Mini digger towball

[SteveA]

Looking to tow a small trailer with a mini digger and wondering the best way to attach a towball. Presumably the towball is attached to the dozer blade?

 

Is there a way of doing this so that the towball can be easily removed/ quick release mechanism? (ie, leaving the dozer blade clear for scooping soil with the bucket).

 

Cheers, Steve

[cornish wood burner]

Looking to tow a small trailer with a mini digger and wondering the best way to attach a towball. Presumably the towball is attached to the dozer blade?

 

Is there a way of doing this so that the towball can be easily removed/ quick release mechanism? (ie, leaving the dozer blade clear for scooping soil with the bucket).

 

Cheers, Steve

Never done it but I suppose you could drill a couple of mounting holes in the blade and weld captive nuts behind. Probably more secure than a clamp top to bottom

[Burytreeman]

Hi there, I have a 1.6 ton digger and fitter a standard towball to the blade with two m24 bolts. easily unbolted and covered with a standard towball cover for blade work. Regards Tony

[cornish wood burner]

Occurred to me last night depemding what gear you have you might struggle to drill the 16 mm mounting holes. If this is the case assuming you have a pillar drill mount the ball to a piece of channel then either weld the channel directly into the blade or if you want quick release, drill two pieces of heavy flat top and bottom of the channel,weld the flat to the blade and drop two pins through from top to bottom. R clip or similar might be needed to stop pins jumping out.You would just be left with the two pieces of flat on the blade then.

[SteveA]

Thanks for help. Think I'll drill a couple 16mm holes and bolt/unbolt. Just need to remember to leave a spanner in the cab.

 

Next question is: Any benefit in fitting a ball & pin type hitch (instead of just ball on it's own)? Just wondering if the pin might be useful for dragging trees out of the woods?

 

Cheers, steve

[Matthew Storrs]

Iv got a ball bolted straight on to the dozer blade, 16mm holes took some drilling with a cordless drill!

I thought about having a ball and pin type too but just went for ball as I can't see the pin doing much that you can't do with a ball, takes up less space on the blade and was quite a bit cheaper to buy.

[SteveA]

Iv got a ball bolted straight on to the dozer blade, 16mm holes took some drilling with a cordless drill!

I thought about having a ball and pin type too but just went for ball as I can't see the pin doing much that you can't do with a ball, takes up less space on the blade and was quite a bit cheaper to buy.

 

Haha! I'll be using a cordless drill too.

Do you tow big trunks using a chain attached to the ball?

Cheers, steve

[Matthew Storrs]

Well my ball is mounted high up on the doze blade, if I need to pull a truck I choke a sling/strop round the trunk then put it on the ball and lift the blade, does OK, but I only use it for that ocassionly, I use it far more for shunting trailers around, mainly setting out fencing stakes around a field, I lift a bundle of 80 fencing stakes on to the trailer and just shuttle around the field knocking n the stakes with the post rammer on the digger as I pull the trailer behind, works well!

[LGP Eddie]

What you need to do is form what's termed a Receiver type Hitch.

 

Basically a piece of box section welded into the blade at the required point, keeping it flush with the profile of the blade.

 

The short piece of box will have a hole through it for a tractor type towing pin or the like.

The tow ball is mounted to a plate with a suitable piece of box to slide into the 'receiver' and all that is required to fit or remove is pull the pin out.

 

The box may get a bit of soil packed in it whilst in normal use but that's about it, and all digging duties against the blade can be done as normal.

 

If you want a different type hitch or even just a piece of solid square bar with a hole for a shackle it's easy to do?

 

Easy to fit another piece of box section on the back of the blade for stowage too, if theres not room to simply fit it in reverse?

 

Some ideas here, as it's common for off roaders.

 

4x4 Receiver Hitches

 

 

Eddie.

[SteveA]

Cheers Eddie, thankyou, great idea. Unfortunately there is very little room between the back of the dozer blade and the cab. Pretty sure when rotating the cab the engine compartment would knock into the receiver hitch box section.

 

Cheers, Steve