Bobcat E10 Thumb

[Polecat]

Anyone on here successfully fitted an hydraulic thumb to he Bobcat E10, preferably an off the shelf one.
I messaged RSL to see if I could have one of theirs but the dipper arm isn’t long enough to avoid it fouling the boom, they asked if I would consider a manual one, but my first choice would be a hydraulic thumb.
looking online at the likes of the JB equipment raptor & a few others like the one from Hardlife, but none of the decent ones seem to fit comfortably.
the ones that might fit are the cheap nasty ones from EBay, Amazon, or Temu

 

[doobin]

It would need to be very custom for such a small boom.

I have a hydraulic backstay for the grapple on mine and that took a fair bit of fettling to get it to work.

 

[Polecat]

Oh, bugger, not what I was wanting to hear

 

[Polecat]

Maybe I could get away with fitting a smaller ram to a manual thumb, something like the front dozer blade ram that’s on the e10, I know it wouldn’t have as much movement range, but just so it tucks the thumb up out of the way when digging.
A bit of fabrication here & tad of tinkering there, & I reckon something would come together, I used to be fairly good with Meccano in my younger years

 

[Storrsy]

Maybe I could get away with fitting a smaller ram to a manual thumb, something like the front dozer blade ram that’s on the e10, I know it wouldn’t have as much movement range, but just so it tucks the thumb up out of the way when digging.
A bit of fabrication here & tad of tinkering there, & I reckon something would come together, I used to be fairly good with Meccano in my younger years

How much dipper have you got to work with. Bring your dipper in as far as it will come and then measure the inside face from the bucket pin to the top where the dipper meets the arm and let us know.

 

[Storrsy]

Just googled the dipper length as you say none of the 600mm of the shelf thumbs will work. The trouble is you need a certain amount of ram length to get the thumb to swing around to meet the bucket. Too short and it will be a pain in the arse- almost unusable in fact- basically the more a thumb can swing out the better it is to use

 

[V8Druid]

Just googled the dipper length as you say none of the 600mm of the shelf thumbs will work. The trouble is you need a certain amount of ram length to get the thumb to swing around to meet the bucket. Too short and it will be a pain in the arse- almost unusable in fact- basically the more a thumb can swing out the better it is to use

sounds like a job for a small two stage ram,

 

[Rob65]

sounds like a job for a small two stage ram,

Can you get two stage rams that are double acting?

 

[Stroppymonkey]

E10 is so small that getting on and off the machine to set up a manual thumb isn't going to be the end of the world?

 

[doobin]

E10 is so small that getting on and off the machine to set up a manual thumb isn't going to be the end of the world?

Could probably do it from the seat

 

[Trenchies]

Quite some time has been whittled away learing at a hydraulic thumb from JB UK and Knapp in NZ. The Eurocomach 12zt has a 900mm dipper.

When sufficient funds and courage have been summoned to make an enquiry, the results will surely be posted.

 

[Russell]

Can you get grab buckets over here?

Hydraulic Grab Bucket | Aussie Buckets

Shop multi use grab buckets, with a 5-tooth interlocking design to enhance your operations. Made for 1 - 36T machines reinforced with a 5-year warranty.

www.aussiebuckets.com.au

 

[V8Druid]

Can you get grab buckets over here?

Hydraulic Grab Bucket | Aussie Buckets

Shop multi use grab buckets, with a 5-tooth interlocking design to enhance your operations. Made for 1 - 36T machines reinforced with a 5-year warranty.

www.aussiebuckets.com.au

weapon

https://22027224.fs1.hubspotusercontent-ap1.net/hubfs/22027224/Proposals/Performance_Range/Grabs/Hydraulic_Grab_Bucket_Proposal_2025.pdf

 

[Brendan]

Would a small grab be better than a thumb

 

[Giles]

Grab works well on e10/dx10

 

[Polecat]

Would a small grab be better than a thumb

The price of a grab from RSL is well over 2k, I was going with a hydraulic thumb as it seems a little more versatile, as you can transition from grabbing to digging quite easily, not so easy with a grab attachment where I would have to remove it to attach the bucket.
I spoke to Richard from RSL & he pointed out a few things to consider, and it does seem to be pretty much like doobin said, Richard also said they could pick the machine up take it to their workshop & maybe come up with something that would work, but we are talking ££££, he suggested I should consider a manual thumb, which maybe isn‘t so bad.
If I can’t get on with a manual thumb there maybe a way to stick a smaller hydraulic ram on it & do a conversion of sorts, as I’ve said in previous posts.
As I don’t intend to keep the machine long term I didn’t want to spend thousands on it just to fit a add on, as it is the manual thumb to fit the E10 is over £500 from RSL.

 

[Trenchies]

Heya Polecat, here's a potential garbage or gold item currently on the 'umm & ahh' list.

 

[bobthebuilder]

weapon

https://22027224.fs1.hubspotusercontent-ap1.net/hubfs/22027224/Proposals/Performance_Range/Grabs/Hydraulic_Grab_Bucket_Proposal_2025.pdf

Here's mine

 

[Storrsy]

Here's mine

So can you actually dig/swing soil around with that bucket. Strikes me the claw bit will either foul the dipper or get in the way on the ground?

 

[Polecat]

Heya Polecat, here's a potential garbage or gold item currently on the 'umm & ahh' list.

Hmm, well, I‘m not sure with some of the sellers on these sites, sometimes what you see & what get differ to some extent, I can’t see any dimensions for the thumb, so it’s a bit of a stab in the dark.
I got the impression that the manual RSL one is made to measure so it should definitely fit the dipper & the tines should be right length for the bucket.