One of the big inconveniences of the Harbor Freight Backhoe Trencher is how it handles switching between digging and towing. The machine comes with only a single set of wheels. When you’re digging, the wheels sit in the back and the outriggers are in the front. To tow the backhoe, you have to remove the outriggers, move the wheels to the front, and then set everything up again—a time-consuming hassle.
Like many owners, I decided to solve this by adding a second set of wheels.
Mounting the Wheels
The stock wheels slide into a square tube, but the problem is that the outriggers block access to that tube. To work around this, I added an extra set of tubes just below the original ones, made out of hitch receiver tubing.
Here’s a shot with the wheel assemblies removed:
And the wheel assemblies added:
Building the Wheel Assembly
Here’s what I used for each wheel assembly:
- 4.80-8 Tire and Wheel set
- 4" Hub Assembly Kit
- A 5-foot length of 2-inch square tubing (from a local metal supplier)
The process:
- Cut the tubing into sections and weld them into 90-degree angles.
- Drill a hole in the top for the securing pin.
- At the bottom, cut a slot for the hub spindle and weld it securely into place.
Printable PDF of diagram with measurements...
Be aware that tolerances can vary— on my machine, the pinholes were slightly different on each side, so you’ll want to double-check and adjust as you go.
In Action
Once assembled, the extra wheels make towing the backhoe much easier. In the video, I show it hitched to a tractor ballast box as well as pulled behind an ATV—both worked well and provided good ground clearance.
These wheels have been a very useful upgrade. That said, I’ve since developed an even better method of towing the backhoe by attaching a pintle hitch loop to the boom which you can see here...