hopto 300 — Showtime

this was a 300 hopto my dad bought in early 60's. they couldn't rotate 360 degrees.

Dayex it's been a minute! Glad to hear from you. I bet that was a beast to operate.

Have never seen a single axle hoe. Does it have stabilizers?

Welder Dave said: Have never seen a single axle hoe. Does it have stabilizers? Click to expand... Appears to be set at the rear.

I figured it had to have stabilizers especially being single axle. The guy that installed the cistern at our acreage had a tandem Hopto and I don't remember it having stabilizers. It was a pretty big hoe and he kept it in mint condition. He towed a 1 ton truck behind it so he didn't have to drive the big hoe home everyday.

Many of the early truck mounted cable cranes/shovels did not have outriggers. They must have had lots of bouncing and reduced capability. Only the biggest machines had slide-outs for static lifts. Hopto is from Badger Construction Equip. Winona MN.

Badger bought out Gradall I believe. Not sure sure about Hopto. Hopto was a Warner & Swasey acronym for Hydraulic Operated Power Take Off.

Bruce O said: Many of the early truck mounted cable cranes/shovels did not have outriggers. They must have had lots of bouncing and reduced- capability. Only the biggest machines had slide-outs for static lifts. Hopto is from Badger Construction Equip. Winona MN. Click to expand... that machine had outriggers, i'll look for the 200 pics, they all did, his last truck mount was a drott 40 on a twin screw cab-over ford like the 300 is mounted on. they shipped the upper structure from the factory in wasau, to sioux falls, sd....where the predecessor to today's RDO equipment mounted it to the ford truck my dad provided.

In the 1940s, a guy built a boom with hydraulic cylinders to mount to the rather small farm tractors of the day. That was in southeast Minnesota. The small company called the backhoe Hopto, and the company to build them was was Badger Construction Equipment. From what I could research (many years ago) this Badger is different than the Badger chain trenchers, but there may have been a spinoff sometime early on. Hopto Backhoes and later telescoping boom heyday was in the 1960-70s. Warner Swasey industrial tools bought both Gradall in Ohio and Badger C.E. in the 1960s, kept engineering, design, and manufacturing separate but tried to merge the service operations. I worked a year at Badger as factory service tech and training development 1992. I had access to old archives and tech bulletins both Badger and Gradall with WS logo. WS spun Badger off in the 1970s. My supervisor was the former national Service Manager during Warner Swasey days, who would unleash his anger with dreaded Gradall, especially after corporate separation. The 4x4 truck mounted creep drive design got usurped by Gradall and sent Badger into some rough patches (literally!). Supervisor was a good mentor with history going back to the 1950s. Anger at my shortcomings was short lived, and then instructive. Entertaining to watch the flames go at others, though. Bruce

my dad started in underground in 47 after ww2. he had 3 different hopto 200's....one self propelled he hated, got rid of right away, one he mounted on back of older gmc truck with detroit diesel that powered the hoe also....and last 200 was mounted on cabover ford with own power unit....something makes me think that one had a continental or hercules flathead on it? i'm in process of scanning all his old pics. his VERY first machine WAS a badger ladder trencher which i have a pic of here somewhere. then went to the 200 hoptos. he got his start when south dakota farmers were getting electricity.....putting in wells, indoor plumbing, etc. etc...did lots of farm work.

The Hopto machines were ahead of their time. The booms and bucket arrangement are the basis for modern machines while other excavators of the day were still the archaic cable operated design.

hopto= hydraulic operated power take off...anyway, that's what dad always said

That was mentioned previously.

Welder Dave said: That was mentioned previously. Click to expand... sorry i blew up

Yes, Hopto was early on innovator, I'm trying to think of other early hydraulic hoes, Koehring, Bucyrus Erie, Insley. These used gear pumps at 1800 psi. When German variable flow piston pumps at 3,000 and later 5000 psi, the US makers were done by the mid 1980s when Japanese took the market. Bruce

Simple and effective, I love it

In 1973, we put in a lift station 26 feet deep. As you can see, we cut the site down before digging the rest of it. Dad bought this new in 68. Drott 40 mounted on cabover ford...4-53 in the drott.