Mistake? Harbor Freight Trencher/Backhoe Problems in the first 6 months…..
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ค. 2024
- 2023 and My Harbor Freight Trencher….. Did I make a mistake with this almost $4k purchase? I’m having 4 issues currently and would love to hear some feed back on how to fix the problems.
#harborfreight #backhoe #trencher
For the hose rubbing issue, I had the same problem.. they make a protective hose wrap which you could get and put on the houses in all the areas that may be a potential wear spot. Or to save $ you could just get an old piece of water hose, cut it to length, splice it down the middle, slip it over the hose areas needed, and zip tie it in place.
For hydraulic leak at the filter, you may have other leaks to happen also where the Chinese used Teflon tape. That is the wrong kind of seal tape and I don't know why they didn't use the correct tape at the factory. Hydraulic oil will break down the Teflon tape and cause a leak. You need the yellow tape which is made for gas and oils. It won't break down and cause leaks. So, I suggest that you replace ALL the white Teflon tape on the entire trencher with the correct yellow tape.
For the pin holes being egg shaped, replace all those bent pins with straight pins the same size. The bent on allows it to wobble which causes I it to deform the holes. A straight pin prevents that from happening. Many people have had the same issues with the factory bent pins and most all changed over to the straight pins.
The predator engines are very reliable, I suggest that you do at least keep a tarp over the engine when not using it to help keep moisture from getting into the engine.
I saw you other video you posted about your original bucket and even commented on it. You did not abuse the machine, it was/is a factory defect.. the Chinese steel is not as strong as ours plus they do not make the best welds. I've had to grind out and reweld some areas on mine. The Chinese welds have a lot of undercut and lack of penetration.
About hose fittings and bolts not being fully tightened, I had that same issue also. I suggest giving your trencher a thorough going over to make for sure that all of your hose connections and bolts are all tightened down properly. I found many of the pre-assembled bolts and hoses on mine that were NOT fully tightened, including the engine mounting bolts.
So, take preventative measures on your trencher to ensure you have good service out of it! And remember, keep everything lubed. There is no such thing as too much grease!
I love mine! It might work slow, but you can do almost any job with it!
That's super informative and great ideas.
Good video! Others have already given solutions for the "hose rubbing". So, what I did for the pins wearing out the holes is just replace them with some straight pins. I've been running straight pins in mine for six years and the holes are still good. You're off to a good start, I'll be following along.
To prevent excessive wear to your hydraulic lines have you considered sheathing the bundle of lines with a section of old radiator hose? This trick saved me many line replacements when I had a JD 400 backhoe. I would split the radiator hose once lengthwise for ease of installation and secure the sheathing with duct tape or zip ties outside of the wear/rub area. When the sheath showed considerable wear the replacement was cheap and easy. Individual lines can be sheathed using garden hose sections. I never worried about covering the full diameter of the hydraulic line just used duct tape to retain the hose sections on the wearing side. I have seen units where this was done using only dust tape but in practice, the fix didn't last nearly as long but sufficed as a field expedient. I have also seen hose clamps used to secure the protective sheath, DON'T do this, the hose clamps always cut through at the worst possible times (and being showered with hot hydraulic fluid is no fun).
To address the assembly pins wobble you could use a grade 8 bolt and an aircraft/nylon lock nut. This will slow assembly/disassembly but should end the wobble.
For hydraulic oil leaks, I always wrapped the threads with plumber's tape (PTFE) or used pipe dope. On a couple of trouble spots the addition of an O ring (or thicker O ring where one was already in place) solved my leaks. ( Nitrile O rings will last much longer.)
Last but not least splits and cracks in the buckets (or arms) are very common on all digging units, If you look at any unit used commercially you will find welded reinforcing plates on virtually every unit. It's a sign of working the unit beyond the rated capacity. It's not just a Chinese steel problem, it happens to all of them. The solution is to use less force or buy a welder and keep a stash of scrap steel on hand (sorry but that's just the nature of the beast).
Thanks for your honest review as I am considering the purchase of one of these units.
You can ask the shop to make a bucket for you using the xingling as a model and make it with stronger steel so you know will fit on your machine.
Tractor supply has pins the have a collar on them that will prevent the oblong wallowing. We just trashed out bucket did the same thing. Unfortunately ours it out of warranty. And the ring on the hoses. That’s a new one. I need to check ours out and see if it’s doing that to ours. They make a sleeve that will go over all the hoses and protect them. You would have to disconnect all the hoses and put the protector sleeve on it I think. All tractors companies have them. May have one at tractor supply.
I'd just use a couple of big zip ties and bundle those hoses loosely. You could also wrap some good duct tape around them, like polyken or another quality gaffers tape. I am not sure why they need to be held in place right there. I guess I'd have to see it. If they drooped a bit it shouldn't matter.
A simple solution for the outrigger pins is to put them in the other way around (with cotter pin on top; bend underneath).
Your hoses are rubbing because you don't have them routed properly. They all thouldve been routed through the frame as the others under the controls have. You will have less rubbing on the bolts from the ring.
As for the pins ovaling out the holes, that is a well documented problem. Best to not even use them and just replace with T pins from Tractor Supply from the beginning.
Hydro hoses: pull slack toward the valve in all of them, cable tie in a bundle at least until it clears that ring guide when swung fully in opposite direction.
Heavy duty Zip ties criss crossed @ supporting ring but not pulled to tight. Great video. 👍
Stationary brackets that weld to the machine With rubber mounts and bolt on clamps !
Increase the size of your pins on your out riggers Along with thick top and bottom Circle plates for the larger pins..
Install a new oil filter making sure you put a little oil on the rubber seal before installing!
Reinforce your new bucket on the bottom and sides before mounting it back in place..
Just a little tip from Massey Welding and Services in Wilsonville Al.
Keep in mind always work safely!
🇺🇸💯🇺🇸😎
A common problem with these towable backhoes is the lack of dual pressure regulators, hyd. systems should have a pressure regulator, and a h. p. relief valve in case the regulator allows excessive pressure that can damage working parts.
You are on the right track with the oblong holes...as for the leak...try some hydraulic pressure rated thread tape...seems to work in many scenarios..
I work for a rental shop that rents everything from a skilsaw all the way to a cat 235b ...lots of hydraulic problems i have to deal with...especially being rental machines..people seem to abuse it more if they dont own it
Pool noodle might be a bit big for the setup, cut you a piece of rubber from an old car mat or something and wrap it around all the hoses, then tape it with electrical or duct tape, works like a charm!
Use wire ties to Cinch Your Your hydraulic cables together And then attach them to the top of the ring. Don't send them to tightly But enough to keep all of the cables off of your screws.
Find a piece of old fire hose and wrap the hoses in and that should help with the wear on that . The filter may be leaking somewhere else and just heading to the lowest point , maybe check the o ring, my tractor did that and it took forever to find it. Great video, thanks for sharing.
I myself would reinforce the bucket after buying since China steel is softer than the states, renifirce any area needed,
Have a home built backhoe similar to that. I use a lot pool noodles' that are larger so the hoses slight inside of them. where that ring is would bolt a large short piece of pvc pipe and taper the ends.
Run spring metal around your hoses to prevent wear and tear on your hoses like you do on your front hoses by your bucket. Yould definitely need a larger ring or two larger rings to hold them together.
You need sheath all the rubber hoses with a metal braid and also Bolt in a new ring to split the amount of hoses so there's more free play
The ring issue is fixed by wrapping some rubber sheet ( or like material even leather) around the bundle of hoses and zip tie in place. Mine leaked like yours did too. I cleaned the threads and took the filter to napa for a replacement.
Find an old tire and cut a chunk of rubber out big enough that you could actually either wrap your holes into it and then side the ring or at least big enough that when you lay it in there, it’ll cover the two screws and keep your hoses off the end of the screws or find like an inner tube, rubber and cut it to put in there
just use a garden hose.. cut a slit in it and put it over the hydraulic hose.. do things the easy way
Split loom for the hydralic hoses
Tractor supply. Buy some 3/4" collars and 3/4" hitch pins with handle. Drill out to 3/4" inch, weld collar in place and done.
Shave down a pool noodle cut in half, wedge it behind the hoses in the ring and tape it on either side. And. Maybe try turning that fitting on the filter 180 degrees and take the tight bend and pressure off the fitting. From the camera angle it looks tight is what I’m going on.
Split radiator hose zip tied together. Old mud flap would work better but much more of a pain to cut and bend
As for your bucket... look up hardfacing..
Hardfacing welding is the way to strengthen the buckets from cracking more ...makes them a bit more heavy duty
Use a cut of a plastic bottle to slide down on clip in-between the frame and lines.
Stick a piece of tire tread between the hoses and the bolts or take a zip tie and bind the hoses to the outside of the bracket pulling them away from the bolts.
Cut you a piece of a pool noodle for the hose problem. It is cheap and it worked for me.
for the hose problem go to tractor supply get a piece of rubber belt 2 inches wide wrap around the hoses
I switched to straight tractor pins on the outriggers that radius on the bent pins tears the hole open.
At 2:45 minutes in, the hose that’s rubbing looks like it might be in the wrong spot as that hose is tight. There’s another hose that has slack in it and is way off from the others, and those two hoses should probably be swapped in my opinion.
They were matched by numbers to the assembly instructions but anything could be wrong coming from china haha
@@TheGlassFamilyvlog Ah. Well you’re right about it being from across the way, “It’s like a box of chocolates” 😉
The hoses rubbing could be fixed with a milk jug, a pair of scissors and some zip ties. Something thicker than a milk jug would be better though.
Chaffing sock for the hydraulic lines..take some old rubber radiator hose..slice it like you would gut a fish... open it up and place it around the hydraulic hoses and slide it through that ring...and zip tie it shut..should stop the hoses from rubbing on the ring and instead itll rub on the rubber radiator hose wrapped around it
Need to lurn how to mig weld. 5 to 10 dollars to repair. How to protect your hoses. Buy larger rubber hose and zip tie them into place. On pins tractor supply 6 to 10 dollars for 2 bushing. And weld into place.
This. Cheap and easy. Get a MiG welder bro.
@@VetvsWorld I have mig
@@jtsokiehobbyandadventures6666 👍🏼
Use fire hose. Volunteer companies through the stuff away. They are thick rubber encased in Canvas.
Radiator hose around the hoses.... Not permanent or perfect but it'll last for another 6mon....
You can keep those hoses from wearing against the bolts by covering the bolts. I would just slap a piece of cheap plastic over the bolts and secure it with good ol' duct tape.
Split a pvc pipe for hose wear. Put a radius on ends so it doesn’t wear on there
If Red Green has taught me anything, it's that all of your problems could be solved with the proper application of duct tape.
UHMW plastic strips to get the hoses away from the screws
you could replace the phillip head screws with allen heads! they are not sharp heads.
also you could obtain a larger sized ring or use a zip tie to keep them away from the screws.
oil leaks can be tricky seals o-rings rubber gaskets small imperfections allow slow leaks.
is it leaking only when running or both sitting and running? nice video, really liked the oak table
with the historic graghitti written on the drawer. good luck and take care great bottles finds.
When it’s sitting surprisingly. Hydraulics have so much pressure it’s hard to tell. That’s the filter so I may just replace it 🤷
use a peice of PVC or rubber line to sleeve that line caddie and prevent the rubbing.
hot glue on heads, can mold a cap, peel off if ever need to remove.
Piece of PVC pipe around those hoses in the ring
Yours is misassembled.
My backhoe is a bit over 2 years old. I've had a few repairs, but the thing is great as long as you don't overload it.
Bucket needs straps and a diagonal brace inside. I should get pics of my reinforced bucket. It's about 10 pounds of added metal.
THE PIVOT PINS HAVE ZERKS
The hoses being properly routed will stop your chafing of the hose.
The pins for the legs need to be replaced with tractor drop-in hitch pins. NO BEND. The OEM bent pins are just wrong.
I'd just get a bigger hose and split it and wrap all my hoses in it around the clamp
Hey where can I buy control valve
Hello 👋 am ndesh from Kenya I have made backhoe like that but i have one problem
Get a heavy piece of leather and wrap the hoses with it where they go through the ring
Wrap the hoses in fire hose.
Conduit, rubber .
Or. Take the screws out and put pop rivets in.
Re route your hoses.
VACCUM HOSE SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE. REPLACE HYDRAULIC HOUSING AND FILTER.
Something is only as strong as its weakest point. 🧐
Duck tape the hoses silly man
Take a piece of rubber mud flap and slide into the ring then some zip ties should stop the hose wearing. And the filter may need to clean the o ring or replace it
But not Harbor Freight zips
@@mountainman5025 😉😉
fer a long time i was all bout be american and buy american till i realized that american companies have chinese build all their machinery and products, and just charge three times what you can pay to get them from the original manufacturer under the chinese name. i would buy cutting tools and machine shop supplies from a local vendor till i realized that the local guys just buy the inventory from some mega dealer on the internet. so instead of dealing with the local vendors i gave in and buy from M.S.C. and they deliver next day to my door and have knowledgeable folks on the phone, as before i would try to deal with the local boys and ususallly the stuff i needed they had to order and i would have to return to the store and thus two trips to the store instead of me just phone call to M.S.C.. I have been a machinist for 45 years and watched the government kill i'ts industrial base to satisfy wealthy corporations who care about nothing but profit. they successfully killed most of the union shops and My disposable income shrunk every year untill i find i had more disposable income as an apprentice machinist than i had as a machine shop owner. We will soon be slaves to the chinese state, and i will become one of the Grateful Dead.
I'd say the steel is crap, I've never seen anything of quality come from China