on a skid steer. Don't know what the seating arrangement was. I built a frame for the seat that bolts to the footrests.
Would have been nicer if it had "joy sticks" instead of the old 4 handle control. But the price was right. I bought it from a guy who was going to build a sub frame and put it on his compact tractor. But his well went dry before he got that far and he sold it to me to help pay for his new well.
It will have to get painted empire blue of course!

How much does it weigh?

Ben,
It weighs 1080 Pounds with the bucket that's on it. 3 point hydraulics had no problem picking it up. I put the center links down to the hoe frame to relieve the weight on the hydraulics. Plus my 3 point leaks off ever so slowly. My front loader recommends 1000 Pounds of counterweight so it works out that way also.

Glad to hear your on the road to recovery.

I was going to ask if you had rigged up a power steering unit, but then thought with the weight of the back hoe that might not be necessary. How does she steer? You did a wise thing by adding all the extra stabilizers, I believe you will need them. Can't wait to see a picture of her in action.
See Ya
Mark

Mark,
I had already put a power steering kit on it before I got the hoe because of the front loader.The power steering works well but is still a work in progress. The offset in the drag link between the wheels has been a problem because the oil pan sits so low. Had to make extensons down from the steering arms to lower the tie rod ends and that created a lot of slop in the steering. As of now I'm in the process of removing the tie rod ends from the drag link and replacing them with swivels from the end of a top link. Sooner or later I'll get it to work correctly.

Bill, how did you rig it up exactly? I'd love to see some pictures of that if you have any. I've always wanted to put power steering on mine, but have yet to figure out how.
How exactly will you fix all the slop? I've got to go through my gearbox and tighten it some this spring anyway.

Mark wrote:Bill, how did you rig it up exactly? I'd love to see some pictures of that if you have any. I've always wanted to put power steering on mine, but have yet to figure out how.
How exactly will you fix all the slop? I've got to go through my gearbox and tighten it some this spring anyway.

Mark, It's one of those Turkish jobs for a Ford 2000. (King pins are the same size as Dexta and steering rods are same length) Popped upon Ebay really cheap so I gave it a go.
Steering wheel controls the valve position on the cylinder. Cylinder anchors over the radius arm bracket. A little close to the clutch pedal but it works.

Drag link didn't have enough offset to miss the bigger dexta oil pan so I had extensons made to give me enough room to miss the oil pan. But the drag link was hollow and really weak.Bent it pretty quickly. Made a new on from 1-1/4" threaded round bar.

Had to flip the generator up,notch the hood, and make a new adjustment bracket to make room for the hydraulic pump.Had to get the pump up high enough so the belt would clear the front axle bracket.The pump for the Ford 2000 was driven off of the timing gear and ran counter clockwise so I had to buy a new clockwise belt driven one. Found a handy place to mount it below the generator. (Block has a flat area with two tapped holes with flat heat screws in them. Don't know what they were for. But did notice when I was rebuilding the engine that the holes didn't go all the way thru the block) made a Z bracket to mount the pump.

Mounted the hydraulic resevoir on a bracket off of the fuel tank bolts.
Hood is popped because I have an oversize battery in right now.


The slop in the steering is coming from the amount of distance between the tie rod ends and the steering arms.

Hope you can understand my ramblings

Bill,
That must of have been a lot of work and fun at the same time. I looked at one of those Turkish power steering units a lot time ago, and the guy wanted $600.00 for it. I don't use mine enough to warrant that much money, but the older I get it's never left the back of my mind, especially when I'm plowing and using the disc. If I had a loader on mine I'd have bought one along time ago.
Thanks for the pictures.

Mark,
Got it for $350. Guy had a couple he wanted to unload. It was a little challanging. But I enjoyed figuring it out. I did it when I was rebuilding, so I did'nt have a lot of stuff in my way. Been using my tractor mostly for skidding logs. It has made dodging trees a lot easier. I bought the hoe to do some landscaping around the house this coming summer.