honkeytonk_man
New User
I'm a long time lurker on this site but finally have some hopefully helpful information to contribute. This past spring I purchased a TMI Hornet BH7600 3 point backhoe to mount on my '54 Ford NAA.
Despite searching online I found very little first hand review of this model.
As a little background I have approx 40 acres that I live on in southern Oregon. Its mostly irrigated pasture and orchard. I have/had too many trenching and general maintenance jobs that just weren't happening because I didn't have a backhoe. Renting is a huge hassle for odd jobs but at the same time $12-15K for a decent 20 year old Case 580K or similar seemed like overkill for a machine I needed 20 days a year.
I was somewhat nervous buying a $3800 three point hoe of Chinese origin with no verifiable online reviews to speak of and questionable parts availability.
Having bought this hoe and talked to the importer/distributor at length I'm confidant this hoe will exchange hard parts with the seemingly well supported woodmax brand backhoes. The hydraulics are different that the woodmax but everything else seems identical. I'm pretty certain they come out of the same chicom factory. Hoses are standard SAE, hydraulic filter is replaceable with a NAPA part and nuts and bolts are all metric.
This hoe seems supportable.
In my area used three point hoes rarely show up for sale and when they do they cost as much as this hoe was going for new and complete. I figured I would give it a try.
After some shipping delay due to a payment snafu with paypal my hoe arrived to my local shipping terminal complete and well packed.
Installation took a full day. Some of this was due to one side of the rigid toplink being way out of spec. One of the mounting holes was drilled 3/8" off so the link would not line up with the other pieces (shown in pic). The seller was willing to send me replacement pieces to make it work but I wanted this hoe up and running so welding the bad hole up and re-drilled it. It worked out fine but took up some time and should not have been needed in the first place. The Toplink made me nervous but that was the only real fault I encountered.
I ended up mounting this hoe much closer to the rear of the tractor and higher than typical. The way it is mounted the bottom mounting metal of the hoe sits flat atop my lift arms, I drilled holes in the hoe mounting frame and used bolts instead of the provided pins. Additionally I used two leveling turn buckles from the ears on my rear end housing in conjunction with the provided solid top link to make a "5" point link to spread the stresses out as much as possible. As it is the mounting is quite solid. However mounting in a more typical fashion further out and using the three point I think would have a lot of slop.
The provided PTO pump setup works great...All in all I am happy with how this unit performs. except that the boom swing is way to fast so you have to be gentle if you want smooth operation The limiting factor with this unit is the weight of the tractor as it will lift it and move it around even with the outriggers down.
My NAA has a jungle gym front end loader that made it a giant PITA to steer. I had considered adding power steering but the cost was always prohibitive...Not anymore. Hanging 1,000lb off the back has made the steering on this tractor perfect. The loader is way more useful now as a result too.
Its hard to quantify how good or bad this unit is...It not in the same league as a real backhoe (such as a Case 580, Ford 500, etc) those machines weight 3-5 times as much and cost more than I can spare. I would say this will dig as well as a 15-20hp mini excavator but with less mobility in tight spaces. It will dig projects in a day that would take a week or two with a shovel.
I am glad I bought it. For my limited purposes its a good fit. If I was going to dig a basement I would rent a real hoe or farm the work out. But for doing maintenance and trenching and general farm work its great.
A couple cavaets: If I only had one tractor and wanted to ever use other implements I wouldn't buy this. I installed this hoe as rigidly as possible and I consider it a semi permanent install. I have a MF-65 that doesn't have a loader that I use with a plow, bushhog, blade, post pounder etc. It pulls so much better than the Ford did (that was super front heavy with the loader). If I had to hook this backhoe up everythime I want to do a project I would use it much less often. If you have multiple tractors, especially one with a front end loader or a bad three point lift (don't need the lift once mounted) that you want to dedicate as a hoe this is a good fit. I bought the optional thumb with this tractor but I think if I had to do it over again I would skip it...It seems like it would be useful but I just haven't found myself using it, it just sits in the barn as its in the way when digging.
So within its limitations for $3800 delivered this hoe will do alot of work and 10 months after purchase I think I got my moneys worth.
Despite searching online I found very little first hand review of this model.
As a little background I have approx 40 acres that I live on in southern Oregon. Its mostly irrigated pasture and orchard. I have/had too many trenching and general maintenance jobs that just weren't happening because I didn't have a backhoe. Renting is a huge hassle for odd jobs but at the same time $12-15K for a decent 20 year old Case 580K or similar seemed like overkill for a machine I needed 20 days a year.
I was somewhat nervous buying a $3800 three point hoe of Chinese origin with no verifiable online reviews to speak of and questionable parts availability.
Having bought this hoe and talked to the importer/distributor at length I'm confidant this hoe will exchange hard parts with the seemingly well supported woodmax brand backhoes. The hydraulics are different that the woodmax but everything else seems identical. I'm pretty certain they come out of the same chicom factory. Hoses are standard SAE, hydraulic filter is replaceable with a NAPA part and nuts and bolts are all metric.
This hoe seems supportable.
In my area used three point hoes rarely show up for sale and when they do they cost as much as this hoe was going for new and complete. I figured I would give it a try.
After some shipping delay due to a payment snafu with paypal my hoe arrived to my local shipping terminal complete and well packed.
Installation took a full day. Some of this was due to one side of the rigid toplink being way out of spec. One of the mounting holes was drilled 3/8" off so the link would not line up with the other pieces (shown in pic). The seller was willing to send me replacement pieces to make it work but I wanted this hoe up and running so welding the bad hole up and re-drilled it. It worked out fine but took up some time and should not have been needed in the first place. The Toplink made me nervous but that was the only real fault I encountered.
I ended up mounting this hoe much closer to the rear of the tractor and higher than typical. The way it is mounted the bottom mounting metal of the hoe sits flat atop my lift arms, I drilled holes in the hoe mounting frame and used bolts instead of the provided pins. Additionally I used two leveling turn buckles from the ears on my rear end housing in conjunction with the provided solid top link to make a "5" point link to spread the stresses out as much as possible. As it is the mounting is quite solid. However mounting in a more typical fashion further out and using the three point I think would have a lot of slop.
The provided PTO pump setup works great...All in all I am happy with how this unit performs. except that the boom swing is way to fast so you have to be gentle if you want smooth operation The limiting factor with this unit is the weight of the tractor as it will lift it and move it around even with the outriggers down.
My NAA has a jungle gym front end loader that made it a giant PITA to steer. I had considered adding power steering but the cost was always prohibitive...Not anymore. Hanging 1,000lb off the back has made the steering on this tractor perfect. The loader is way more useful now as a result too.
Its hard to quantify how good or bad this unit is...It not in the same league as a real backhoe (such as a Case 580, Ford 500, etc) those machines weight 3-5 times as much and cost more than I can spare. I would say this will dig as well as a 15-20hp mini excavator but with less mobility in tight spaces. It will dig projects in a day that would take a week or two with a shovel.
I am glad I bought it. For my limited purposes its a good fit. If I was going to dig a basement I would rent a real hoe or farm the work out. But for doing maintenance and trenching and general farm work its great.
A couple cavaets: If I only had one tractor and wanted to ever use other implements I wouldn't buy this. I installed this hoe as rigidly as possible and I consider it a semi permanent install. I have a MF-65 that doesn't have a loader that I use with a plow, bushhog, blade, post pounder etc. It pulls so much better than the Ford did (that was super front heavy with the loader). If I had to hook this backhoe up everythime I want to do a project I would use it much less often. If you have multiple tractors, especially one with a front end loader or a bad three point lift (don't need the lift once mounted) that you want to dedicate as a hoe this is a good fit. I bought the optional thumb with this tractor but I think if I had to do it over again I would skip it...It seems like it would be useful but I just haven't found myself using it, it just sits in the barn as its in the way when digging.
So within its limitations for $3800 delivered this hoe will do alot of work and 10 months after purchase I think I got my moneys worth.