I used what I had in a big scrap pile to make this towable unit. It digs a little over 17 feet deep and you can load over tandem trucks with it if needed. I have 2 buckets for it, and the little 12 inch is on it in the pic. The other bucket is 25 inches or so wide and the hoe handles it with ease. I used an old valve bank off of a junked hoe and the cylinders also came from it. The pump came off a MM combine, and is not all that big but had a high volume to it. I had to go with 2-wire hoses after I started to use the hoe. It would blow 1-wire hoses after a while when you started crowding it,--(which we all do), so 2-wire solved that problem for me. As for the motor/pump setup,---a single B section belt drives it from the back of the engine which came off an Oliver 525 combine. Its a Chrysler industrial 230 flathead 6. My main reason for using it was that I needed counterweight!
"A machine you build yourself is a vote for a different way of life. There are things you have to earn with your hands."
