Here is a response we recently made to a customer regarding our backhoes.  We felt this would be very informative to all of you.

Question:

I'm interested in the E60 or E70 backhoes After some comparison shopping, I noticed you only offer a 3" X 12" hydraulic cylinder. The standard with other brands are 3" to 3/12" X 18 to 20" length.

Why does your backhoe only require a 12" cylinder?

Hello and thank you for your inquiry.

We are the originators of this style of backhoe using a hydraulic cylinder in 1998. We spent years on design and trial and error to finally decide on this design. A couple of others that came along later had no idea what they were doing and then the next wave of companies came along and just copied them. Many copied our boom style but none have been able to copy our cylinder dynamics because it is expensive to produce in small numbers and most of these guys are small players making themselves out to be something they are not. Look closely at our competitors designs and you will see that they are almost exact copies of each other or they are actually made by one company in North Carolina which is a copy of one produced in Iowa, yet all of the resellers re-badge it as theirs. They all have the exact design, but can’t really explain why.

There are two main theories.

1: Copy how an excavator works. They use a longer stroke cylinder and a linkage. That is great on an excavator because you have an extra joint that allows you to lift the stick up high and reach. The bucket needs to sweep back further in that case but not as effective on a skid steer backhoe and unnecessary.  It just adds extra parts that you don't need.

2: A cylinder that will handle the same amount of rotation with no linkage. In that case they just put the longest stroke they can onto the backhoe and hope for the best. They usually have to add stops because what works in one direction, does not work in the other, so the stroke isn’t actually being fully utilized. They usually rotate the bucket too far so the bucket ends up packing material into it when it comes up against the bottom of the boom.

A few facts:
The cylinder stroke has nothing to do with power in this application. Stroke just adds rotation. The diameter of the cylinder is what creates power when in conjunction with your system pressure. The ideal design incorporates just the right rotation to the amount of power required in this application. The rest just goes into bypass to protect your machine. The rod thickness is one of the most important things, but very few talk about it. This is your protection when pulling with the cylinder extended. There is way less deflection which can end in disaster if it bucks and bends. We really only need a 2-1/2” cylinder to achieve the correct power, but could not get the right rod thickness without going to a 3”.

We figured this out by 2002 and then went after making it a truly useful tool that would be safe for your machine to use.

1: We build a safety into our cylinders so that when you pull, it does not run the risk of over pressuring your boom. This is huge as you can break your quick attach, cylinders, pins or hydraulics.

2: We make the only quick connecting means for your buckets. Everyone else says that you can just drive their pin out. Maybe on the first day that will work. Add a little rust and grime and that is just not going to happen so you can plan on pretty much keeping the same bucket on for life.

3: The amount of customization that we have been able to achieve has been insurmountable. Our mounting system and and systematic approach has made it that these booms are in many parts of the world doing a lot of different functions. It is not just a backhoe. It is a tool that no one should be without.

I know for a fact that we have thousands more of these in the field compared to any other company. All of our issues were worked out over a decade ago. Do you really want to take a chance on unproven copies?

That is the beauty of working with Skid Steer Solutions.  Pretty much any attachment you see on the market today, we were working with a decade before the rest. We know the attachments and we know the machines that they are intended to work with.