Just bought a wheel horse c-141 8 speed

[FAST 87]

Never mind I figured out it’s a 79. Thanks for the help pointing me in the right direction.

[ebinmaine 70,685]

6 hours ago, FAST said:

I really want to add a front end loader and possible a backhoe to this tractor. Any input either good or bad from any here? I want to move some dirt and do some digging projects all around my property. And I want to move away from shovels and wheelbarrowing. 

FEL can be bought or built.

Backhoe can be built.

There are blueprints available with parts lists.

Lots of folks have the FEL on a garden tractor. Backhoes are rare.

@wallfish could chime in on the backhoe.

 

 

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 11,241]

The 8186 on the ID plate is the Julian build date - 1978 8186 July 05 Wednesday

 

If it is readable could you post the serial number that follows the model number on the top line?

Should be something less than 4930 that has a build date of July 18.

 

Garry

[FAST 87]

5 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

FEL can be bought or built.

Backhoe can be built.

There are blueprints available with parts lists.

Lots of folks have the FEL on a garden tractor. Backhoes are rare.

@wallfish could chime in on the backhoe.

 

 

What blueprints with parts list would you guys recommend? I would love to not have to pay for them but I will if that’s what it takes.

[wallfish 17,485]

9 hours ago, FAST said:

What blueprints with parts list would you guys recommend? I would love to not have to pay for them but I will if that’s what it takes.

Trust me, spend the money on a set of good plans. It's money well spent on a proven design and not that much compared to the overall cost to build one.

I used pfengineering.com for back hoe plans. His plans are pretty good but they're just that, plans. There's no step by step instructions with them but you can get plenty of help from him (Paul) or right here on RedSquare.

If you are good with engineering your own stuff check out these free FEL plans. I have some free basic Back hoe plans somewhere too

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by wallfish

[wallfish 17,485]

This works good for no more shovels or wheel barrows.

 

[JCM 10,017]

@FAST     This is just my opinion on an FEL. I have used a Kwik-Way on 3 of my WH Tractors a C-165, 417-8 and a 520 H with the forward swept axle and reduction steering. The 520 - H was by far the most stable and easiest to steer, the 417-8 was stable but the steering was very hard and the least stable was the C-165 which I feel really needed Rear Dual Wheel Adapters and would highly recommend them. I found that it was a very handy attachment for many things but do not expect it to work like a much larger machine than what it is. It is great for moving firewood, bark mulch,and loading different things into a Pickup Bed and not so good trying to get a full bucket of material from a pile, it seems the Bucket cylinders do not curl as much as I would have liked them to do. Overall a very well engineered and well built attachment and a heck of a lot more fun than a wheelbarrow. I hope this helps and as I said earlier JMO.

[953 nut 57,841]

With a FEL the most important thing for stability is rear weight. Filling the tires with RTV antifreeze, wheel weights and a weight box will compensate for the added front weight.

[wallfish 17,485]

Found them. Gives the basic idea for building a hoe but of coarse it will need to be modified a little to go on the back of a tractor.

backhoe1.pdf

backhoe2.pdf

 

[JCM 10,017]

I forgot to mention that I did use the factory Kwik-Way weight box with roughly 150 Lbs. KW recommends a minimum of 280 lbs counter weight.

[FAST 87]

Very nice, thanks a lot for all the suggestions. Exactly what kind of information and opinions I was looking for. 

[FAST 87]

3 hours ago, wallfish said:

This works good for no more shovels or wheel barrows.

 

That’s exactly what I want my tractor to be like. Very nice. Thanks for posting the picture.