Red Rock/Trencherman Towable Backhoe from Princess Auto Let The Mods Begin !!! 

Of course u cant leave things alone. Mfrs are in business to sell sell sell. You unuquely have the ability to see beyond how they mfr tools with your yrs of experience & exposure. You know exactly what applications are missing so you fabricate them in order to meet your needs. Thats a great gift. My daddy was a machinist so he knew all the basics of how things worked. He fabricated & altered tools & weaponry for improvements consistently in his lifetime. The mods are phenomenal Dave. You should be proud. I know u were just itching to try out all ur mods. Besides they just dint make things like they used to anymore either. Very cool. Enjoy the evening.

Really nice!

I have a similar machine made in England from 1986. The name on the manufacturer plate says FYNE. I fabricated a 20 inch long root ripper tooth (5/8" plate) with big, sharp sawz-all style teeth for tearing out tree stumps. 2 pins and it swaps with the bucket. Also added an adjustable thumb made with heavy 4" C-channel. I like the wheels. 👍

You should be proud of them wheels

Nice job. Looking forward to seeing the machine being towed. Good choice on the new seat. Thanks for the video.

Dave, you're no less than a genius. Great mods!

Great idea, thanks.

If you contact Summitt Hydraulics , they can help with Engineering and prices for hydraulics are real real reasonable. Jut finished one myself. Works great and drives, Less than 500 invested

Gotta love Princess Auto. Great upgrades u did there.

When I watched your assembly video, I was thinking all the while about a similar wheel setup. Thanks for doing that and showing it to us.

Awesome modification Dave! I think you came up with a brilliant solution. Digging the new yellow seat!😂 Looking forward to your next video. Continued blessings from San Antonio, Texas.

Try just flipping the legs for the casterv wheels over, instead of changing sides, just to see what the difference would be!

Pretty ingenious. Can't wait to see them in action.

Good job. You've made some good mods to it. Can't wait to see it perform.

Very nice upgrade with the wheels .Don't let princess auto steal the idea .

That's awesome MacGyver can't wait to see them in operation

Great

looking good, keep up the good work

Hello Sparky 👋 Great 👍 job on the 🚜 love your new wheels and seat . Looking good I think the tractor perfect for your property. Blessings from your Michigan neighbor 💕. Tell Cindy hello 👋.

Absolute legend I was hoping you could modify the beast with front wheels. Super can’t wait to see in action. Great job mate.

The main purpose of the plate on top is to keep the outrigger from sinking into the ground. It looks perfect for mounting a swivel caster on to me though, almost like it was built for it.

Awesome! And yellow is my favorite color.

yes i agree, cool mods ...thumbs up !!

much needed improvements to an already cool machine. the seat makes it much safer and easier to work longer without getting beat to death. great fab work on the wheel brackets. i have years of metal fab experience and it always gives me greater appreciation when you design and build your own things. build it like you want it.

Hi Dave loving the mods, great idea and execution in making those big castor type wheels. The new chair looks to be a much better option. I couldn't help but think that you are building a Transformer ......welcome to Optimus Backhoe.... robot in disguise 😁 peace and Blessings Sir

great job on the mods. excellent wheels. great channel

WOOOHHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! GO SPARKY GO!!!!!!!!! F'n AWESOME!!!!! You made my day, and it only started. Cant wait to get my kid to weld us up a set! WE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU DAAAAAAAAAAAVE!!!!!!!!!! ❤ 🇨🇦

Good job!!

Great idea

Looking good Sparky

great idea. thanks.

Look in your area about foam filling the tires. (Making them a solid rubber tire) They will add some weight, but you wont ever need to deal with a flat tire or the weight. Excellent mod!

Pretty good congrats

Great Video

The only suggestion I would make is the brackets for the casters. Make them in an "L" shape. This would relieve the lateral forces while turning as tha boom and bucket still have considerable weight and would have considerable side pressure while turning

Great job on the digger Dave. Awesome idea hope it works good .keep it going

Picking mine up today at PA . I will grab that seat also. Nice upgrade.

Good proof of concept. I'd add some angle tied in around the caster to give some rigidity. They will over time rack to one side or the other because there is no side to side reinforcement.

Good thinking Dave😊

Awesome!!!!

Beautiful engineering

very clever

Those top plates are for digging in soft soil to help prevent outrigger sinking while digging... what those plates are really good for though is to attach some wood blocks to while digging from a paved surface such as concrete or blacktop or to add wider spreader boards to stop sinking while working in mud/clay

👍👍

Love it I would have done the same by the way....I love turkey....with gravy lol 😆

👋😎👍

Nortrack still sells them, i used a hitch extension and an trailer jack ( with caster) to move around

The plates on the top i beleve are to stop it digging in too far. I have the same one, and if they werent there, the downriggers would dig in really deep as you dig, especially on softer ground. Hopefully that makes sense :)

Instead of thrust bearings I used 2 layers of teflon on my pivots, the seat looks like the John Deere on my tractor. from NZ

Looks just like the Northern model which I have,they are nice machines just make sure you grease the wheel bearings

I've found that if you flip the out riggers you get extra 1 to 2 ft deeper when digging.

I have an older version of the Princess Auto towable excavator I bought it in 2015, I have done a lot of work with mine. The biggest issue I see with mine is the boom swing at 120 deg is not quite far enough and I haven't figured out a fix yet. They are a real workhorse.

You are NOT a Davie dumb dumb that's for sure! Don't ever call your self that! You're incredibly talented! I'm happy that you and Cindy have each other! 🎉

That'll work

The Plates are to stop it digging itself into the floor.

Nice.. Should have given a demo of moving it around on the wheels.

Damn good job it's got a severe case of "toe out" on the swiveling wheels, not to mention the strongest tendency to *caster* to keep it that way, that i've ever seen designed into a wheel mount, or it would roll away by itself without a moment's notice.

Very nice mods, and Yeee Haaa…what a FANTASTIC new seat! I’m very happy for ya. I would bolt on a crank jack to get it on off your utility trucks ball hitch next. You should be able to now quickly pull the machine around nicely to just where you need it and unhook. Why is it that you must criss-cross the down-rigger arms, cant you just pull one out, and flip it? Enjoy, can’t wait to see what you do next. Thanks for the video. Be blessed my friend. ✌️😎👍

I understand why you have to switch sides on the wheels on the hitch side but why on the casters side?

Good idea with the bogie wheels. Same size as the rears to get around easier. Maybe patent it? Lol

Any further videos

The weld on My Machine broke at the Neck,took a year to get a new body.

You need to find a way to use the hydraulics to drive the wheel.

Now it could be me but since each tire holds 500lbs, the hydraulics are producing more force than 1000lbs. Also the "pointed "end of the arm is to hold it firmly in the ground. I guess if you look at a backhoe attachment on a tractor, it has hydraulic outriggers that stabilize it(like the pointed arms). Hopefully the tires won't blow. Looks good though.

Hi Sparky, I bought the same excavator as you. When you grease the 3 pins, with zerk, do you have grease going out at both end ? On mine, grease get out only at one end, and pins stay dry half pin lenght. I am installing a second zerk on each pin. Let me know if you have better idea. Thanks.

They must have seen your video. My new one doesn't have holes in the plates on outrigger 😂

How much do they cost ?

i love mine. i hate mine :) um. here in australia, baumrag. "bum-rag". the HF of australia... "german engineering..." lol bh620 or something? too light to break in, and then it drags around and yeah. spend a lot of time wriggling back and forth doing nothing. sometimes i contemplate a set of ground screws up front, if anything. iirc, there was a set of pegs in that box i threw out? once youre in and can pull up rather than back... shes fine. sometimes it helps to sink a post hole digger in first, give yourself something to bite into. same time, it was useful for getting a Hbeam down from on top of a shipping container... cant prop a typical excavator up on blocks like that! spent years with that thing balanced across the doors, wondering how the hell i get it down... without dropping it. still dropped it :) the last two foot. better than two metres. hook for lifting and pulling fence posts, and also... picking up the tines from the tractor, "mega rake". reminds me i meant to buy some more tines... anvil in the elbow for a log splitter. can have the machine weight assist. got some motors, contemplating adding slew... dont feel the need for driven wheels, its plenty maneuverable. more than an excavator at times. it is a bit too wide for some spots but you can still deal with it... you dont HAVE to use the legs it comes with! but slew would be nice. in fact, its almost necessary... you have to face the hole. then you have the issue of dumping OUT of the hole. youre limited to this particular orientation simply to deal with the dirt. having just 180 of rotation would cure that. im not sticking to mere trenches! i threw a diesel on mine first, with a 6kva genset. and stuffed up on the overcenter slip belt clutch for the hydraulics. ummm. after actually using a calculator last night, i came up with needing FIVE belts for the "10hp" at "3000rpm"... no wonder the poor lil a23 is getting shredded after a few hours! better fix that now. dammit. was a real nice overcenter. use a chain and dog clutch i guess. just dont wanna pump oil unnecessarily when generating. and... a major thing im musing over... flipping the arm pivot over, having the ram backwards to how it is. i always prefer my rams to be extending when under load, rather than contracting. just like they do in the real ones... it doesnt look like it will be terribly hard. and possibly hacking out all the side plates, and welding in some more to bring the pins on the rams up to 3 bearing surfaces rather than one... again, more... "industrial". and tighten them all up cus its got the slop when new of a fifty year old excavator thats never had a holiday... oh yeah... counterbore all the grease nipples into the pins. strap the hoses down tighter... theres a freaking oil strainer in that lower hose mounting block flange thing! and it is NOT a standard size, from what i could find... yeah, i TOLD myself... "pop off the flange BEFORE hitting it with the plasma cutter... BEFORE"... do i ever listen? ffs

You don't have to move them from side to side. Just flip them over is all you need to do.

just remember if you lift the boom went on all 4 wheels that thing is going to roll away your brake is the boom

DMF Homestead put wheels on his

Check out okie Jeepin’. He did some modifications to him. He has some great ideas too.

remember that the thing is on 4 wheels. It will roll if you are not attached to something or have the bucket on the ground. I cannot see if it is necessary to switch sides with the arms, but I can't see from the video what it looks like. I don't know if you could put brakes on one or two of the tires.

I think it will help you

Why bother switching sides when you flip the casters over? Won't they fit into the same hole upside down?? It'd save ya a bit of (useless) lugging from left to right all the time.

Coffee cup holder and Roll Over Protection?

Why do you have to swap from one side to the other when moving it

Great idea but...Hopefully you never have to go Up Hill...or pulling...down hill.

where did you get your seat?

Not sure why you went from lt to rt rt to lt. just flip them over on the same side

So is that the intention of the manufacturer for that plate and hole to buy castors from them???

I have one of those it will drag my 27 horse jd 3005 all over

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🤔🤔🧐🧐🧐🧐

Yellow seat is junk. I bought one. Bends easy.

you don't have to swap side to side its the same angle

Spoiler Alert. Save yourself the trip from side to side, they are exactly the same as you built. Love mine and btw watch the cylinder rod ends they rotate after a while turn themselves off.

other than too much talking its good.

Wow just imagine if you actually bought a nice mini Excav.. I cringe when I see these. Glad your additude is killer bcuz that machine is a big Headache

Yeah but no cup holder so it's junk.

Need the angle on the mountings adjusted so the casters are flat and not angled down. I don't they can swivel the way they are now

I do not think you have to switch sides, but I might be wrong!