Backhoe/Research Development

Overview
Well, it's a backhoe. There's not much to say.

So lets MAKE something to say :)

Something that's becoming more popular is the mini-excavator. It makes sense that OSE's earth moving equipment are going to be on the lower end of the power spectrum. Given the small size of the projected settlements it's not going to make economic sense to invest in the big toys. Anywho, lets design the backhoe to be as flexible as possible. Instead of just mounting it on the tractor it could also be mounted as a stand-alone digger that the tractor simply picks up and moves around. It could also be designed to mount on top of a treaded platform like those mini-excavators use. The platform itself could be an alternative to the tractor, rather than retrofitting the thing to have real tracks.

It could also be combined with the Industrial Robot.

Also, the GVCS doesn't seem to include a crane. The backhoe could be used for that as well.

Research

 * Oily Hands has a huge list of diggers people have built themselves
 * this guy has a fully documented build process for his
 * Ubuildit Plans has a backhoe design that's about as simple as one can possibly get.