Putting my Earth Excavator to Work

[oliver2-44 9,750]

Some time ago, I saw an ad with a trailer full of Sears rear attachments, 3 pt garden plow, 3pt disc, 3pt rear blade, 3pt spike tooth harrow $125, 2 hour drive. 

Nothing too exciting.  But then I saw this sleeve hitch Earth Excavator in the pile and immediately messaged him.  I've had my eye out for one of these for quite a while.

Went to pick it up and we talked probable an hour. 

Then he handed me $25 back, said gas money for driving so far.

Fast forward, we've been doing a major addition at one of my sons' houses, and it was time to do some drainage dirt work around the new attached garage/shop.   

His soil is fairly hard black dirt, it works best with a little moisture, but not to wet.  It rained 1.7" Monday, so Saturday I hauled the C160 and this Earth Excavator over.  

Rolled over with the 4 rippers down.  i hades several ripper passes, they work fairly well.

Sometimes it was a little hard to get the ripper to bite in. This would be nice on a 3point where you could adjust the center link to vary the ripper tooth bite angle.

  

I was dragging material to build a pile in the corner of the yard  I would make about 2-3 drag/dumps in front of my pile.

The hydraulic lift sure worked nice to feather the rippers or box blade full of material up as it loaded up. 

Then I would turn around and use the back to push it onto the pile in the corner.   

My C160 has tire chains, 132lbs of wheel weight, fluid filled rear times and me on it, so plenty of traction.   

 

 

 

Worked about an hour, lifted it up and it fell back down!

My lift cable snapped on the implement end right at the end of the swedge. 

The cable is about 5 years old and has been used very little.  Maybe 5-6 hours of other rear implement use. 

This Earth Excavator is heavy and the rippers in use do add a pull/stretching load on the cable.  I wonder what these cable/ are rated for?

So I'll get another cable and try again.   

I need to pay attention to when I'm pushing backwards to make sure that's not somehow putting a bend/kink in the cable right at the clevis.   

I though I took more pictures, but I guess I was having too much fun.   

So more pictures when I resume this project.

 

Edited June 10 by oliver2-44

[oliver2-44 9,750]

@WHX?? @Achto @PeacemakerJack 

You have seen some lift cable breaks while plowing.  Do you recall where those cables broke?

[rjg854 11,361]

I was pulling my 6' York rake, regrading where the septic system was installed, with the C-160.  My lift cable broke also , right at the very end where the bung was attached to the hitch.  I've got to replace that.  Mine was original to the tractor, so that makes it @50 years old.  That rake is pretty heavy so I'm not sure if I over did what the cable was able to handle, or just that it was so old.

[Achto 27,571]

45 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

You have seen some lift cable breaks while plowing.  Do you recall where those cables broke?

 

Most of the ones that I've seen break is right at the end by the ferrule.

[Handy Don 12,226]

I’ve (probably foolishly) tested my lift by standing on the sleeve hitch and having it move my 200+ lbs up and down. So far no injuries.

 

Basic dry soil without big rocks weighs about 100 lbs. per cubic foot. That excavator looks to hold maybe 2 cubic feet?

Edited June 10 by Handy Don

[Skwerl58 704]

Nice work! This the first time I can remember seeing one of these excavators, will be on the lookout now for one. I see that you had been looking for a while so I probably will to! hope you get the cable issue figured out.

[ebinmaine 67,496]

@oliver2-44

 

What a ridiculously awesome piece of equipment!

 

 

[OoPEZoO 524]

No joke, that is awesome.  Very cool....I like it.  I have considered trying to replace the cable with ridged linkage of some sort more than a few times, but I always chicken out knowing that the worst that can happen currently is a broken cable.  If it was ridged, all that stress would get redistributed elsewhere and potentially do some real damage.

[ebinmaine 67,496]

1 hour ago, OoPEZoO said:

No joke, that is awesome.  Very cool....I like it.  I have considered trying to replace the cable with ridged linkage of some sort more than a few times, but I always chicken out knowing that the worst that can happen currently is a broken cable.  If it was ridged, all that stress would get redistributed elsewhere and potentially do some real damage.

 

 

Probably wise. 

Any "chain" has a weak link. 

In this case the cable is a reasonable one. 

 

 

That said....

Is there such a thing as a cable and/or carrying tube that's slightly oversized yet substantially stronger?

 

 

[OoPEZoO 524]

5 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

That said....

Is there such a thing as a cable and/or carrying tube that's slightly oversized yet substantially stronger?

Not that I know of, but I had been thinking about it for my 522xi.  It’s a slightly different setup than the classic tractors.  The 5xi tractors have a straight line of sight from the rear hitch to the hydraulic lift bar.  It would be easy to fab up a straight linkage bar, just not sure if it would be wise. 

[peter lena 8,627]

@OoPEZoO used to rebuild / re cable , winches on 2 1/2 ton trucks , s , very common to soak the cable in kerosene , cosmoline , then cycle it pulling   forward back  . those cables crack from neglect and loading , also get after the related movement points . that thing is a beast . pete 

[oliver2-44 9,750]

I got the new lift cable installed Saturday. By loosening the seat pan tool box and loosening the rear foot rest bolts I was able to sneak the new cable in place.  
No pictures, but my son watched the lift cable when I pushed backwards and no binding. However if I backed into the pile to push it higher the cable bound at the Clevis. We learned this could be avoided if I lifted the implement as I backed up the pile, or just avoided backing higher on the pile. 

Then back to work. 

This pic gives a better look at the rippers. They are replaceable if ever needed. 

This was a typical bite of dirt. When I added 275 pounds on top of the Gannon I could over flow it. (Don’t ask how I added the extra weight) 

This is one pass with the ripper. I usually made 2-3 passes with the ripper so it was well cut up to then blade down 

My beastly C160 take a well deserved rest. 

I have a 2nd hydraulic valve from a GT14 installed on this tractor but have not completed building some sort of rear hydraulic cylinder mount. Seeing as how I end up with these dirt work project every few years I really need to move this up my (wife’s) long list of priorities.  Really helping my sons with their house projects is high on her list (I just happen to find things these fine tractors can help me out with) 

Edited July 1 by oliver2-44