In Reply to: Sherman 54B Digger - Owner's manual posted by Ed Gooding (VA) on November 02, 2008 at 07:37:19:
I had one of these on a Ferguson TO-20 about 12 years ago or so. I was amazed at the size rocks it would heft out!
Would you believe that I bought the tractor/loader/backhoe for $300.00!!!!????
It had a broken axle, dead battery, a cracked rear tire that eventually ripped, and a few badly rotted hoses, needed a little welding on the bucket, and the cutting edge was pretty worn on the loader. Other than that it ran well! I was probably into it for right around $1500.00 by the time it was up to daily operating, but that included the $300.00 it cost me to have it transported 70 miles or so. I wound up selling it all for $4000.00 and putting the money towards a Dynahoe.
The hoes hydraulics kept plugging the steel filter in the tank after about 10-20 minutes of run time from all the rotted hoses. I scraped the bottom of the tank an installed 1/2 inch drain pipe from the drain hole out to the edge of the tank so I could run the oil into a bucket with strainer and had to "clean" the oil no less than 40 to 50 times before it all got out of the pistons and lines. Each time the hoe would run a few more minutes before the filter would clog again. After it was thoroughly cleared, it dug like no tomorrow!! Anyone that has one will save a lot of sweat!