BXExpanded BH Dolly for BX25D Tractor

[William1]

I finally bought one, now that I have a concrete floor and not mud. As always, BXExpanded shipped quickly and complete. I have the underbelly pan, quick on forks and now this dolly. I wanted a PDF file of the instructions, emailed and withing the hour, got a pdf file. Kudos BXExpanded!
The BH was off my tractor, sitting on some 6"X6" blocking. To get it on the dolly, I had to put it on the tractor. No biggie, right? No, if you can screw up, I can do it better! Confidence.
I could not get the tractor and the lower pins to mate. However, I succeeded in knocking the blocks, resulting the the BH falling, the control levers bumping the seat and fully extending boom, tilting the BH. I was sca-rewed! Hydraulic lines.... Yikes!!!! No way to relieve pressure in the lines, I had to get the BH righted.
Tried a Jack. Nope Panicking.Then I thought about the steel beam (engineered to lift 10,000 pounds) in my shop, a trolley on it and the come-a-long (half ton?) Hmmmmmm.... Grabbed a sling, and clicked the come-a-long. It righted the BH. This was great! I was not under the beam but about 6' to one side so as I lifted, the BH moved. I was panicking again! But The Gods of Fools watched over me and all was OK.
BH now sitting correct, I was able to get it lined up and the pins in. Phew!!!
Read the BXExpanded instructions 50 times and easily got the BH set on the dolly right. Easily rolled it to a corner of the shop.

I only put the trolley on this beam because it was there. Hung a come-a-long on it because I had it already, used long ago for garden/tree slinging. I never really thought I'd be using the beam, it was designed in to eliminate any posts and allow huge second floor loading.

 

[DustyRusty]

I have both the BXpanded backhoe dolly and the loader dolly. The only thing that I don't like about them both is that they only have swiveling wheels at one end, and the other end is fixed. This makes it more difficult to align to the tractor.
I must admit that I have never encountered a problem putting my backhoe onto the tractor, however, I did have a problem getting it off because the parts that hold it on didn't want to release. I have since learned that they should be sprayed with lubricant and "exercised" periodically even if you are not going to remove the backhoe at that time.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

gee, I put my 24' I beam in TO work on tractors, 25 years ago. It sports 3 trolleys, 2 chain hoists and an electric one. If you ever have to 'split a tractor' an overhead Ibeam is the cat's meow.......purrrrrrfect.
BTW neighbours would be very,ver upset if I EVER took the BH off my BX23S..they always have a 'small' job for me to do !

 

[William1]

Dolly was great for moving it about in my building. Easy to get out of the way and not waste space.
I had to re-install the BH for the first time since putting it on the dolly. Trepidation.
Followed the instructions (IDIOT!!!!) Two minute frustration free job! Wow!
Certainly more difficult to remove but.....I'm almost to wearing velcro sneakers so there's that.

Three cheers to BX Expanded! Maybe.... I'll get a FEL dolly too though it would be rare that I did not need it.

I do kind of need ballast with the BH off, but that adds a lot of time to the job, re-attaching the 3pt arms. Not hard just time consuming. So far, its been fine without the weight. If only.... They made a ballast box that could slip on the BH mounts, keeping the back of the tractor short...... I know, need hydraulics to move it.

 

[BX25D Rookie]

I also have the backhoe cart, it's a nice accessory!

I also recently got a set of plans for a similar design rolling cart for my 4 foot rotary cutter which I store in a shipping container. With the rotary cutter sitting on the floor of the shipping container, it is a pain to remove/install. When warm weather arrives, I'm going to fab up the rolling cart for the rotary cutter to ease the remove/install process.

Just like removing/installing the backhoe, routine practice with the three point hitch remove/install,
and over time it becomes easier and much less time consuming.
If you do loader work with the backhoe removed, you should have some rear mounted weight.
I built this ballast barrel which is concrete filled for my BX 25.

You could fabricate a rear ballast barrel/box that mounted on the BX backhoe attachment points.
You could have casters on the bottom so you could roll it around inside your building when it wasn't mounted on your tractor. You could also lift it with a chain hoist or electric hoist for when it needed to be hoisted up off the floor for the install on the BX backhoe mounting points.
It should be simple for fabrication as you already own the pattern.
Simply use the backhoe as the "pattern" for the ballast box that mounts on the BX backhoe mounts.

IMG_20230908_144139291 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20230920_164800040_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

 

[William1]

I also have the backhoe cart, it's a nice accessory!

I also recently got a set of plans for a similar design rolling cart for my 4 foot rotary cutter which I store in a shipping container. With the rotary cutter sitting on the floor of the shipping container, it is a pain to remove/install. When warm weather arrives, I'm going to fab up the rolling cart for the rotary cutter to ease the remove/install process.

Just like removing/installing the backhoe, routine practice with the three point hitch remove/install,
and over time it becomes easier and much less time consuming.
If you do loader work with the backhoe removed, you should have some rear mounted weight.
I built this ballast barrel which is concrete filled for my BX 25.

You could fabricate a rear ballast barrel/box that mounted on the BX backhoe attachment points.
You could have casters on the bottom so you could roll it around inside your building when it wasn't mounted on your tractor. You could also lift it with a chain hoist or electric hoist for when it needed to be hoisted up off the floor for the install on the BX backhoe mounting points.
It should be simple for fabrication as you already own the pattern.
Simply use the backhoe as the "pattern" for the ballast box that mounts on the BX backhoe mounts.

IMG_20230908_144139291 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20230920_164800040_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

I do have a hoist on a trolley in my outbuilding! Never thought of that. Simply to lift and glide to the back of the tractor and set in place. Some serious thought on this idea. Thanks!
One trick will be to make the ballast protrude as little as possible out the back as I'm trying to keep the over all tractor length down/short if possible.

 

[BX25D Rookie]

^^^
As you can see in my above photos, my backhoe cart arrived after the backhoe was already removed
and parked on wood cribbing. I did eventually get it moved over onto the cart without very much drama.
I did so without re-attaching the backhoe onto the tractor. (floor jack, cribbing, bottle jack, pry bars)

Several things to remember when you have the backhoe on the cart.

1.) Make sure you install several ratchet straps on the backhoe "outriggers" so they don't "sag" over time and cause property damage to something nearby.

2.) Install several pieces of 2" x 4" wood on the backhoe cart "rails" so the when the backhoe boom and dipper stick eventually sag (and they always do) the backhoe is still solidly on the cart, and the boom pivot joint isn't dragging on the floor which makes the cart very difficult to move around.
The "across the backhoe cart frame" 2" x 4" should sit right underneath where the backhoe boom pivot point attaches the backhoe boom to the backhoe frame. Stack the wood there so it cannot sag over time.