2021 - Volume #45, Issue #2, Page #14
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“Best Buy” Compact Excavator
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“The photos show how my Takeuchi compact excavator hooks up to the splitter,” says Zimmerman. “The splitter mounts in place of the bucket. It lets me split firewood and load it into a truck or trailer without ever getting off the excavator. I can swing the splitter around just like I would swing the bucket around, without moving the machine and tearing up the ground.”
The close-up photo shows his home-built, quick-tach “bucket curl” that’s operated by a hydraulic cylinder. “I use the bucket curl to swivel the splitter from a horizontal position to a vertical position, and then split the log and drop the pieces into a truck or trailer,” says Zimmerman. “I used a piece of pipe, the cutting edge off a dozer blade, and worn out teeth from an old excavator to build the bucket curl.”
He also built a bracket-mounted receiver hitch for the excavator so he can tow a trailer around after loading firewood into it. The receiver hitch is supported by 3 pieces of square tubing welded to the excavator’s frame.
“My Takeuchi excavator is really handy. Besides making firewood, I also use it to dig trenches and to unload stuff from my trailers,” notes Zimmerman.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dean Zimmerman, 73 Elkhorn Lane, Tunas, Mo. 65764 (ph 417 770-1158).

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