The replacement slew ram that was leaking has been replaced,



went for a double acting which has sped up the slew one way quite a bit,
(its plumbed in to draw fluid off the other side)

and the piano key spool has been mounted on a stepped bracket to put it a bit nearer the rear window, need to finish working and park it bearing in mind it rests down on those 'feet'
and if they are adjusted too high, the window can't shut as its controls are in the way,
so drop it downhill maybe



The tractors own pump seems to cope with it OK, some more oil was added as it relies on that for its braking after all.

How are you going to operate Richard? You need a reversing seat!

Have you swapped the slew ram from 2 single acting then?

Something to bare in mind is the return flow of oil fromthe spool valves. This can cause oil to foam sometimes so I have been told.

On the seat issue i've been asking about without success (but silly money) considering all I wanted was an old JCB seat, and there must be a few of those kicking around,
failing that I might use one of the swivels sold for boat/camper van seating if they look substantial enough
although whether mounted at top of seat base or at cab floor level I don't know yet
so for now I shall have to kneel on normal seat to use it.

The slew that was replaced was a double but you have to have one each side as the main post that the arm is mounted on as it has a system of brackets that the rams connect to, which themselves move about as slewed side to side
on sort of cams (I'll take a picture I think to illustrate)

anyway upshot is, one double ram won't be of any use, we just thought for the extra few quid, it might if nothing else take the strain off the remaining original ram!

Not heard of the 'foaming' does that look likely with modern oils?

I'd better ask around

Right, got the buckets swapped over this morning, and the trenching bucket should work great for creating gate post holes,

The ejector paddle in the bucket just rocks back and forth as you use the bucket,
as you curl it in the trench to raise it, the paddle is forced back by soil,
then as you tip out and the buckets facing downhill,
the paddle then falls forward (toward its stop) it pushes the soil forward & out.

Managed to get down about 3' which is just about enough, and certainly more than i'd want to dig myself,
the old fashioned levers don't allow quite as many ergonomical shortcuts as a reasonably modern machine but for what Iv'e paid so far who cares

Sounds OK. The ejector plate would be pushed towards the toe?

Yes thats right, it has an adjustable stop out of harms way at front of bucket.

Before I swapped it over and saw it working, I imagined the paddle remained in a fixed position perpendicular to the dipper & the bucket moved back and forth outside somehow, but its all gravity in fact,
although if it prevents me having to get out and clear it every few minutes I can see the benefits in that


Just need to see how deep the machine will let me go, (presumably the length of the dipper) as the main acter goes almost horizontal off the back of tractor

Hat off to you Richard for perservering with such a contraption - there's many operators on here would have threw the head up long ago (including me) to use such a machine for more than 10 mins

Ive posted a few others that tickled my fancy.

Hi, I'm no digger expert, but I have a little 2 ton minidigger. I've discovered with my trenching bucket that it's actually quite difficult to create gate post holes of a nice shape without them becoming elongated as you scoop the earth away.

For my money, if you've many holes to dig, then one of those PTO driven linkage mounted augers is a better way to go.....

Julian.

I looked at augers initially, and have noticed (as you say) post holes dug this way do indeed create 'slots' although I'm hoping as I only intend digging gatepost holes, I can drop either a sleeper/cut-down telegraph pole iin slot and stone it in,
The saving in concrete should be handy as I can now go deep enough to do without it.


For 'fence posts' I normally push those into the ground with the grain bucket full of earth (500kg)

and some delicate use of steering/clutch.
With a 360o machine its relatively easy to bear down on a round post placed where you want it pushing in, and you can 'twitch' the slew/dipper this way & that to keep it vertical
as you place the machines weight squarely on it,

Bit more fiddly on four wheels,
But possible.

I've sheared off both the original lower implement pins,
they had been on there since manufacture until I got it, dammit.

New ones aren't quite long enough (on the threaded end) to get a nut on enough, and just pull out,
What are pins supposed to be made off ideally,
could I get a local engineer to make some up from bar steel from a pattern, but make the thread 20mm longer, or do they have to a specially forged item, to take the stresses and strains...... of a clumsy operator?